NPCA audit process proceeds after tense meeting
Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority is moving ahead with a review of its operations after a tense, and sometimes testy, special board meeting Wednesday.
Councillors approved sending out a detailed 32-page request for proposals (RFP) asking independent accounting firms to begin an operational review and performance assessment of the agency from 2011 to 2016.
Three board members — Welland Mayor Frank Campion, Niagara-onthe-Lake Lord Mayor Pat Darte and Bill Hodgson, a regional councillor representing Lincoln — voted against sending out the RFP in its proposed form.
Hodgson made the original motion at a meeting on Jan. 18 calling for an audit. He was concerned the request for proposal isn’t following closely enough the intent of his original motion.
“There is a point in the RFP that says the consultant will attempt to be as independent as possible,” Hodgson said. “For me, that is code for, ‘We know who you report to — and don’t forget that.’”
“It cuts to the whole commitment we made to the community to have an independent, arm’s-length, thirdparty review.”
Hodgson said the results should go to everyone, not a small group of councillors and staff. He didn’t want to see the information vetted in advance.
The authority’s acting CAO, Peter Graham, along with Jason Burgess, Niagara Region’s director of procurement and strategic acquisitions, and Tina Iacoe, procurement manager for the City of Hamilton, collaborated on the request for proposals. Burgess and Iacoe are experts in procurement and not affiliated with the authority.
Haldimand County was given an opportunity to participate in the process but turned down the offer, saying it couldn’t spare the staff.
“We have a bit of a crisis of confidence in the community and public trust,” Hodgson said. “We don’t want to repeat all of this again. If we are going to rebuild public trust, we are going to have to start to answer questions openly and accept an independent assessment of what some of the issues are. I am quite concerned that we have weaseled-down the language.” That drew a rebuke. “I am going to call the pejorative language out of order, Mr. Hodgson,” said board chair Sandy Annunziata, a regional councillor from Fort Erie, of use of the word “weaseled.”
“There are people responsible for this document that aren’ t in this room to defend themselves,” he said.
Hodgson immediately withdrew the reference.
“I am just trying to say it has been reduced somewhat or watered down ,” Hodgson said. “I didn’t mean to offend anybody.”
“None of us have been involved in this process, except Mr. Graham,” Annunziata said. “If you would like to address those comments to Mr. Graham, maybe he can answer some of your concerns.”
Hodgson asked Graham to clarify to whom the independent third-party consultant would report.
“There is a steering committee that has been set up with myself and the rest of the senior management team,” Graham said.
Hodgson countered, “Does that not just scream for potential conflicts of interest?”
At that point, protestors in the gallery began catcalling and yelling at the board members.
Board member Doug Joyner, the mayor of West Lincoln, raised a point of order, noting “Mr. Chair, I do not want anybody in the gallery screaming out anything again.” He went on to threaten to eject a member of the public.
An nun zia ta reminded the gallery to maintain decorum.
“We are not accepting any comment from the gallery, especially ones shouted out,” he said. “Please be respectful of the process.”
“I take offence that my personal integrity is being called into question,” an emotional Graham said. “The motion was put forward specifically mentioning the acting CAO.
“I am going to be completely honest about fulfilling this role, and the obligations in the motion that member Hodgson put forward. I have every intent to do that.
“To even intimate that somehow, whatever the independent third-party consultant comes up with won’t find its way to you, is an insult.
“I will not allow that to happen,” Graham said.
“Whatever is found is going to come to you — good, bad, ugly — I don’t care. I just want this to be done. That’s part of the reason I have been so aggressive in moving it forward.
“I apologize for the emotion — but this is getting to me. Let’s move forward. Please don’t question my integrity. I will defend it vehemently. I am part of a team, and I will ensure it is done properly.”
Campion said he didn’t support the request for proposal in its present form.
He wondered why the conservation authority hadn’t accepted an offer, made in early January by Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk to conduct the review.
Annunziata has said the door remains open for the auditor general to step in further down the road. Prior to the meeting, Well and NDP MPP Cindy Forster sent an open letter to the NPCA in which she also questioned the decision to not take Lysyk up on her offer.
“At the end of the day, this is taxpayers’ money,” Forster said in an interview. “Now we are putting this on the backs of the property taxpayers, as opposed to the auditor general’s budget.”
The authority has set aside $150,000 for the audit and the first phase is expected to be completed by June 15. A decision on whether to proceed to a second, deeper phase, is scheduled to be made on June 30.
The call for an audit has been growing since a group of activists, led by Ed Smith, distributed a citizen-generated report titled A Call for Accountability at the NPCA, in the fall. The report is unsigned, and questions the agency’s practices and possible conflicts of interest.
Eight Niagara municipal councils, including St. Catharines, Pelham, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Port Colborne, Thorold, Welland, Wainfleet and Niagara Falls have joined in the call for an audit, as well as Hamilton.
All four Niagara members of provincial parliament — Forster and fellow party member Wayne Gates, Liberal Jim Bradley and Progressive Conservative Sam Oosterhoff — also called for an audit.
In December, the conservation authority and its former CAO, Carmen D’Angelo, now CAO of Niagara Region, filed a defamation lawsuit against Smith for distributing the report. Both the NPCA and D’Angelo are seeking $100,000 from Smith.