In a hastily-called news conference held by Edmonton’s mayor, Edmontonians learned City Council had decided to ‘relieve [City Manager] Simon Farbrother of his duties’.
Mayor Don Iveson announced Thursday afternoon that after five years in the position, City Council had decided to let Farbrother go.
“A decision of this magnitude was not made without careful deliberation and discussion among Council members but, in the end, we determined that change was necessary – and that it must happen now,” Iveson said in the news conference.
The mayor said the City was contractually obligated to pay Farbrother two years’ worth of salary plus benefits – about $800,000 in total.
Farbrother was hired as City Manager in 2010 – after serving as City Manager for Waterloo from 2005 to 2009. Prior to that, he worked as City Manager for Spruce Grove between 1997 and 2005.
Perhaps most notably, Farbrother played a major role in negotiating a plan for the downtown arena with the Katz Group.
Iveson said the decision was not made as a result of one project.
“There’s a cumulative set of factors that come into council’s consideration, I’m not going to go into details of those,” Iveson said. “It’s not just about the Metro Line.”
In recent weeks, Farbrother took responsibility for ongoing problems that have continued to plague the long-delayed Metro LRT Line. After being delayed for more than a year and a half, the new line from downtown to Macewan University and NAIT, finally opened to riders over the weekend.
A City Auditor report revealed a lack of communication played a major role in delays of the project.
As for the future, Iveson said work to find a new City Manager will start soon.
“Our goal is to hire someone who can meet the aspirations of this city head-on and help build the kind of city we can all be proud of,” the statement read.
