A few more thoughts….
-re cost control, the outgoing City Manager initially came into the job in 2011… presumably just as the controversial 2012 budget was coming into form. Though I’m not sure how much influence could’ve realistically been had on that budget at that point in the game, I imagine he’ll have to at least partially wear the fact that that budget and that public reaction did happen on his watch. At the same time in the five years since there’s been to me a noticeable focus on increased austerity in budgets. This includes what are as far as I can tell have been more taxpayer-friendly collective agreements that seem to try to hold cost increases closer to inflation. At the same time as others have said, obviously there are a lot of influences on the budget process including decisions ultimately made by council on where to trim, where to commit new dollars and overall roadmap that the city should be operated under (and can’t forget that the current mayor earned a large mandate on a campaign largely focused on keeping tax increases to a minimum).
-re salary, I can see both sides of the fence. On one hand it’s hard for a message of austerity to come across as truly authentic when your top manager is making an amount that puts them close to Canada’s “1% club.” The optics aren’t good when the average pay is such a large multiple of the average income of residents they’re serving. On the other hand you have to look at the marketplace for people with similar skills and see what a job with the qualifications pays. To me this kind of management position is one that you want as much continuity with as possible so that you arent always going through the growing pains of hiring new. FWIW, this definitely isn’t something unique to Brandon. For similar prairie markets the city manager salary in Prince Albert in 2015 looks to have been $202,000, Moose Jaw was $190,000. I’m not sure how realistic it would be to hire new and expect to pay less for someone properly qualified, but I suppose the dream from a taxpayer perspective is to find someone with the skill set and experience willing to take less than market value that would still like to commit long-term to the city. Maybe see if Moose Jaw's manager would move for $191,000.... but he'd have to pay Manitoba income tax and PST rates so I digress 
-re comment on communication, that's mainly the job of the communications director. The outgoing city manager some might recall actually broke the mould for a while and ran his own "city facts" section on the city website. I thought it was a great way to share facts on operational issues that you normally don't get to hear straight from the horses mouth. There seems to at times be a gap between perceived reality and actual reality on some City issues which is why I wish he'd had the opportunity to keep it up and hope that his successor and/or the communications director consider something similar in the future.
-re comments on back when communications director was hired. It seems like an exercise in futility to bring it up now. Different mayor, different council, soon to be different city manager, newspaper under totally different leadership. In the interest of being constructive it would probably be best IMO to evaluate the position in the here and now just like the city manager position. What kind of communication do people want to see, what value do they place on that communication, etc?
In saying all of this, I hope that it’s respected that the public very much has a right to have an opinion on aspects of the public job like what’s been expressed in this thread. When I see a criticism of pay or of services delivered I don’t see it as a critique of the person so much as the position. Not everyone is going to have time to run for council or apply for the job of City Manager themselves but they have every right as stakeholders to have and express expectations for the job.