Midland has a new chief administrative officer and her resume includes a stop at Barrie City Hall.
The town made the announcement on Monday that Rhonda Bunn was hired in the top municipal role, with a start date of July 17.
Bunn’s experience includes serving as CAO for the Township of Adjala-Tosorontio from 2020 to 2022. She was recently employed as the assistant deputy minister/chief information security officer with the Ontario government.
With more than 23 years of experience in various leadership roles, Bunn was selected from a field of more than 30 applicants since former CAO David Denault left the position in January.
“It was critical to have someone that’s a real people person at the top,” Mayor Bill Gordon said. “I can draw that comparison to Mr. Denault — he was definitely a champion of people, our human resources team and our community.”
Gordon said he was excited about the announcement.
“I think logically, the next 30 days after she starts – it’s basically drinking from a fire hose – there isn’t any burning criticality. She isn’t walking into any type of dumpster fire,” the mayor said. “The municipality, as thin as it is, is running well.
“She committed to meeting with all staff, and will start with our senior team first and then be working down the pipe," Gordon added. "But I believe her goal is to be meeting with everybody and get some feedback on what they think is working well, what they think could be done better in the municipality.
"All that will form part of our strategic plan and report for the first 100 days."
During a recent meeting of council, Gordon requested a pause on deciding the future of the contentious Midland Bay Landing development property, placing faith that the unannounced CAO incoming would play an important role in providing input toward the brownfield site.
“We weren’t looking for somebody super green to a role like this because there’s too much change happening right now. It’s too pivotal,” Gordon said. “Especially with the growth going on, we need people with experience who have been there, done that.”
Gordon also placed large credit for the hiring of Barr on the enthusiasm of human resources manager Mara Vande Beek, who swayed council to let her have a chance at finding someone for the position instead of paying executive placement services who could take nearly a quarter cut of the CAO salary.
“To her credit, (Vande Beek) asked for the opportunity, we had faith in her and she’s nailed it," Gordon said. "She did a great job on this.
“This was all pulled off internally,” he added. “We saved the ratepayer a boat-load of money, and I don't think we diminished the process at all; I think we actually won in this scenario.”
Municipal CAOs are frequently listed on the annual Ontario Sunshine List of public-sector employees with salaries that exceed $100,000, and Bunn has been placed on that list over several years including her time in 2019 as executive director for Innovate Barrie prior to internal restructuring when she was let go from that position.
Gordon added that having a new CAO was common for many new councils following municipal elections where guiding directions required new leadership.
“This council has chosen Rhonda to be our senior leader, and we’re committed to her this term,” said Gordon. “What happens after the snow globe gets shaken after the next municipal election is entirely up to that next council.”
