Central Frontenac Sends Zimmerman Packing After 3 Months

Jeff Green | Jun 24, 2015

There are people who know why former CAO/Public Works Manager Jim Zimmerman is no longer working for Central Frontenac Township, but they aren't in a mood to share the information, certainly not with the press.

There was little warning before he was let go. In fact there was no public notice before what appears to have been a hastily called meeting of Central Frontenac Council on Tuesday, June 16 at 5 pm.

In the minutes to that meeting, which were released this week, it only says that as soon as the meeting started, Council moved into an in-camera session to discuss “personal matters about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees.”

In addition to all nine members of Council, Township Clerk Cathy MacMunn, and Jim Zimmerman attended the meeting.

When the in-camera session ended, the following motion was passed in open session: “that the employment contract between Jim Zimmerman and Central Frontenac Township be terminated immediately; effective June 16, 2015, all agreed conditions of the contract will be fulfilled.”

It is not known if Zimmerman was still at the meeting when the motion was approved, or if he left earlier.

A further motion was approved directing staff to prepare an ad for a public works manager “immediately”. The meeting ended after two hours, at 7 pm.

On Thursday, June 18, the township put out a press release that said essentially the same thing as the motion, but added, “Mayor and Council wish him all the best in his future business endeavours".

In the short term at least, the township is not seeking a new chief administrative officer (CAO) and Mayor Smith indicated that it is not necessary for the township to have a CAO in place.

The clerk, Cathy MacMunn will handle corporate matters and all of the managers, including Public Works, Treasury, Chief Building Officer, and IT can take their marching orders directly from Council. This is the structure that Addington Highlands Council, for example, has used ever since the township was founded in 1998.

Aside from these skeletal facts, no one is talking about the reason for what appears to have been an unceremonious dumping of Jim Zimmerman just three months after he was hired to fill two critical vacancies, at the CAO and public works manager's positions.

No one on council or staff has commented on the dismissal, with the mayor saying only, “Read the press release; that's all I have to say about it.”

Attempts to contact Jim Zimmerman by phone have been unsuccessful.

Jim Zimmerman was Central Frontenac's ninth appointee as chief administrative officer, on a permanent or temporary basis, over a nine-year time span. One of those, John Duchene, served on three separate occasions. Prior to Zimmerman, Mike Richardson had served as public works manager for five years until he retired in the summer of 2014. Kyle Labbett (waste management supervisor) and Steve Reynolds (public works supervisor) filled in between August of 2014 and late March of 2015, and they are doing so again now until a new person is hired.