"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Thursday 6 April 2017

AN OUTLINE OF FAILURE

O" Meanwhile, the costs and funding of Aurora’s Joint Operations Centre is expected to come into focus on April 4 as Mr. Elliott presents a detailed financial summary of costs and work to date. In his new report to Council, he pegs the JOC coming in $103,027 further over budget which will continue to be funded through DCs.


The report also outlines “lessons learned” through the whole contentious process, recommending for the future “standardization of the Town’s internal project management framework, improved internal financing reporting and project management financial skills; that larger projects should have a financial analyst assigned to assist in the monitoring of project expenses; greater clarification of the roles of any steering or monitoring committee; improved clarity of project scope, inclusions and exclusions from the beginning with clarity for Council as well; improved understanding of the evolution of initial concept estimates through to final construction tender budgets; and clear separation of pre-construction costs and budgets (space needs, concept plans, location and site selection, and acquisition costs) from detailed design, construction and commissioning costs and budget.”

 

 Stephanie cut and copied the above from a four column story by Brock Weir. On page 13. of 

March 30 edition ,took up full width and half the length of the page. Mostly information.Except for the last two paragraphs . They are electric. 


The  chief financial officer reports to Council. 


Now that position was filled by the former chief administrative officer. No competition. No interview. No portfolio. Simply an announcement behind closed doors of an interim appointment made without authority or  knowledge of council. 


We later  learned the job was offered with coffee in a donut shop. The permanent  appointment was announced the same as the first.... behind closed doors. 


References to the Municipal Act's requirement of a competition and bylaw appointment were ignored.

Save for my own opposition, the decision was accepted as presented. 


That was ten years ago. Previously ,Aurora's new top financial officer  was employed for a year by a consultant and before that, served eleven years as treasurer, aka chief financial officer, in the town of Richmond Hill. 


Richmond Hill subsequently adopted a commission  system. The new top financial post was not offered to the treasurer. 


The paragraph copied from the Auroran contains  self -acknowledged absence of skills ordinarily and reasonably expected of the municipal financial officer. Remuneration is paid commensurate with required professional  attributes .


Sound judgement is expected with the package. 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, and he rolls up his sleeves in the council chamber.

Anonymous said...

Financial analyst? That's their lesson learned?

Anonymous said...

6:01 - Lmao!

Anonymous said...

I think they still have those How To Build classes over at Homedepot. You know the ones that teach you how to build a shed. I'd suggest that the Town sign up for one of those classes. I believe they actually start with how to budget a project and continue on with all the materials, permits and tools that are needed. A beginner build like this would be a good start in knowing how to build and manage capital projects. Deck building could be phase 2 of this learning process. I don't believe that a financial analyst is required, but you may want to give them a call and double check. Until then, hold off on any future capital projects. It was clear that the Leisure complex renovation was a struggle. This Ops center is way over your heads.

Anonymous said...


Brookfield Residential is sold out of the 56 detached homes that are being built on the former Timberlane Athletic Club site on the Vandorf Road. These have been priced up to $2,000,000.

Can someone find out what the development charge on a single unit is and then multiply by 56 to get the total that the town will be raking in?

Anonymous said...

14:04 - The money has already been spent by the Town and Region. I'm sure they've already ear marked the development money over at the Magna property and they're not moving out for another 5 yrs.

Anonymous said...

Chris has been at his Blog again. He had a copy of a newspaper clip from 1973. There's a great picture of you Evelyn. A great interview as well.