One of the City of Winnipeg's highest-ranking public servants is also working for the provincial government, prompting some councillors to ask why they were never informed of the job-sharing arrangement.

Winnipeg chief innovation officer Michael Legary, who was recruited to serve in the new role in February, is also working for the province on files that include cannabis legislation and Manitoba's bid to bring Amazon's second headquarters to Winnipeg.

Legary, who ranks just below chief administrative officer Doug McNeil on the city's organizational chart, told reporters Thursday he is dividing his time jointly between the City of Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba, which is paying half his salary.

​"When I work at the city, the city pays for me. When I work at the province, the province pays for me," said Legary, describing the arrangement as a secondment.

Councillors Russ Wyatt (Transcona) and Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) said they only learned Legary was pulling double duty earlier this week, when the public servant stood up at an Assembly of Manitoba Municipalities gathering in Brandon as a representative of Manitoba Finance's priorities and planning secretariat.

"There's been no communication that one of our senior managers is going back and forth between two organizations," Browaty said Thursday, noting the arrangement raises a lot of questions.

"He's at a very senior level in both organizations," Browaty said. "It becomes more disingenuous when the mayor says he doesn't know [Winnipeg Regional Health Authority] funding is going to be available.

"When you have such senior people in finance, how can the mayor pretend not to know [provincial] transit funding is being frozen?"

Legary is well known in Winnipeg technology circles as the founder of security company Seccuris. He started it up in 1999, when he was 20, and sold it in 2015 for an undisclosed sum to a company now owned by Hitachi.

He is the first person to serve as Winnipeg's chief innovation officer.