Agenda Item Number 7

There were thirty on the Agenda of Tuesday's General Committee Meeting of Council. Item 7 was in response to a request from Councillor McEachern, stemming from a line item on the Parks Division of the Leisure Services Budget. On one evening, four hours were spent on that budget and still it was not completed. .

Item 7 on Tuesday, was a report that went from Page 108 to 124, complete with pictures.

The capital budget item in contention was $60k for benches, picnic tables and garbage receptacles. Councillor Wilson was convinced the cost was excessive.

We were advised the items were built in house by parks staff. The Councillor was certain the same items could be purchased at far less expense.

It was explained parks furniture was not something that could be purchased in a hardware store. Neither could they be be acquired from a supplier at a price competitive with the cost of building them to the standard needed to meet requirements in the town's own workshop. They need to be sturdy and not easy to shift.

No matter. The yammering rambled round and round and back and forth and finally Councillor MacEachern directed staff to provide Council with a detailed report outlining comparative prices.

Item 7 on Tuesday's Agenda was the result of that direction.

Three suppliers of items most similar to those required had been contacted.

Prices were listed and photographs of the product were provided as follows: $79,975. $90,650. $88,200. Taxes and shipping costs were not included and would be added later.

Town cost, with material and labour was $52,920. No taxes or shipping costs needed to be added .

On Tuesday, as is the norm, the chair asked for items to be called for discussion. Item 7, the report responding to the request for comparative costs was NOT called by Councillor MacEachern who initially directed it be provided.

It was sixteen pages long. Staff expended time obtaining submissions from suppliers and compiling them, with pictures, to explain to Councillors, how parks furniture can be constructed by town labour in a town workshop at less cost than the same product can be purchased from manufacturers, who are in business to make a profit and must charge sales and service tax and shipping costs to complete the deal.

The report slipped through without comment or question. As if it wasn't there. Like it had never been requested. Like staff advice had never been challenged. Like there had not been endless, tortuous, tedious, uninformed and erroneous argument about how it was not possible for that amount of parks furniture to cost that much money and how Councillors were so confident the same objective could be achieved at far less expense that the Parks Manager was required to do the research and submit to them in writing that he knew whereof he spoke or that they did not.

With ignorance matched only by arrogance, further town resources were expended in yet another useless exercise of compiling and writing still another report to take up space in the archives and be forever and a day conveniently forgotten and ignored.