The city’s elected officials are largely mum on last week’s decision by city CAO Shari Lichterman to terminate the employment of five city managers and one junior staff member.
Sudbury.com reached out to 12 of 13 members of city council by email on Monday, and by mid-day Wednesday had not received responses from eight of them.
The 13th city council member we did not reach out to is Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc, whose unsolicited concerns regarding this matter spurred us to reach out to the balance of city council.
Of the six members who did respond, three declined to comment.
Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh said city council members “cannot and should not discuss personnel matters publicly,” which is a sentiment both Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin and Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre echoed.
In their statements, both Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent and Ward 2 Coun. Eric Benoit also recognized limitations in what they could share publicly, but took a less conservative approach to what they were willing to share.
“Personnel decisions, including dismissals, are typically managed by the appropriate administrative leadership and are not decisions made by council as a whole,” Parent said. “Council’s role is to set policy and provide oversight, while operational matters fall under the administration’s purview.”
Parent added that he recognizes questions around transparency and costs are important to residents, and he supports ensuring these matters are handled properly.
“I do not have additional details beyond what has been publicly communicated by the city administration but I will also share that I have full confidence in our current CAO and her administration,” he said.
Benoit echoed Parent’s sentiment that the decision to terminate the employment of six city staff members was under Lichterman’s purview.
“When we terminated the last CAO we decided that we wanted to change the structure of the city's management,” he said, adding that Lichterman took over the task of “overseeing this restructuring.”
“I have enjoyed working with the employees who were terminated and I wish them the best with whatever they choose to do next.”
Members who did not respond at all included Mayor Paul Lefebvre, Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti, Ward 3 Coun. Michel Brabant, Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbée, Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer, Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier and Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann.
Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc visited the Sudbury.com office late last week to share his concerns with how the terminations were handled.
“I’m very disappointed by the way our CAO and mayor handled the situation without informing council,” he said. “I find it very disrespectful.”
The decisions were Lichterman’s to make, though Leduc said that he would have preferred a heads-up via a closed meeting of city council.
Lichterman told city council last week that she may have done so if there was a city council meeting, with no meetings until Jan. 27, she left it to Lefebvre to inform council.
Leduc contends that an emergency meeting of city council should have been held to forewarn city council of the terminations.
“It lacks transparency, it lacks honesty, it undermines our credibility as a council,” he said. “I think the residents of Sudbury should be concerned about this. This could cost us a substantial amount of money.”
On this front, Sudbury.com sought employment contracts through the city, but only one of five contracts for those managers whose employment was terminated was publicly available, and it was drafted before a change in policy added termination clauses.
A city communications staff member told Sudbury.com that employment contracts for the four-manager balance do not include termination clauses, either, so procuring the contracts would be redundant.
Lichterman told Sudbury.com that since all six staff members were terminated without cause, they’d receive termination packages which would be negotiated. These totals will end up appearing on the 2026 Sunshine List to be released in late March 2027.
According to the latest-available Sunshine List for 2024, the five managers who were let go last week earned a total of $892,908 that year.
“I think the citizens of Sudbury should be very alarmed,” Leduc said, “especially with our auditor general being relieved, who kept checks and balances on all departments regarding spending and savings.”
During a closed session last month, city council voted to close the Office of the Auditor General. Although a media release issued last week noted the decision was made “unanimously” in closed session, Leduc told Sudbury.com that he did not agree with the decision.
Lictherman explained her decision to terminate the employment of six city staff members last week, in a story available by clicking here. CUPE Local 4705, the union which represents city staff, said they hope the city also looks at investing in services that people in Sudbury rely on while keeping good union jobs in our communities,” in a story available by clicking here.
Meanwhile, although Leduc laments a lack of notice to city council, the Municipal Act, the City of Greater Sudbury CAO bylaw and a mayoral decision of Nov. 7, 2023, clearly outline how Lichterman had the authority to proceed with last week’s terminations.
More specifically, the mayoral decision delegates to the CAO “the powers regarding organizational structure as set out under section 284.6 of the (Municipal) Act and further described in City of Greater Sudbury By-law 2015-87, being a by-law of the City of Greater Sudbury to create the position of Chief Administrative Officer, as amended from time to time.”
The powers assigned to the mayor under the Municipal Act which Lefebvre delegated to the CAO include, “the power to hire, dismiss or exercise any other prescribed employment powers with respect to the head of any division or the head of any other part of the organizational structure.”
Although these powers carry some limitations, the only limitation relevant to last week’s terminations has to do with the auditor general position. However, city council as a whole, not Lichterman, voted in a closed session last month to close the Office of the Auditor General, and was separate from Lichterman's decision to terminate the employment of five managers and one junior staff member last week.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.