The portion last nights motion which caused the most discussion & debate: ...Council issue an Request for Proposal (RFP) for an external professional, to be included in the 2015 budget, in consultation with the Ministry of the Environment, and further that council make the selection of & transfer all operations of the Water Pollution Control Plant to an independent operator on an interim basis... I am 100% in favour of finding the reason for the excedences & solving the problem quickly & cost effectively! The meeting was requested to ask staff prepare a timeline of all recommendations & resolutions as they pertain to the Wastewater Plant. I thought that would put us on a solid foundation from which to move forward. In passing this motion we have now stalled any further information gathering until a RFP can be drafted (to be considered during budget talks), the RFP would need council approval, & eventually another consultant hired. Last night the Mayor noted that this would likely happen in the Fall. Waiting any longer to gather information & start fixing the problem is irresponsible. The resolution further authorizes a third party operator to take over operations of the plant in the interim. I have never seen a council authorize a third party contractor to do anything without having solid numbers & contractual obligations spelled out. In my opinion this violates our fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of Brighton and places us in a precarious position during upcoming union negotiations. I could not support a motion that broke the spirit of the original meeting request - stalls us in our want to fix the problems - hires more consultants without knowing their cost & puts us in a weaker negotiating position with the union. The motion carried 4 to 3 with Mayor Walas, Councillors Martinello, McMurray and Tadman in favour & Councillors Baker, Ostrander and Vink opposed.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 20:05:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015