City Manager Joe Pennachetti has agreed to delay his upcoming retirement by five months in order to help guide mayor-elect John Tory through his first budget at city hall.
Pennachetti was scheduled to retire at the end of November but agreed to stay in his role until April after Tory asked him to put off his retirement for at least a few months.
City council will now have to approve the extension during their first meeting in December, though that vote is largely considered a formality.
“When I made my decision in August I committed to the end of this term. It was a long four years and I was and am at the end of my career,” Pennachetti, who was flanked by Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly and several members of council, told reporters at city hall. “That said, I believe that this new term of council has significant issues that are heavy in intergovernmental focus, which is an area that I am very interested in, and that combined with my love for the City of Toronto led me to agree to stay on until April. We have a critical four or five months now to advance the 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 David 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 Mayor Ford’s assertion that he had saved taxpayers one billion dollars last 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” in August.
Speaking with reporters at city hall on Thursday, Pennachetti said he expects the new mayor-elect and new council to have “very strong relationships” with other levels of government that will allow them to take immediate action on transit and housing.
Tory, meanwhile, said that he is “delighted” at the prospect of having Pennachetti around for at least some of that work.
“As somebody who has been spending huge amounts of time in rooms with him over the last few days getting briefed on all sorts of different things relating to the operation of the city, I think every additional day we can get in terms of public service from Joe Pennachetti will be a day that is good for the City of Toronto,” he said. “That is no commentary on anyone else in the public service; it’s just that we have a strong trusted leader here who has fortunately agreed to provide additional service to the public.”
Remember for instant breaking news follow @cp24 on Twitter.
