A review of how South Bruce Peninsula Council does business is complete.
Nigel Bellchamber and Fred Dean suggest council and staff have a training session, that the procedural by-law be reviewed, that a new municipal treasurer be appointed as soon as possible, and that a special coach be brought in to guide council and staff.
Bellchamber, who has over 30 years of experience in municipal administration, says the committee of the whole structure, communication with staff, and transparency need to be addressed.
Councillor Dan Kerr says it’s time to bring council into the 21st century, especially in the area of the consent agendas that contain information used at meetings.
Bellchamber says it’s a matter of how council conducts business as a committee of the whole.
He says they have a process that is quite unusual that isn’t serving them well.
Bellchamber says it’s causing problems and resulting in unproductive behaviour.
He has hope though that council will accept his recommendations and turn things around.
Bellchamber says over the course of Tuesday’s very long meeting (six hours), council demonstrated that the personal and political will is there to make changes.
Kerr says Bellchamber and Dean have great ideas about how council can become more transparent and speed up the process.
The consultant’s presentation concluded at 3pm, the Committee of the Whole Meeting continued with other business at that time.
Kerr says they planned to continue into the evening.
One of the issues at hand was if council should proceed with asking for further advice from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.
Dean and Bellchamber’s review is a separate issue from the recent interviews the provincial Ombudsman’s office has conducted with council in the aftermath of a meeting last month regarding the hiring of a new finance manager.
Mayor Gwen Gilbert was censured by council for suggesting hiring discussions shouldn’t take place at meetings where the CAO is not present.
Kerr says he’s at a “stalemate” with that situation.
He had refused to take part in an interview with the Ombudsman’s office unless he could record the conversation, but was told he couldn’t.
Kerr has since been told he’ll be served with a subpoena for not doing the interview.