By Doug Draper
Some may not care and some may not even know who Mike Trojan is, but the news of his “retirement” is no small deal.
Mike Trojan, CAO of Niagara, Ontario’s regional government, suddenly announces his retirement.
Mike Trojan has served as the chief administrator for years for a Niagara regional government with care and dedication. He has served as the chief administrator and the person who would have to feel all the pain, if things went wrong, for a multitude of vital services from water and wastewater treatment, waste management, public health, planning, housing and many others, to a region of more than 400,000 people.
But putting all that aside,if you can put all that aside, this term of Niagara regional council, under the chairmanship of Gary Burroughs, has seen a real turn against senior staff, even if a good guy like Burroughs has not agreed with it, and we have seen the loss of number of what many inside the regional bureaucracy felt were the best of administrators, including others like Brian Hutchings and Mike Weir, moving out for positions Brock University and other places.
Now we see Mike Trojan leaving after what were a couple of closed sessions, including one this April 18 where his “performance” was once again under review. The public and press was given no explanations, even when they were over. You could wait around for more than an hour and go back into the council chambers and all you get is … ‘we can now approve bylaw 14,’ etc., etc., etc., then not a bloody word to us about something like this.’
Then, after another “performance review” of the CAO this April 18, the taxpaying public receives a media release this April 19 that Mike Trojan is ‘retiring’. Not one word about this, by the way, in Niagara Regional Chair Gary Burroughs’s ‘State of the Region’ Address to business honchoes this April 19.
At any rate, here is the media release Niagara, Ontario’s regional government put out this April19, Friday afternoon which, by the way, is a great time to come out with news like this if you don’t want media calling you back on it. …
Mike Trojan, Chief Administrative Officer, Announces Retirement
Niagara Region, April 19, 2013 – After 27 years at Niagara Region in positions of progressive responsibility and leadership, Mike Trojan, Chief Administrative Officer, is set to retire from Niagara Region in June 2013.
Trojan began his public service career over 35 years ago in finance and budgeting, rising rapidly to senior executive levels when he joined Niagara Region, including treasurer and department commissioner before taking on the leadership roles of deputy chief administrative officer and finally chief administrative officer in 2000.
“Regional employees provide services that make significant contributions to the quality of life of many people, including the most vulnerable in our community,” said Trojan, “and it’s been my goal to create a work culture that enables a sense of pride in those that deliver these services in a sometimes challenging environment.”
Trojan cites successful organizational changes, delivering on successive budgets plus strong financial results, refining the Council business plan process, creating the Responsive Region Improvement Team, and improved employee engagement scores among the many recent achievements reached due to a strong senior staff group.
“I’d like to thank Mike for the leadership he’s demonstrated over 13 years at the helm of this effective and efficient organization, with an $803 million budget and over 3,000 employees,” said Regional Chair Gary Burroughs. “I wish him all the best as he starts this new chapter in his life.”
Trojan also contributed to several groundbreaking region-wide initiatives, establishing the Niagara Community Foundation and Leadership Niagara, which seek to strengthen community capacity and nurture local leaders, and supporting the United Way as a former campaign chair and current champion. He also worked tirelessly for municipal associations that advanced the concerns of municipalities in their relationships with other levels of government.
“Thirteen years is a lengthy term for a chief administrative officer, and after a break with my family, I’ll be looking forward to other contributions I can make to Niagara as a great place to live and work – a world class community,” he concluded.
(Niagara At Large invites you to join in the conversation by sharing your views on the content of this post below. For reasons of transparency and promoting civil dialogue, NAL only posts comments from individuals who share their first and last name with their views.)
Niagara At Large 
As CAO, I would have expected one his responsibilities would be to play a material role in all regional employee union negotiations. If this is the case, you have to wonder how effective he and the rest of the parties involved have been when our Police Chief makes more than the Police Chief of New York City (go figure!!!). Where other regional employees enjoy wages and benefits that are consistent with higher cost-of-living jurisdictions like Toronto that are out of touch with reality and requirement.
So I guess my point is….. I hope his replacement is more effective to reigning in union employee costs even if it means ruffling feathers. I regret if I harp on this angle, but these costs represent the greatest challenge this region faces in my opinion and it has to be addressed. You wonder why homes aren’t affordable and why people depend on assistance services provided by the region. Its’ because all levels of government continually plunder taxpayer income (unfortunately to only waste it). In this case, property taxes on a modest bungalow in St. Catharines are approximately $3000 per year. That’s after tax income, so one has to earn $4000 a year or 10% of the median salary of someone in this region to live in a modest home. Now that is just wrong!!!!
On a side unrelated note, I am interested to know why Burroughs “State of the Region” address was not an open free forum for ALL Niagara taxpayers.
I guess we all don’t deserve to hear what he has to say without paying for it. Where does the money go, me wonders…..
Just sayin………..
LikeLike
Costs being out control and the need for more austerity Mr. Middleton is a tired theme. If the council did agree with you it would behoove them to come out and say it so that maybe the public could weigh in and agree with your cost cutting agenda, or not. I don’t mean to offend, but that is something worth mentioning.
LikeLike
As tired as the theme is, it is all the more relevant as evidenced by operating and capital spending increasing without regard to our capacity to pay.
I have no issues with spending and providing. I just want there to be some form of performance indicator attached to it. I want to see value! I don’t want to see waste, overpaid/underworked resources, poorly managed projects…… That being said, on the other side of the coin you have to agree that the government can’t be everything to everybody.
As for the public weighing in, I would suspect that most will not want to give up any services, yet at the same time don’t realize their demands are largely unsustainable. Are you suggesting that politicians accommodate this demand at the expense of the affordability of living in this region or this regions fiscal health?
Back to my point…. these people are expected to lead! They are not expected cower to ridiculous union demands and ridiculous demands for underused programs. They are expected to treat our tax dollars like it was their own and spend it accordingly. I can’t remember the last time I overpaid by a factor of 100% for anything or spent income on something I did not benefit from. Why do they? I don’t have all day, but I can outline many examples of waste in this region. I am sure you know it exists so hopefully that is not required to make my case.
Thanks for your thoughts and cheers,
LikeLike
Hi Karl, just one other point because it happened to me today, I felt compelled to share it. Please find this true story.
My wife got bit by my indoor cat and went to the hospital. The cat had its rabies shots which was verified and is in excellent health. The hospital contacted the Niagara Region Health services department who then contacted us to make two appointments to verify the cat didn’t have rabies despite documentation proving it had its shots! They drove from St. Catharines to Grimsby TWICE!
Now if I was running this particular department, I would require the person injured to simply provide the vaccination certificate and commit to monitoring the health of the cat for the 10 day period and sign off on it. Alternative, the Regions way of handling it is to send out an $100k per year employee, pay for gas and vehicle to Grimsby TWICE at a cost of $300 I figure. I wonder how many of these people the Region has running around providing this SERVICE? Too many I figure!
Do I see the value? NO! Is there a more cost-effective way? YES!
That is what I am talking about and this small example is the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
As tiresome as the restraint message is, until it gets heard and acted on, it is a valid one that deserves more consideration by politicians at all levels of government!
Just sayin…….
LikeLike