| Aug 01, 2013


He’s not exactly new to municipal governance, or to Eastern Ontario, and experience is exactly what Central Frontenac Council was looking for when searching for a new CAO this past spring.

After a revolving door scenario for 6½ years, Larry Donaldson’s regional experience and history may be exactly what Central Frontenac needs.

“When I first met the staff, on my first day on the job, the only question that was asked was if I was planning on staying,” he said from his office in Sharbot Lake early this week.

Larry Donaldson was raised in the Village of Lanark, where his mother still lives. His father, Ray Donaldson, a well-known guitarist and pedal steel player, died this past February. Larry went to public school at Maple Grove, and high school at PDCI. He then attended Carleton University and for two summers he worked for the City of Nepean. He also started working part-time for Nepean during the school year as well. When he graduated he was hired on by Nepean as a bylaw officer. Three years later, he went to Kanata, also as a bylaw officer, and eventually took over as manager of the Bylaw and Licensing department. His last job at Kanata was as the city clerk for a year and a half, before municipal amalgamation took place and Kanata became part of Ottawa.

Donaldson then took on the clerk-administrator's job in the newly formed Municipality of Hastings Highlands, and 10 months later moved to the Town of Arnprior as Chief Administrative Officer. He worked in Arnprior for 10 years, until the fall of 2011, when he was let go.

At the time, Arnprior’s relatively newly elected mayor, David Reid said, “We determined we wanted a new voice, a new start. Larry has a lot of skills, a lot of knowledge. Sometimes you need fresh blood.” Within weeks, the CAOs in two other Renfrew County municipalities were let go as well, leading one local paper to run the headline “Bad month for area municipal CAOs”

Larry Donaldson lives in Stittsville with his wife Tammy and two teenage children. He has no plans to leave Stittsville until his children finish high school, but after that he might mover closer to Sharbot Lake.

“Tammy has worked for Lanark County in Perth for the last 20 years, and we own land near the Village of Lanark, so we can look at that when the time comes.”

The fact that Sharbot Lake is within commuting distance from his current home was part of the reason he sought the job as CAO for Central Frontenac.

“I also looked into the organisation itself, understood there had been amalgamation and where it probably stands in terms of amalgamation, and thought it would be a good fit,” he said.

Central Frontenac is similar in some ways to Hastings Highlands, where he worked 12 years ago.

“The lands and rivers, the natural environment is a huge draw in Central Frontenac, and it's similar to Hastings Highlands in that the population doubles in the summer. I know that some commercial investment would help diversify the tax base and bring jobs, but I also know about the challenges that rural municipalities face,” he said.

Central Frontenac is in the middle of a services review that is being conducted by the accounting firm KPMG, and Donaldson sees this as a good time to start off as CAO.

“The results of that review will give direction to Council in terms of how to proceed, and the decision council makes in light of that will give me a sense of what they want me to focus on,” he said

From his experience in the municipal world, Larry Donaldson knows that it is a political environment, and every four years the entire direction of council can change. One of his priorities is assuring that sound operational policies are in place in the municipality.

“The end goal is to have policies in place that cover 99% of what happens on a daily basis. The more we can deal with by way of policies, the fewer surprises there are; the more predictable things are.”

After years where the only predictable aspect of their CAO situation has been that they will call John Duchene back from retirement once a year, Central Frontenac Council is looking forward to some of the predictability Larry Donaldson intends to bring.

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