Merger stems from senior manager’s retirement

The Council of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry announced March 16, that the operations of the Roads and Planning Departments will be merged into a new Department called “Transportation and Planning Services”. 

The actions necessary to implement the change were approved at the March session of County Council and are effective immediately.

SDG County Planner Michael Otis has retired. 

The County is not replacing this Department Head position, but instead will be hiring a Manager of Planning, who will report to the Director of Transportation and Planning Services. 

The new mid-level position will manage the day-to-day operations of the planning services section of the new Department.

The restructuring of the two departments will not impact services levels or operations, either for roads or planning services.

The County will continue to oversee the County Official Plan, as well as land division (land severances and plans of subdivision).

County Engineer, Benjamin de Haan, will assume overall responsibility for the new Department. 

de Haan’s title has changed to Director of Transportation and Planning Services.

“It is always important to be looking for efficiencies when opportunities come up, and these changes to our senior management team demonstrate our commitment to that. There are cost savings and many synergies, both internally and to the public, to be gained by the merging of the two departments,” said Eric Duncan, Warden, United Counties of SD&G.

“We have appreciated Mr. Otis’ service to the County and we look forward to working closely with Mr. de Haan in moving the new Department forward. There is a lot of potential with these changes and we are anxious to implement some new ideas,” said T.J. Simpson, Chief Administrative Officer, United Counties of SD&G

Since you’re here…

… Thanks for reading this article. Local news is important. We hope that you continue to support local news in your community by reading The Leader, online and in print. Please consider subscribing to the print edition of the newspaper. Click here to subscribe today.

Subscribe to Email Alerts

Enter your email address to subscribe to Email Alerts and receive notifications of new posts by email whenever The Leader publishes new content on our website.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply