London's acting city manager is setting a course to repair strained relationships with city unions, employees, managers, and boards and commissions.
Two days after Martin Hayward was appointed to the position formally held by Art Zuidema, he and Mayor Matt Brown met with reporters at city hall.
During the Thursday afternoon meeting, Hayward, 56, admitted the change was still fresh and raw for him, but made it clear he is committed to openness and transparency. One of his first orders of business will be to begin rebuilding relationships with a number of city unions.
"I am already in the process of setting up meetings with each of the union presidents and association presidents. In fact, I've got my first one tomorrow with fire," said Hayward. "This is about building relationships, this is not about the negotiation part of it. But if we can right the relationships and gain an understanding of each other, I think we can maybe do a little better on the negotiation front."
Hayward, a native of England, began working for the city in 1984 and has served as treasurer and chief financial officer since 2010. He will continue to hold that role while also acting as the city's top bureaucrat.
"I have a very good staff in finance, all of them very talented and they are all stepping up to the plate to help the corporation," said Hayward. "As I go through stabilizing the corporation, I have people who will be backfilling me in my area to assist. It will work in the short term but I think there will be some longer term fixes that we have to make."
As acting city manager, Hayward will earn an extra 10%, bumping his annual salary up to just under $210,000.
Hayward will hold the job “for the foreseeable future," according to Brown.
"What we want to do is spend the next couple of weeks just giving him (Hayward) an opportunity to settle into the role, introduce stability within the organization, and then council will have an opportunity to decide together on next steps," said Brown.
Several city councillors, former colleagues and community members have already reached out to Hayward to express their overwhelming support for him in the new role. Brown told reporters Hayward is capable and skilled, and made it clear the decision to have Hayward fill both roles for the months to come isn't about saving money.
"I think this is the key role in the city organization," said Brown. "It's certainly not about saving dollars or trying to find efficiencies. It's that Mr. Hayward is the right person, at the right time for this position."