A parable

Opinion

A Shire Hall story

The simple farmer couldn’t keep livestock on his land. Year after year he suffered losses as the animals simply wandered off, or were eaten by predators. The farmer didn’t think much about it. It was just the way things had always been on this rather sad and dilapidated farm.

Then the farmer hired a farmhand. The farmhand looked around, a bit puzzled by the circumstances, and suggested that perhaps the farmer erect some fences—to keep the cattle on the property and predators out.

The farmhand was taken aback by the response from the farmer. Rather than gratitude for the practical advice, the farmer turned on the hand, angrily accusing him of overstepping his duties and attempting to grab control of the herd.

“It’s important for me to keep control,” said the farmer.

The farmhand walked away shaking his head. And on the farm, things went back to the way they had always been.

                                    —

This story, in an overly simplified manner, describes the odd debate occurring these past few weeks over the County’s new purchasing rules. Since the County was amalgamated, staff and department bought things—paper, back hoes, bridges, sewage plants—based mostly on what had been done before. When they hadn’t done it before—they hired consultants to buy it for them.

What rules existed, were cumbersome and often contradicted the goals of the municipality. For example, County folks who had historically cleared snow from the arena parking lot or cut grass at the local park (and had done so on a very modest rate) were upon amalgamation, shut out of the opportunity to continue to do this work because they lacked the resources to post a hefty performance bond or the administration folks to complete the reams of paperwork required in the tendering and request for proposal documentation.

When the new finance chief Susan Turnbull arrived a couple years ago—she took initial steps to clean up what was by then a huge and complicated mess. And then when the new head administrator Merlin Dewing came aboard he set about finishing the job.

His new purchasing rules and structure proposes a significant number of common sense fixes to the wobbly system in place until recently. But some councillors see the CAO as taking control of matters they believe it is their job to control. Except they weren’t controlling it. Never have.

Currently when a project—say a road repair—runs over budget the manager or department head simply reaches into another budget to pay for the over run. They decided themselves either didn’t do the work anticipated by the other budget or overspent their allotment. They would simply go to council the next year and ask for more.

Dewing proposes that in such cases any cost overruns will now be reported to council and the decision to about where to find the additional resources would come to senior management for approval.

But hang on say some councillors—the CAO is taking too much control. Council should approve such reallocation of funds they insist with furrowed brow.

To this, Dewing patiently observes that council already possesses the ability to overturn any staff decision and redirect funds as it sees fit. He reminds them—to little avail—that he is proposing safeguards to taxpayer funds—that don’t exist currently.

But some councillors are deaf to these explanations.

At least two of the councillors mounting their high horses at Tuesday night’s council meeting, demanding they should be in control, were sitting in the same chairs in council’s past approving horrifically stupid ideas like the accelerated roads plan or the comically notorious public works budgets which featured miscellaneous budgets within miscellaneous budgets.

There was no control and no accountability. They were in the dark. Now when someone is suggesting they apply some rigour to their way of doing business—they indignantly insist they are in control. It is absurd theatre at times at Shire Hall.

Since Turnbull, James Hepburn and Dewing have arrived, the business of the County has advanced by decades. Reporting of financial performance and budgets is clear and accessible. For the first time since amalgamation—proposed budgets are compared with actual performance in previous years.

These are simple things—things most organizations managing $60 million a year do as a matter of common practice. Turnbull, Hepburn and Dewing have moved the County closer to the modern era.

Some of the County’s councillors ought to direct their energies to assisting in cleaning up the messes that they were part of creating. At the very least—they must stop hindering those who do.

N#]98″v52