It’s just a Quarter Million Dollars right?

If our community is to eventually come together, it will be important to understand the reasons some people are upset at our elected body. So, let’s review a public Council Meeting discussion surrounding the purchase of the temporary floor for the Twin pad Arena/ Library.

During the Council meeting of Feb. 29, 2024 a report that provided a summary of the opening week events was presented to Council. It was presented by Deputy CAO Gerry Marshal. Then a vote was taken to accept the report. It passed unanimously.

There is an important, associated fact to be aware of. Several days before the meeting, a cheque register was finally shared publicly. Concerns about a $123,975.13 entry were discussed here after that disclosure. People were not happy. It was for a 50% deposit on the arena floor used for Brian’s big parties. It’s important to recognize that the Discussions in this group are reviewed daily by our towns CAO or other Council related individuals. (According to Facebook monitoring tools).

In the “Week Long Party” report a poorly detailed financial summary boasted of a $100,676.00 surplus. Many do not believe that number. It seems that Councilor Belanger also read about our concerns on Facebook and he questioned the absence of mentioning the cost of the floor in the report.

When the report was complete, all members of Council were able to ask questions. At the 4:02:14 point, Councilor Belanger spoke. Here is the dialogue between he and the Deputy CAO;

JB- “Included in the total cost, uh, I Believe originally… I heard we were going to rent the floor boards but we purchased the floor boards?”

(So, obviously Councilor Bélanger was aware of the purchase. It was not in the report, so did he hear about it here in one of our Cheque Register discussions or did he hear elsewhere?).

JM- “Our plan at first starting out of the gate, was to borrow or rent them from the city of Barrie. When we looked at the cost of doing that and the opportunity to purchase ourselves, the purchase made greater sense to the four of us. So we did purchase them under a capital program yes.”

(So, the main question here is who are “the four of us”?)

Note, the evasive nature of the words “under a capital program”. Later he had to clarify specifically which Capital Budget. )

JB- So under the capital program. So the entire cost of that isn’t in the um, costs here? Were we $100,000 including the cost of purchasing the boards?”

(So, Councilor Bélanger was seeking the cost of this and how that cost was captured in the event budget.)

GM- “No, so, the floors in those rinks came out of the TPAL overall capital budget. So that was part of the Capital assets for the arena itself. “

(So… no clarity was provided of the actual cost, which are more than likely in excess of $280,000.00. However Deputy CAO Marshal does confirm they spent this money under the original aprox.$60,000,000.00 Capital budget for the Twin Pad Arena and Library budget.)

JB- “Very good. That’s good to have that done. ………”

(Councilor Belanger, although not being fully informed about the actual cost and/or whether this purchase should have been applied to this budget, or if proper procurement processes were followed, is okay with simply moving on.)

No other member of Council questioned this further. They were all present and voted to accept the report without amendments.

So, what specific documents would be of interest in a Freedom of information Request.

I plan on asking for the original budget of the TPAL and any change orders with any financial impact.
I plan on asking for all emails, notes, messages or minutes of meetings pertaining to the rental plans or the purchase of the arena floor.
I plan on asking for copies of the policies used to authorize and complete this purchase.
I plan to ask for a list of all people who were involved in this decision.
Finally, it would be good to see the budget and motion that was passed to approve the original budget for this week long party.

I plan on submitting a Freedom of Information request about this issue soon. If you were submitting this request, what specific documents would you seek?

Once that FOI is able to retrieve appropriate documents, who do you think should hold our Council accountable?

Two years from now may be too late. At $280,000.00 per event, the excessive spending may cripple our treasury before the next election.

2 Comments

alanclegg March 22, 2024 at 4:09 pm

this is a test comment. I’m considering allowing certain people the ability to comment.
- alanclegg March 22, 2024 at 4:16 pm
  
  fun times