Denis Abbott, Ottawa's director of communications and customer services, was dismissed Wednesday night. Sources said he's expected to get a severance payment of close to $100,000 from the city. (CBC)

The man in charge of the City of Ottawa's communications and customer services department has been dismissed, CBC News has learned.

Denis Abbott, who held the position of director of communications for just over a year, made about $130,000 annually. Sources said he's expected to get a severance payment of close to $100,000 from the city.

A memo sent Thursday morning by deputy city manager Steve Kanellakos gave no details about Abbott's departure, except to say that it was "effective immediately."

Abbott declined to comment when CBC News reached him by phone.

According to the memo, Abbott's former department will be split, with the communications section reporting to a different director than the division that includes the city's call centre.

The firing comes just a day after the city's auditor general released a report highlighting problems at the city, including the high use of sick days by employees, and a serious conflict of interest that was not addressed after it was reported.

Sources said the dismissal is part of a shift in philosophy for the city, which would like to see more attention given to positive stories about municipal services. During the past year, the city has received a lot of negative media coverage about its approach to the transit strike, flooding in Kanata, and public consultations on a plan to redevelop Lansdowne Park.

Coun. Diane Deans said Abbott's sudden departure came a surprise to her and other councillors.

However, she added that the job is a difficult one.

"I think it's very frustrating for the senior managers and councillors when we open the daily newspaper, turn on the radio or the television and hear bad news stories," she said, "when we know there's a lot of good things happening in the city."

Coun. Christine Leadman said the contract and severance for the position were negotiated by management, not councillors.

"I think that if these contracts that we're negotiating are a little too rich," she said, "then we have to reconsider how we're doing this."

Abbot is the city's third communications director since Mayor Larry O'Brien was elected three years ago. Leadman suggested the city may need to look more closely at the position and whether the candidates hired are suited for the job.

"Or maybe there's something about the job itself that's creating the problems."