Harry Schlange, the City of Brampton’s new Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) reached out to Brampton Focus to share his thoughts on feedback received over his first 60 days on the job. We have included the full text of his letter below.
Mr. Schlange officially left the CAO position in Niagara Region on May 27th of this year and started in Brampton on May 30th. He is the city’s 6th CAO over the past 10 years and took over from Acting CAO Marilyn Ball.
The position of CAO (often referred to as City Manager) is the top senior management executive in the city. The decision to hire a CAO is voted on by the city’s elected council to effectively run the city. For reference, and to gauge what CAO’s across the province are thinking, StrategyCorp recently completed the Ontario Municipal CAO Survey 2016.
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Building a Future Ready Brampton – Thank You for Your Feedback
Since starting with the City of Brampton two months ago, many people have come forward with their thoughts and ideas on how to make Brampton great. After meeting with each Member of Council, community and business leaders, and more than 2,500 employees at locations throughout the city, several common themes have emerged. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to speak with me – every word you have shared is helping to shape the future of our organization.
Here is what I have heard after 60 days on our team:
- We need to think bigger about the future of Brampton
- We need to rally behind a common purpose
- We need to build trust and confidence with each other across the corporation
- We need to increase our potential through more business-like operations and reduced duplication in services
- We need greater clarity in our roles and objectives
- We need to focus on progress over process
- We need to find opportunities to increase speed, agility and responsiveness
- We need to hold each other accountable for high standards
- We need to know our community and come to work every day excited about opportunities to make Brampton successful on a global stage
This feedback is tremendously valuable in determining what we need to do to position ourselves for the future. We are working collaboratively with Council to understand how we can make these ideas a reality at the City of Brampton.
Thank you,
Harry Schlange, CAO
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