A Lean, Empowered and Accountable City Organization

Why City Hall’s Structure Needs Attention

Owen Sound’s 2023 Service Delivery Review documented organizational problems affecting employees, residents and the cost of delivering services. These included siloed divisions, unclear responsibilities, duplicated work, small management spans, underused technology, excessive administrative work and weak tracking of strategic priorities.

The documented conditions and recommended responses in this table are drawn from the Owen Sound 2023 Service Delivery Review. The review documents high turnover and retention problems but does not provide a numerical retention rate.

The review recommended consolidating management functions, reclassifying some management positions into specialist or coordinator roles, clarifying accountability and making better use of technology. Because Owen Sound still lacks a complete public organizational chart, the public has limited ability to verify which structural problems have been resolved since 2023.

First year: observation, disclosure and baseline

The first year of the term would focus on understanding how City Hall actually operates across a full seasonal cycle. Existing records would be published progressively from the beginning of the term, reliable service and financial measurements would be established, and residents and employees would be invited to contribute throughout the assessment.

The underlying organizational and financial records would be obtained and examined using modern software and financial analysis. Employees would clarify gaps and contribute their practical knowledge about how services operate in real conditions. The proposed approach follows permaculture: observe seasonal patterns and understand how the parts work together before making major interventions.

Publication would begin as records become available and the necessary privacy and confidentiality checks are completed. Residents and employees would have access during the assessment and budget preparation. The public record would identify what is available, what remains incomplete, and when the next information will be published.

The organizational chart and staffing register would connect each service with:

• responsibilities, reporting relationships, management spans and complete employer costs;
• service demand, seasonal workload, response and completion times, backlogs, handoffs and repeated work;
• vacancies, turnover, recruitment and training costs, overtime, temporary staffing and consultants;
• resident experience and employee observations about how services actually operate.

Reliable historical records would be used where available, missing data would be clearly identified, and consistent measurement would begin immediately. The City would publish definitions, reporting periods and coverage so later comparisons remain meaningful. Retention and service measurements would begin during the observation year, before major organizational changes are assessed.

Essential services, urgent repairs and statutory duties would continue throughout the observation year. Clearly supported, limited improvements could proceed when they are needed, with their timing, cost and service effects recorded for the baseline and later comparison.

Assessing a simpler City Hall structure

Publicly available titles and departmental groupings indicate that many City Hall functions may follow a four-layer pattern. The published baseline would establish the current structure, responsibilities and costs so this working description can be tested.

Examples of the current pattern appear to include:

• City Manager → Director of Corporate Services → IT Manager → IT staff
• City Manager → Director of Community Services → Planning Manager → planners

The three-layer direction to assess would be:

• City Manager → Head of Digital and IT → IT staff
• City Manager → Head of Planning and Development → planning staff

If the baseline supports the change, the broad umbrella-director layer could be absorbed into the City Manager and functional-head roles through the established transition approach. Functional heads would report directly to the City Manager, own their service standards and budgets, supervise meaningful teams and continue performing substantial professional work.

The three-layer proposal would be assessed and refined against the baseline, employee experience and resident feedback. A major change would follow a published explanation of the problem, alternatives considered, expected service benefits, transition costs and measures of success.

Statutory officers and regulated professionals would retain all authority and independence assigned through provincial law and professional standards.

Duties in a Three-Layer City Hall

Ontario’s Municipal Act, 2001 assigns Council the role of representing the public, developing and evaluating policies and programmes, determining municipal services, ensuring administrative accountability and maintaining financial integrity under s. 224. It assigns officers and employees the work of implementing Council decisions, establishing administrative practices, undertaking research and providing advice under s. 227. Under s. 229, a municipality’s City Manager serving as chief administrative officer carries general control and management responsibility for efficient and effective operation. Applicable strong-mayor provisions give the Mayor additional budget and organizational powers that would be exercised transparently and collaboratively with Council and administration.

A senior employee may hold a deputy designation for signing authority, succession or statutory continuity without creating another permanent people-management layer. A fourth administrative layer would require a published operational or statutory justification.

Statutory officers and regulated professionals retain responsibilities assigned through provincial law and professional standards. Compensation for a functional head should reflect the actual team, budget, legal responsibility and complexity of the position, with the title considered alongside those factors.

Leadership at Every Level

Owen Sound needs a City Hall where democratic direction is clear and employees are trusted to exercise informed judgement within it. The purpose of reducing management layers is to move appropriate authority closer to the people who possess the relevant information, while preserving democratic and administrative accountability.

Council establishes public outcomes, policies, service levels and financial boundaries. The Mayor and Council provide democratic direction. The City Manager coordinates functional heads, removes cross-functional barriers and translates Council direction into coordinated action. Functional heads own their services, budgets, workflows and measurable results, while giving employees the information, training, tools and delegated authority required to complete their work effectively.

The City Manager’s role is to facilitate coordination and keep information and routine decisions flowing through the organization. At each level, employees should state what they intend to do, why they consider it appropriate, and what result they expect. Their manager should provide clarity, agree with the proposed course, or correct it when law, policy, budget, risk, or cross-functional effects require a change.

Employees closest to the work should exercise appropriate delegated judgement, identify problems and propose improvements. Information and routine authority should move toward the people with the relevant knowledge. Matters requiring a policy choice, major resources, legal review or significant risk should move upward promptly.

This is subsidiarity in practice: routine authority belongs at the lowest competent level, with clear escalation for decisions that require broader coordination, professional review, significant resources or democratic direction. Respect for employee judgement gives the people closest to the work a meaningful role in improving the service.

Authority must be accompanied by competence and clarity. Employees need current information, appropriate training, safe ways to raise concerns and clear legal and financial boundaries. Managers remain responsible for developing their teams, removing obstacles and ensuring that delegated authority is exercised responsibly.

Leadership is measured partly by how many capable people a manager develops. A strong manager helps employees understand the purpose of their work, make sound decisions, learn from errors and become ready for greater responsibility.

This approach draws on L. David Marquet’s Turn the Ship Around! and its accessible leader-leader principles: develop competence and clarity, then move appropriate control toward the people closest to the information. In a municipal setting, this means service-oriented leadership, shared responsibility, employee development, respect, trust and helping others succeed within lawful public accountability.

Lean Process Improvement

Supporting examples: AHRQ health-care Lean case studies and the US Government Accountability Office efficiency review.

Three-Layer Models in Comparable Municipalities

Municipalities around Owen Sound’s size already use three layers in many City Hall functions.

The evidence supports three layers as the normal City Hall structure while allowing a documented fourth layer where workload, team size, financial controls or statutory continuity genuinely require one.

Assessing potential service improvements

The following are potential responses to assess against the first-year baseline. Each proposed benefit would be measured against service demand, workload, cost, employee experience and resident feedback.

Retaining Experience and Reducing Repeated Training Costs

Employee turnover costs more than the salary of a vacant position. Recruitment requires advertising, screening, interviews and administration. New employees require orientation, technical training and supervision from experienced colleagues whose own work is slowed during the learning period. Frequent departures can also cause errors, rework, service delays and the loss of practical knowledge about City systems and local conditions.

The proposed direction would be assessed for its effect on retention, responsibilities, handoffs, access to functional heads, tools and working-level authority. Functional heads would identify excessive administrative workloads and the processes that create them.

Measurement would begin during the observation year and continue after any approved change, with annual results for:

• employee turnover and first-year departures;
• vacancies and average time required to fill positions;
• recruitment, onboarding and training costs;
• staff time devoted to training replacements;
• overtime, temporary staffing and consultant costs associated with vacancies.

These results would show whether an approved organizational change is retaining experience, reducing repeated training costs and improving service continuity. Compensation, workload, leadership and workplace culture would also be measured because each affects whether experienced employees stay.

Clear Ownership and Measurable Targets

Every municipal service should have:

• one clearly identified functional working head or other responsible owner;
• a published service standard and current performance baseline;
• annual improvement targets connected to its budget;
• public results showing cost, timeliness, quality and resident experience.

Management targets should measure resident outcomes. Examples include permit-processing time, repair backlogs, response times, project completion, budget variances, avoidable rework and resident satisfaction.

The City Manager should focus on organization-wide coordination, functional-head accountability, major risks and cross-departmental results. Functional working heads should carry genuine responsibility for the services assigned to them. The three-layer structure is a direction to assess and refine as the complete staffing register and current reporting relationships are published.

Staff Expertise and Modern Software First

Owen Sound will treat external consulting as an exceptional measure and a last resort. City employees will have access to secure large language models, searchable municipal records, document-search and retrieval systems, spreadsheet and data-analysis software, workflow automation tools, and visualization and mapping software.

These tools can help staff examine legislation, compare municipal practices, analyse budgets and surveys, review lengthy documents, model options, map processes and prepare clear reports for Council. Employees will verify original sources, apply their professional and local knowledge, make their own recommendations and remain accountable for the results. Modern software expands the ability of staff to think, research and exercise judgement while keeping institutional responsibility inside City Hall.

Work such as general research, jurisdictional comparisons, strategic and vision-plan drafting, survey analysis, policy drafting, process mapping, options reports and routine public communication should ordinarily be completed internally.

Personal, legal, commercially confidential and security-sensitive information will be processed only through systems approved for that information. Claims presented to Council will be traceable to original records and reviewed by a named employee. Large language models assist research and drafting; municipal authority and accountability remain with Council and City employees.

During the first year of the new Council term, Owen Sound will place a moratorium on new discretionary consulting engagements. A proposed exception will require Council approval through a public report.

Documented consultant exceptions

Every exception report should identify:

• the precise question, decision or deliverable;
• what staff have already examined using secure large language models, source-document research, municipal data and local expertise;
• why existing staff or shared municipal capacity cannot reasonably complete the work;
• the legal, professional, technical, physical-testing or independence requirement;
• the complete proposed cost and funding source;
• the named City employee responsible for the work;
• the required public data, analysis and deliverables;
• the knowledge-transfer requirements;
• whether the need is recurring and how future internal or local capability could be developed.

Narrow potential exceptions include specialized legal, engineering, geotechnical, environmental or other professional work requiring unavailable qualifications or certification; audits, investigations, valuations or assessments requiring genuine external independence; laboratory testing, field measurement or specialized physical equipment unavailable internally; and urgent temporary capacity where delay would create a serious legal, safety, financial or infrastructure risk.

Even an approved consultant receives a defined technical question. Consultant findings remain advice, while Council retains policy authority. The named City employee will identify whether administration agrees with the findings, present a staff recommendation and remain responsible for implementation.

First-year consultant contract review

The City will create a complete register of consulting and external professional-service contracts from at least the previous five years. The review will categorize routine research and planning separately from required engineering, legal, audit, laboratory and certification work; identify active contracts that can lawfully be completed internally, reduced in scope or concluded; account for cancellation costs and contractual obligations; retrieve City-owned data, working files, models and deliverables; identify repeated needs that indicate an internal capability gap; and publish verified savings only after costs and service effects are documented through the Verified Savings Ledger.

Where a recurring need remains external, the City will consider shared regional capacity and partnerships with Georgian College, local professionals, co-operatives and other qualified institutions while preserving all engineering, inspection, certification, safety and procurement requirements.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and Ontario Human Rights Commission principles for responsible artificial-intelligence use support privacy protection, accuracy, transparency, safety, human-rights protections and accountability. The City will adapt those principles to secure large language models and other approved software used for municipal work.

Organizational Transparency

The work of understanding and making the current organization transparent has already begun. HelpOS has published a public-source reconstruction of the current City and police organization, bringing together departments, charted positions and groups, reporting relationships, Police Services Board governance and available salary records for residents to examine.

Starting at the beginning of the term, the City would progressively publish a cohesive organizational chart and staffing register so residents can see how City Hall is organized, who is responsible for each service, how many management layers exist and what those positions cost.

See the public-source reconstruction of the current organization

The organizational chart and staffing register would show:

• every approved position, department and service area;
• the employee’s name, public contact information and approved salary band;
• the complete employer cost for each position, with privacy-protected aggregation where required;
• full-time, part-time, seasonal, contract, shared or vacant status;
• reporting relationships between positions;
• each manager’s direct reports and total number of employees overseen.

Archived versions will show how staffing, reporting relationships and management costs change over time. A supporting annual staffing report will show total staffing and employer costs by service, salary band, vacancies, overtime, consultants and contracted labour, employee turnover, first-year departures, time-to-fill, recruitment and training costs, and vacancy-related overtime, temporary staffing and consulting costs. Small-team results will be aggregated where required to protect employee privacy. Employees covered by Ontario’s Sunshine List will continue to have their exact salary and taxable benefits reported.

This information will connect each position’s responsibilities, reporting span, salary band and total employer cost, making it easier for residents to find the right person and see whether management compensation reflects actual responsibility.

Public Consultant Register

Organizational and annual staffing disclosures will include a public consultant register, where legally permitted. For each consulting or external advisory engagement, the City will publish:

• the vendor or professional, responsible City department and employee, purpose and exception category;
• approval date, approving authority, original and amended contract values, payments to date and final cost;
• start, renewal and completion dates, deliverables and publication links;
• data and intellectual property retained by the City;
• required knowledge transfer, staff recommendation and implementation outcome.

The annual report will show total consultant spending, discretionary consulting spending, approved moratorium exceptions and verified spending displaced through internal, shared regional or local capability.

Locally Grounded Management Compensation

Most residents receive no guaranteed inflation adjustment. Municipal management compensation should therefore reflect actual responsibility, span of control, qualifications, budget authority, service results and the economic circumstances of the residents paying for it. The aim is to reduce future pressure on property taxes while protecting service quality. The bands overlap so compensation can reflect increasing responsibility when a documented reason supports it.

The first year would combine observation and disclosure with limited compensation controls that prevent avoidable cost growth. Municipal compensation would receive no automatic annual, inflation, cost-of-living or step increases. A change in CPI or the local-income benchmark could update a published salary band for comparison, while creating no automatic entitlement to a raise.

The City Manager ceiling remains an absolute six-times-local-income base-salary ceiling. Using the approximately $34,000 local individual-income benchmark, the current ceiling is approximately $204,000. The intended recruitment area for a highly experienced private-sector City Manager candidate remains approximately $175,000–$195,000, within the upper portion of the City Manager band.

Pension contributions, payroll charges, benefits, allowances and other employer costs will be disclosed separately from base salary. The ceiling applies to base salary. Salary placement will reflect actual duties, decision-making authority, staff supervised, budgets controlled, technical requirements, service results and comparable responsibilities.

Private-Sector Recruitment Pool

The recruitment strategy will expand the candidate pool beyond incumbent Ontario city managers whose salaries have already risen within the municipal compensation system. Owen Sound will actively recruit experienced private-sector plant directors, manufacturing general managers, operations executives and multi-site leaders with demonstrated success managing 100–250 employees, subordinate managers, substantial budgets, regulated operations, customer service and Lean improvement.

The federal Job Bank reports that manufacturing managers in the Stratford–Bruce Peninsula region earn approximately $108,000 at the median and approximately $178,000 at the high end. Recent Ontario recruitment advertisements have offered approximately $120,000–$150,000 for plant managers and $135,000–$155,000 for manufacturing general managers.

Sources: Federal Job Bank, Stratford–Bruce Peninsula manufacturing-manager wages; Ontario plant-manager recruitment example; Ontario manufacturing general-manager recruitment example; and OMERS 2026 contribution rates.

Compared on base salary alone, a strong private-sector candidate earning approximately $140,000–$165,000 could receive an increase of approximately $10,000–$55,000, depending on experience and placement within the City’s range. At the proposed $185,000 midpoint, the likely increase would be approximately $20,000–$45,000, or 12–32%. The position would also include OMERS pension participation, with the City’s matching contribution approximately $21,400–$24,300 annually under 2026 contribution rates.

This creates a realistic recruitment path for experienced operational leaders ready to take on broader organization-wide responsibility while keeping base salary below the current City Manager salary.

Council acting collectively sets municipal policy, determines services, approves public priorities and adopts the budget. The Mayor proposes the budget and transparently exercises or delegates any organizational authority provided by provincial law. The City Manager advises Council, administers the organization and remains accountable for implementation. Functional heads and employees exercise delegated operational judgement within clear legal, policy and budget boundaries. Individual councillors do not direct employees; municipal direction reaches administration through Council’s collective decisions and the Mayor’s lawful powers, while the City Manager coordinates administration.

Transition, Conditional Savings, and Verification

These compensation controls would apply immediately to positions within the authority available to Mayor Zvorygin, subject to existing employment contracts and statutory requirements. Existing collective agreement wage schedules and contractual commitments would remain in force through their current terms. Future appointments, renewals and collective bargaining would pursue the same no-automatic-increase principle wherever legally available.

Current employee salaries would remain unchanged during the first-year controls. Salaries above an adopted compensation band would be red-circled, meaning existing base pay would remain fixed while the approved band catches up. New hires, promotions and replacement appointments would remain within the adopted ranges. Every future increase would require a documented justification connected to expanded responsibility, promotion, qualifications, exceptional performance, service results or compelling market evidence.

After the observation and baseline assessment, any approved transition would proceed through turnover, vacancies, succession planning, streamlined management layers and future hiring. The established approach assumes no restructuring layoffs and no severance costs arising from the compensation framework.

Restructuring savings are conditional estimates tied to actual implementation dates. The City would record savings beginning when a change takes effect. Subsequent results would be compared with the baseline, accounting for seasonality, workload and service levels.

Current public records support the following narrow senior-position illustration, using base salary only. It is a conditional planning estimate pending assessment and implementation:

This illustration covers only the City Manager and three principal directors identified in the available records. A complete position-by-position estimate across the management structure remains pending verification against the published staffing register. Base-salary savings will be separated from pension, payroll, benefit, allowance and other employer-cost savings.

Police and library management are excluded because they answer to separate boards. Front-line and unionized employees are excluded from this management-compensation estimate. Any positions later combined, eliminated through attrition or converted to part-time work will be evaluated and reported separately.

Verified Savings Ledger

Actual savings will be published through the Verified Savings Ledger. For each implemented change, it will report:

• the former base salary and complete employer cost;
• the replacement base salary and complete employer cost;
• transition timing and any one-time implementation cost;
• the implementation date and comparison with the published baseline;
• the avoided cost from foregone automatic increases and its effect on future tax pressure;
• pension, payroll, benefit and other employer-cost effects;
• service effects and measurable results, with seasonality, workload and service levels identified;
• the resulting effect on the tax levy or future tax pressure.

Potential savings will be treated as verified only after the implementation date, service and financial results are documented against the baseline.

Published Management Goals

At the beginning of each year, the City will publish clear performance goals for every municipal manager. At the end of the year, it will publish the original goals, measurable targets, progress and final results, explanations for incomplete work, and priorities carried into the following year. Each goal will connect to the relevant budget, service, project, Council decision or strategic priority where practical.

Management goals will include measurable targets for improving efficiency, controlling staffing costs, simplifying management structures, strengthening service delivery and developing employee capability. Results will focus on resident outcomes such as processing time, backlogs, response times, project completion, budget variance, avoidable rework, quality and resident satisfaction.

The City will also publish measures showing whether authority and competence are moving closer to the work:

• percentage of routine decisions completed at the appropriate working level;
• average number of approvals and handoffs in major administrative processes;
• staff improvement proposals tested and implemented;
• employee training, certifications and succession readiness;
• employee confidence in raising concerns and proposing improvements;
• turnover, first-year departures and vacancy duration;
• spending on consultants and external advisory work;
• number and cost of moratorium exceptions;
• recurring external work converted into internal, shared regional or local capability;
• documented knowledge transfer from every approved consultant.

These measures support service improvement and organizational learning through meaningful results.

Council establishes public outcomes and evaluates overall implementation. Council evaluates the City Manager through lawful processes. The City Manager establishes aligned administrative targets for functional heads. Functional heads develop and support their teams while remaining accountable for service results.

Senior Appointments and Performance Contracts

Ontario’s strong-mayor framework gives the Mayor authority to appoint the City Manager. Existing leadership should receive a fair assessment against published expectations, including service results, financial stewardship, organizational accountability, employee safety and retention, and completion of Council directions.

Future senior appointments may use legally reviewed, renewable fixed-term contracts consistent with employment law. A meaningful portion of compensation may be tied to a balanced scorecard covering cost control, service reliability, resident satisfaction, employee safety and retention, legal compliance, and completion of Council directions.

This design rewards durable improvements and guards against short-term reductions that create larger future costs. The three employee layers remain clear: City Manager, functional working heads, and professional or administrative staff. Mayor and Council remain the governing level outside the employee-layer count.

Sources and Method

• Owen Sound 2023 Service Delivery Review
• Ontario 2025 Public Sector Salary Disclosure
• Owen Sound 2026 Mayor’s Budget
• OMERS 2026 contribution rates
• Canada Revenue Agency payroll information
• Ontario Employer Health Tax
• Ontario Job Bank manufacturing operations management wages
• Ontario Municipal Act, 2001, ss. 224, 227, 229 and applicable strong-mayor provisions
• L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!, Portfolio
• Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and Ontario Human Rights Commission, Principles for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence
• City of Brockville, Department List / Contact Staff
• City of Pembroke, Contacts Directory

Private-sector comparisons are approximate reference ranges. The narrow savings illustration uses disclosed City Manager and principal-director salaries; the complete management estimate requires a verified position-by-position staffing register.