Toronto’s newly-appointed city manager says he had “no inside track” on being named as Joe Pennachetti’s successor despite his earlier involvement with the search committee charged with filling the role.
Speaking with reporters at city hall on Wednesday morning, Peter Wallace confirmed that he was asked to sit on the committee to find a new city manager sometime in the fall but stressed that he had no involvement with “putting anybody on or knocking anybody off any lists.”
“Joe (Pennachetti) asked me to sit on the committee in the early fall before the election and at that time I had no interest at all in the role,” Wallace said. “Much later in the late winter I was approached and it was indicated that there was a desire to broaden the search terms and would I be interested? I can offer you a direct assurance that I took no advantage from my earlier involvement.”
A former secretary of the cabinet with the provincial government, Wallace was working as a visiting fellow at the University of Toronto when he first became involved with the search for the next city manager.
At the time Wallace said he had no interest in returning to public service but slowly became more interested as he “observed the change in leadership (at city hall) and the dynamism of the city environment.”
“I had a very good year at the University of Toronto and I realized through that that I don’t wake up in the morning thinking about investors or shareholders; I wake up thinking about public service,” he said. “I have an active passion for public sector leadership and after I thought things through I indicated that I would be available under the obvious proviso that this be a fair and open process and that I go through precisely the same process that would have occurred in any event.”
City council unanimously supported Wallace’s appointment as the next city manager following a four-hour in camera session on Tuesday evening.
Discussing the process with reporters on Wednesday, Mayor John Tory said he is “totally satisfied” that it was fair.
“The members of the council who were part of that process stood up last night one after another and said that it was a fair process and was a process that was completely even-handed,” he said.
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