Just what is going on in Northumberland County, and is it due to Strong Mayor Powers (SMP)? Two high profile firings are hard to comprehend without an explanation. That is what is happening in Northumberland County government as well as in the Port Hope municipal office.

In Jennifer Moore’s case the County Council went into a closed session meeting, on September 29th 2025, to discuss a budget and emerged with the news that the CAO has gone – whisked out of the building. “On behalf of county council, I am advising that, effective today, Jennifer Moore is no longer serving as chief administrative officer of Northumberland County,” Warden Brian Ostrander announced in a short statement issued late Monday afternoon.

In the case of Brian Gilmer, the Director of Corporate Affairs, the first anybody knew about it was the statement issued on social media “August 24 marked 10 years working for my hometown as Director, Corporate Services with the Municipality of Port Hope. I served as Clerk through most of that time, working alongside multiple terms of Council through challenges, successes, and everything in between. It’s been an honour and a privilege l’ve never taken for granted. On September 10 l was terminated without cause.”

We are not here to complain that people are out of jobs, sad as that is to them and their families but to take the authorities to task for the lack of transparency and explanation. In this day of SMPs anybody in municipal government is now serving at the whims of the local Mayor. It is to be discovered if employment contracts are as good as the lawyers who draft them say they are. If a contract is to be carried out then the dismissed people, whomever they are should be well covered financially.

Therein lies the rub, the taxpayers are paying the compensation not the Mayors who summarily dismiss them and the taxpayers deserve; yea need an explanation! People with long memories can remember the case of Mrs. MacIntosh the long serving Township Clerk of Hamilton Township who ran afoul of the Township Council. She was dismissed by a vote of the Council not just a head-chop from a Mayor. Nobody except the people involved knew why but she made out like a bandit in the courts when she sued. Again the taxpayers ate that cost.

In this age of ‘transparency’ no Municipality should be able to get away with summarily dismissals and instant firings, common decency and corporate ethics demands more, the lowest paid and qualified worker on the Municipal payroll gets more than that from their collective agreement!  You can bet that the Association of CAO’s is already working on a model contract to cover such events, and so they should.

Unfortunately this kind of ‘Feudalism’ demonstrated by  power hungry Mayors will backfire. Workplaces will become toxic and employees will leave or remain cowed and angry – hardly conducive to a happy workplace.

Mr Ostrander and the Mayor of Port Hope may hide behind secret meetings and non-disclosure agreements but that does nothing to tell the taxpayers who are on the hook for compensation why they have to pay out large sums of money out of scarce municipal funds. Shameful behaviour by those officials!