As part of its open government policies, Greater Sudbury has posted the employment contracts of its senior managers on its website.
The contracts of HR manager Kevin Fowke, city clerk Caroline Hallsworth, infrastructure GM Tony Cecutti, former community development GM Catherine Matheson, interim city treasurer Ed Stankiewicz and assets, fleet and citizen services GM Ron Henderson are available for the public to view at the city's open government portal at greatersudbury.ca.
With the large exodus of city managers in recent months – including six department heads and several other higher-level staff – the contacts offer a guide for what the replacements may receive. The city's new CAO, Ed Archer, is expected to begin work this month and will be tasked with hiring several key people.
Terms of Archer's employee contract is not on the website. All the managers are members of the Sunshine list, so their salaries have already been made public.
The contracts contain several provisions that are common to all, such as a $600 a month car allowance, and raises tied to the Canadian Consumer Price Index – Statistics Canada's tool to measure how quickly prices for consumer goods and services are changing. Those raises are capped at 3.5 per cent, however.
Some of the contracts also contain additional raises of up to four per cent, based on a performance review by the city's CAO.
Matheson's contract contains information that offers some insight into how much severance pay managers receive when their employment contracts are terminated.
A clause in her contract stipulates that if she decided on her own to leave, she would receive a severance package based on a sliding scale. If she left after one year, the severance package would be eight months of her salary; the severance package would rise to maximum of 14 months salary after seven years.
And the job offers for both Matheson and Hallsworth include up to $1,500 to compensate each if they chose to get professional legal or tax advice before they the agreed to the employment contract.
Two of the managers – Henderson and Stankiewicz – have clauses requiring them to agree to some extended work weeks.
“With your acceptance of this offer,” both contracts read, “you are agreeing to work more than eight hours a day and 48 hours per week, as required, to support our operations.
“The Employment Standards Act requires that we receive your written agreement to work extra hours before asking you to do so.”
Other provisions – such as a cap on annual vacation of eight weeks and a comprehensive benefits package – are common to all the agreements.
The full list can be found at greatersudbury.ca
