Mayor Morgan won’t flex strong mayor powers to hire London’s next city manager

An undated image of London city hall. (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London)

Despite recently receiving the power to unilaterally hire city hall’s next city manager — Mayor Josh Morgan is choosing a collaborative approach.

The upcoming retirement of city manager Lynne Livingstone would have triggered the first significant opportunity for Morgan to utilize so-called “strong mayor” powers recently granted by the province to the mayors of large cities in Ontario.

However, Morgan has decided to instead work alongside council during a candidate search, interview, and hiring process that could take up to four months.

“Under the legislation, I could essentially go hire a city manager today,” the mayor explained to council colleagues at a committee meeting on Tuesday. “So we are outlining a process that actually involves council.”

The Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC) selected five members of council to join the mayor on a subcommittee responsible for narrowing the number of applicants down to about three finalists.

The Recruitment and Selection Committee will be:

• Mayor Josh Morgan
• Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis
• Coun. Susan Stevenson
• Coun. Jerry Pribil
• Coun. Corrine Rahman
• Coun. Steve Lehman

Reflecting the mayor’s new power to hire and fire the city manager, for the benefit of candidates, the finalists will each meet with the mayor.

Then the finalists will be interviewed by all council members before they recommended a preferred candidate for the mayor to approve.

In July, Livingstone announced her intention to retire at the end of this year.

Council will hire an external consultant to support the process at a cost up to $40,000.