Toronto’s top bureaucrat will step down shortly after the municipal election, according to a report in the Globe and Mail.
The paper says that City Manager Joe Pennachetti will announce his retirement during the final council meeting of the term next week along with plans to appoint Deputy City Manager John Livey as his interim successor.
Pennachetti will then officially step aside in December; however the Globe says he will still oversee preparations for the 2015 budget.
“This wasn’t unexpected. Many of us at city hall knew that this was coming. He had served under David Miller and under Rob Ford and I think he very wisely said ‘OK, I’ll finish the term, ride out this storm and let a new council and maybe a new mayor figure out the course ahead.’ We are just thankful for the six years he did put in,” Ward 21 Coun. Joe Mihevc told CP24 Saturday afternoon. “He was a very, very good civil servant and he did tremendous good in this city.”
An accountant by trade, Pennachetti began working for the City of Toronto as its chief financial officer in 2002 and was then appointed city manager by Miller in 2008.
Though Pennachetti largely avoided the spotlight, he was thrust into the forefront on several occasions over the last year, stepping forward to provide context to Ford’s assertion that he had saved taxpayers one billion dollars in November and then taking the unusual step of holding a press conference to dismiss the mayor’s claims that he had saved the city from “the edge of a fiscal cliff” less than two weeks ago.
Pennachetti was also reportedly the one who took Ford to task for allegedly making threatening remarks about a city hall security guard who filed a report about a raucous St. Patrick’s Day party held in his office.
“During the last four years he was the leader that many of us went to try to stabilize city hall while all the sideshows of the mayor were being played out. I think Toronto owes him a big debt of gratitude for being that person,” Mihevc said. “He read the politics at council very well and frankly steered the ship in a very good direction.”
Mayor Rob Ford was asked about Pennachetti's upcoming departure as he attended a Ukrainian Independence Day event in Etobicoke Saturday afternoon, but declined comment.
"Joe has not advised me of this, so I am not going to comment on it until he has told me and it is official. I can't comment on rumours," Ford said.
The mayor's brother, Coun. Doug Ford, said he would not be surprised if Pennachetti is planning to retire.
In an interview with CP24 Saturday afternoon, Doug Ford credited the civil servant with being "instrumental" in helping the current administration balance the books.
"We are in good financial shape because of the support Joe Pennachetti showed the mayor," he said.
Mayoral candidate David Soknacki said Pennachetti has been thinking about retirement "for some time."
"I have no doubt that he has been counting down if not the hours, the seconds for his retirement. Well deserved. He has seen alot of the challenges the city has had," Soknacki said.
Olivia Chow said if the reports are true, Pennachetti will be missed.
“Joe Pennachetti is an amazing civil servant," Chow said, adding that she worked with the bureaucrat during both the administrations of Mel Lastman and David Miller.
"He is a steady hand. He knows the financials very well and he runs a tight ship."
Calls to Pennachetti for comment have not yet been returned.
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