Councillors debate procurement review: Oversight or distrust?
By: Wayne Doyle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: BarrieToday.com
Oct 03, 2024 When no one else would, Springwater Coun. Matt Garwood stepped up and defended the integrity of township staff at Wednesday night’s council meeting.
As council debated the pros and cons of a notice of motion requesting an audit/review of any contract awards exceeding $75,001 over the past 18 months, put forth by Deputy Mayor George Cabral, Garwood addressed the uneasy feeling in the room. “I believe there is a potential undertone of distrust and I don’t see it that way,” Garwood said of the motion. “I believe our staff are doing their job responsibly. “I believe this council does their job responsibly and I don’t see any concern,” he added. Cabral said council’s role is to provide oversight and to ensure accountability and transparency not only appear to be undertaken but actually are. “This is nothing more than a snapshot of one of our policies, one of our procedures,” Cabral said after introducing the motion. “In particular the procurement bylaw, which ultimately we’re spending millions of taxpayer dollars every year — to look at it, to make sure we don’t have any gaps, we don’t have any issues with it. “If we do, then we need to look into it a little bit further and find out why they’re happening,” he added.
Cabral said a review would ensure “staff are adhering to the rules and the policies” and would afford council the opportunity to make sure there are no irregularities. “Blind faith is not something I have,” Cabral said. “Some folks had blind faith in the Titanic — it was unsinkable. We know how that turned out.” Garwood countered that it isn’t blind faith that directs his actions but rather trust — trust in the people the township has hired to protect its interests. “There’s a difference between blind faith and trust,” Garwood said. “Trust is a foundation. We have a professional working relationship with municipal staff, our senior staff and vice versa. “This is a four-year commitment that we have to work in collaboration, just as we are responsible to the community, staff are also responsible to the community,” he added. “I’ve never seen or witnessed anything that wasn’t transparent.” Cabral’s motion was passed by a 4-3 vote, with Cabral and Councillors Phil Fisher, Anita Moore and Danielle Alexander casting votes in favour of the motion.
The township’s director of finance will now do an audit/review of contract awards exceeding $75,001 that occurred during the previous 18 months. The report will identify each contract award by project number and include sufficient detail and timeline on each, as well as the approvals it received as it progressed through staff and council. Additionally, the report will detail the tendering process, bidding process, the bidders, and to whom the contract was ultimately awarded. It will be delivered to council in early December.
Cabral had originally asked for the report to be presented to council at the Nov. 6 meeting, but agreed to delay its delivery so the township’s finance and accounting team could remain focused on preparing the 2025 budget documents. Coun. Brad Thompson didn’t support the motion because he said the township already has a procurement policy in place that he said directly deals with the concerns Cabral noted. “For the last 18 months, every one of these bids or (request for quotes/request for proposals) you’re referring to have been embedded in our council meetings,” Thompson said. “We approved one tonight without any discussion,” added Thompson, referring to a ‘request for quote’ to replace the Elmvale Community Arena door, worth more than $100,000, that council passed moments earlier.
The township’s procurement policy directs that if the contract value is below $5,000, department heads may delegate authority to department employees to purchase the goods and services.. Only one quote is required. If the contract value is between $5,001 and $15,000, department heads are required to obtain a minimum of three informal quotes. If the value of the goods and services is between $15,001 and $75,000, an invitational competition will be used.
A public competition will be used when the value of the goods and services is $75,001 or above.
Springwater captures bit of history in almost every street name
By: Wayne Doyle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: BarrieToday.com
Sep. 23, 2024 – While many folks don’t give it much thought, the name of the street they live on could be a nod of respect to a fallen warrior, an important municipal leader, an athlete or a local titan of industry.
In Springwater Township, there’s a policy for naming roads in the municipality and it exists to ensure history isn’t entirely relegated to the back pages.
In Midhurst, for example, Finlay Mill Road was named in honour of Alex Finlay, who once owned a tree nursery and saw mill on Willow Creek in the village. According to Doug Herron, the township’s director of planning and development, the municipality’s street-naming policy celebrates history, with an emphasis on local. In the township’s road-naming policy, there are five existing criteria that are designed to help developers pick appropriate street names:
The surnames of local pioneer families in the immediate vicinity of the proposed development or existing road
The names of prominent former residents who contributed through community involvement/athletic/business acumen
The names of local servicemen who made the ultimate sacrifice
Any prominent geographic or other natural feature which makes a site unique or identifiable
A historic name which once identified the location.
“The vast majority of new street names are related to new plans for subdivisions,” said Herron. “For a new subdivision, a condition of draft plan approval is that road names are assigned. The road names need to be requested by the developer and meet the criteria of the township’s road-naming policy. “This condition needs to be met before registration of the development,” he added. On occasion, Herron said, the township will initiate a street-name change to reflect historical significance, such as S. E. Campbell Lane in Elmvale, the result of a council notice of motion.
“The rear laneway north of Queen Street West was renamed to honour S.E. Campbell,” Herron said. “Campbell has been a prominent, long-standing name in the Elmvale and Springwater community. Most recognizably, the Campbell family owned a hardware business on Queen Street West, which was established in the early 1900s and operated for over 75 years.”
According to Herron, when road names are submitted for approval, the names are circulated to internal departments, neighbouring municipalities, and county emergency medical services (EMS) and geographic information system (GIS) for review. The proposed road names are assessed for 911 criteria to ensure that names are not duplicated within the same municipality or close to the borders of neighbouring municipalities. “The 911 assessment will also vet against similar phonetically sounding street names,” Herron said. “The goal is to ensure emergency responses are directed to the correct address.” The road names are then presented to council for final approval. Herron said that while developers will typically submit street names that are culled from the local pioneer, prominent personality or local servicemen who died in battle categories, they will, on occasion, suggest names which reflect an historic, or commonly known feature or characteristic of the area where they are developing.
When the street names were submitted for the D. Hickling and Thompson Lands subdivisions, located northwest of the corner of Anne Street and Carson Road West, the suggested street names referenced wild flowers that are found across the province, including Bearberry Road, Daisy Street, Lupine Lane, Elderberry Road and Periwinkle Road.
Township council approved 23 road names based on Ontario wild flowers as they conform to the township’s road naming policy — a “prominent geographic or other natural features.”
Growth means new ward boundary lines being drawn in Springwater
By: Wayne Doyle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: BarrieToday.com
Oct 03, 2024 – Springwater residents who want to have a say on how the township’s ward boundaries are determined had that opportunity Oct. 8. The municipality is hosted two public open houses — at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. — next Tuesday at the Springwater Township Administration Centre, located at 2231 Nursery Rd., where members of the public can learn more about the ward boundary review that’s underway and provide input.
“The township is completing a ward boundary review to ensure that electoral wards are balanced and provide residents with equitable and responsive representation,” says a township news release announcing the open houses. “By occasionally reviewing and, if necessary, adjusting ward boundaries, the municipality aims to achieve a more balanced distribution of population among wards. “This helps to ensure that each councillor represents a similar number of constituents, thus promoting equitable representation and responsiveness to community needs,” the release adds.
At a May presentation to council on the ward boundary review process, Jack Ammendolia, managing partner at Watson and Associates Economists and lead on the review, said wards should have relatively equal populations. He said it’s generally accepted that variations of up to 25 per cent above or below the average size are considered reasonable and are consistent with legislated federal distribution provisions, precedents and past decisions and best practices in municipalities.
In Springwater, there are currently 17,506 eligible voters in the township, including: 2,973 in Ward 1, 3,204 in Ward 2, 3,674 in Ward 3, 4,357 in Ward 4, 3,298 in Ward 5. Those numbers are anticipated to change dramatically over the next 20 years as the township’s population is expected to grow to almost 50,000, according to another Watson and Associates report called Long-Term Fiscal Impact Assessment of Growth, 2021-2041.
Springwater’s current ward boundaries have been in place since 2014, but with the growth in Ward 4 and the population expected to rise in Ward 5, a boundary review was required prior to the 2026 municipal election. The justification report that accompanied the budget request said the review should take place in 2024, to ensure there’s adequate public consultation and ample time to meet legislative requirements. The review should take about a year to complete, which would ensure the project, council’s decision and any appeals are dealt with prior to the legislative deadline on Dec. 31, 2025. According to Ammendolia’s associate on the ward boundary review, Dr. Robert Williams, a public affairs consultant and municipal electoral systems expert who has conducted or advised on ward boundary and electoral system reviews in 30 Ontario municipalities, municipal councils don’t have many legislative requirements to meet.
“The Municipal Act authorizes a lower-tier municipality, like Springwater, to do basically three things,” Williams said at the May session. “It can change the size of its council as long as there are a minimum of five members. One of those members has to be the head of council.” He also said that decision cannot be appealed. “Second is how the council is elected, except for the head of council, who must be elected by general vote or an at-large system,” Williams added. Other members can be elected by an at-large system or by wards, or by some combination of the two. That decision cannot be appealed, either.
The last thing council can do is divide or redivide the municipality into wards or dissolve the existing wards. “A bylaw under that revision is open to appeal,” Williams said. “Any member of the community, or council also, I suppose, could appeal that bylaw and the Ontario Land Tribunal would be required to examine the bylaw to see if it can stand. “Our goal is to make sure no appeal is needed,” he added. Any appeals must be fully resolved by the Dec. 31, 2025 deadline in order for the ward boundary changes to take effect for the 2026 municipal election, if that’s the direction council wishes to go. At this week’s open house, Watson & Associates will have preliminary ward configurations for review and comment. Based on the input received during next week’s consultations, the consultants will draft final recommendations for council’s consideration in December.
For those unable to attend, materials such as optional ward boundary maps and reports will be made available online by clicking here.