Here are the priorities of Hamilton’s new city manager

Marnie Cluckie is Hamilton’s new top bureaucrat — and in her first four days of being city manager, she says she’s been busy.

“I’ve received a very warm welcome, but I’ve also been thrown right into some meetings where we’ve had some very tough discussions,” she says.

She adds that while the recent passing of an anti-renoviction law has received positive feedback, the problems the city is facing are complex and, in some instances, unprecedented.

The cost of housing, homelessness and high taxes are all topics Cluckie plans to prioritize, but she says it’s too early in her tenure to have policy proposals written up.

“In terms of what comes next, there absolutely will be more,” Cluckie says. “We have to be innovative right now, we have to partner and collaborate, we have to work with other levels of government.”

Cluckie had the chance to sit in on Hamilton’s first round of budget consultations, where she heard presentations from over 50 community delegates — many of whom had issues with the proposed 7.9 per cent tax increase.

READ MORE: Hamilton’s proposed property tax increase lower than anticipated, but still 7.9%

Cluckie says she’s working to come up with some different options around the tax increase and that her team will go over that with council in the near future.

Another issue Cluckie plans to tackle is the one of trust — something the city manager acknowledges has been eroded over the past few years, that she hopes to rebuild.

Cluckie says the best way to do that isn’t just by stating it, but by doing it: “I hope in another six months or in a year from now, you’ll come back and see the things we’ll have achieved as staff, council and the mayor.”

“Through those actions, we will regain the trust that Hamiltonians deserve.”

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