Elected municipal officials are facing many pressures. This includes: provincial interventions in municipal matters, a lack of Council cohesion, concerns about ethical behaviour, the challenges of municipal stewardship, relations with municipal staff, the demands placed upon you by constituents...and of course your unique experiences arising from local matters. The pressure is real and we are here to support you.

This session is really important. It helps you demystify a number of key municipal responsibilities. Budget and strategic planning are a great internal exercise but if your constituents and community members don’t really understand what you are doing, why you are doing it and how priorities are identified and planned for, well, we all understand what the fallout can look like. This session explores the importance of and options to community engagement and how leadership is the key ingredient to meaningful and impactful local engagement.

Facilitators:

Jim Pine has 32 years experience as a CAO, a City Manager and for the past 20 as CAO of Hastings County. Jim’s experience includes a decade with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and housing in a variety of roles including Regional Director for Eastern Ontario. Jim was a member of the expert panel on a review of Ontario’s water and waste water sector and recently was appointed Special Advisor to the Minister of Health on a review of Public Health and Emergency Health Services (interrupted by the pandemic). Jim’s training experience includes as an instructor for AMCTO’s Municipal Administration Program.

Tony Haddad’s municipal experience includes roles as CAO, General Manager, Deputy Treasurer, Director and Senior Manager in financial administration, budgets, governance and public transit. Tony is a past Director with the Ontario Municipal Administrators Association (OMAA), Co-chair of the ONWARD Initiative and is a past President of the Association of Managers, Clerks & Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO). Community service includes President of the Circle of Seven, Co-chair of Transform Shared Services and Treasurer of Sun County Minor Hockey. He is also the recipient of the 2016 Alumni of Distinction Award from St. Clair College and the 2017 Prestige Award from AMCTO.

Tony was the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for the Town of Tecumseh from 2007 – 2019 (retired). 

Tony has engaged in a number of interim-CAO roles including in Amhertsburg and Chatham-Kent.

Date: June 25, 2025, 10:00am - 1:00pm

Registration Fees:

• $485 +HST per session (Individual registration only. For group rates, contact events@amo.on.ca)
• $75 +HST cancellation fee

AMO requires a certain threshold of attendance for the viability of workshops. If we are unable to meet this threshold 2 weeks in advance of the scheduled workshop, the workshop will be cancelled with AMO making all efforts for the workshop to be rescheduled. All registered attendees will be notified in a timely way.

Register here

Cancellations must be submitted in writing to events@amo.on.ca by 4:00pm 7 days prior to the scheduled date. Registrations can be transferred at any time.