Zorra Township CAO Announces Retirement Plans

Wednesday, 20 December 2023 10:15

Don MacLeod will step down as the Chief Administrative Officer for Zorra Township late next year.

ZORRA TOWNSHIP - After dedicating 27 years to Zorra Township, the Chief Administrative Officer has decided to retire.

Don MacLeod's resignation letter is included in the agenda for tonight's Township Council meeting. He is giving lots of notice because he's not planning on stepping down until late next year.

"Because we're going to be doing some restructuring, we have a couple of vacancies right now, I felt that it was my time to give council the notice that I wouldn't be extending my contract. I wanted to give them lots of notice so we can implement some of the changes that we need to make over the next year."

According to the resignation letter, MacLeod's contract is set to expire on July 17th, 2025 and he is required to provide at least six months' notice if he wants to terminate it before then. It also states that MacLeod would like to terminate his contract effective December 31st, 2024.

Once the resignation letter is accepted by council, staff will put together a report on the CAO hiring process and bring it back to council in the New Year. MacLeod is hoping he'll be able to show the new CAO the ropes before he leaves.

MacLeod was hired on as the CAO for Zorra Township in May of 1996 and a lot has changed since then.

"At that time the Township had one computer in the whole office, so we have modernized substantially since that point. We still have the same number of staff believe it or not. We haven't really grown too much but we have reorganized the way that we do our business so a lot less manual tasks are undertaken."

MacLeod remembers when Zorra became one of the first municipalities in Ontario to introduce paperless council agendas in the early 2000s.

He will always look back on his time with fond memories.

"It's been a fantastic place to work. I have had the luxury of working with some really good councils that have been very progressive. Zorra has grown a lot since I started and I have also worked with amazing staff, they have been a great support for me and it's just been a great place to work. The public has been amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better career."

MacLeod looking forward to spending time with his family, hitting the golf course, and trying out curling and pickleball once he's retired.