Councilor Jason Legris would preside over Thursday night's special meeting at Town Hall, looking over the Ma-te-Way Expansion's Third Party Review
A marathon meeting of Town Council broke down the numerous problems that burned Renfrew on its Ma-te-Way Expansion project, including constant breakdown in communications between parties, an unrealistic budget, notable overreach by certain staff, and a toxic environment that caused adversity along the way.
Tammy Carruthers and John Skorobohacz from WSCS Consulting joined council on Thursday afternoon following a months-long audit of the major capital project, highlighting a number of unusual processes that plagued the process dating as far back as 2012.
Among the major themes is a severe lack of accountability and transparency that would break the town’s procedural by-law, such as when tenders and requests for proposals were not analyzed or evaluated properly and oftentimes not shared with or approved by council, or a notable lack of written reports made to the committee and council at the time.
Another issue stems from the previous council’s reluctance to invest in a full-time project manager, instead handing it to the then Director of Parks and Recreation.
The report notes that “there were instances where questions about the project were not welcome and there was no ability for peers to offer suggestions or provide advice” under the senior management model of delegated authority that was in place at the time.
When other town staff raised red flags about the project, including those who had prior experience with major construction in Renfrew, the senior management dismissed the matter as rivalry between two competing members of staff.
The report also notes that the former director had a number of business interests while employed with the town and built personal relationships with vendors, “which impacted both competition and pricing.”
There were also a number of competing interest groups, such as the Aquatic Committee, Second Ice Pad Committee, and Tennis Club, who were all working towards ensuring their own addition to Ma-te-Way was part of the process.
However, the council struggled to articulate nor get complete approval for the vision of Ma-te-Way, as evidenced when the ‘conceptual design’ for a future aquatic centre that was supported at a number of open house events suddenly disappeared from the planning.
Councilor John McDonald would also note that he felt that the Ma-te-Way Expansion was a “want” when the town had two notable “needs” at the time in the fire hall and town garage.
When asked for their opinion on why the MAC was able to jump the queue, Skorobohacz suggested that chasing grant money without due diligence and an “abject failure on the part of council” to prioritize what it wanted allowed an ad hoc committee to make decisions that allowed the project to creep forward.
When asked to offer direction to concerned residents, Chief Administrative Officer Rob Tremblay notes that the priority for him and the clerk’s office is to rebuild trust with the community by committing to enacting the recommendations made in the third-party review, which are causing what he described as “wide spread change” at all levels of the organization.
Councilor Andrew Dick would conclude the meeting with optimism about that change, calling the review the first step towards better accountability and transparency.
He added a commitment to the public that “this council will hold people accountable when mistakes happen; we will ask the tough questions.”
(written by Kasey Egan)