County CAO presents her annual report

Essex County Civic Centre.

Following up on a directive from local mayors and deputy mayors, the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for Essex County has presented an annual report to members of county council.

Back in November, county council adopted a CAO Performance Appraisal Policy which establishes a formal framework for evaluating the CAO’s performance.

CAO Sandra Zwiers gave an in-depth report at last Wednesday night’s meeting that included the fact that for several months in 2025, she was not only the county’s top executive but did double duty as the administrator of the county-operated long-term care facility.

As part of her report, Zwiers said that over the past year she has met with members of county council one-on-one to discuss priorities and share updates. Along with the clerk and Warden Hilda MacDonald, she attended and observed at least once, all seven local municipal council meetings.

“It’s important to me that taxpayers in the region understand what I do and what value I am able to provide,” said Zwiers.

Zwiers’ report was not only a laundry list of accomplishments and future priorities, but a brief look into what she has done since she became the CAO two-and-a-half years ago following many years as Essex County’s director of financial services/treasurer.

“I look forward to many years ahead. I want to be a sponge while I’m here, taking in information from you and the public and make this place better.”

Zwiers noted that her office has hosted six regional CAO meetings, worked towards a service delivery review and represented the county on several boards and committees.

As part of her strategic goals, she indicated that the review and evaluating high priority existing shared services and shared services agreements has been completed. 

However, on hold is developing and communicating a performance management framework for the county and its departments.

“This report is a little bit different in that I kind of take a look back since the day I started in this role two-and-a-half years ago. I can guarantee future reports won’t be this long,” said Zwiers.

Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy said she was pleased with the report but noted there still seems to be a disconnect between the public and the county.

Amherstburg Mayor Michael Prue said he was pleased at Zwiers’ performance.

“Like many of us around this table, we haven’t been here at lot of years. I’ve been here three-and-a-half years and the past two-and-a-half have been better than the first one. I thank you Madam CAO.”

County CAO presents her annual report

By Fred Groves