Pelham mitigating damage while awaiting Region response
Pelham is taking matters into its own hands to clear the record regarding its finances, while awaiting Niagara Region’s response to a town council motion.
After a presentation by a KPMG forensic auditor indicated that nothing was out of order regarding the town’s debt or its transactions related to east Fonthill development, Pelham councillors voted Dec. 4 to call on regional council to rescind its Nov. 16 motion that included informing the town’s creditors about financial concerns regional councillors had.
But Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn said the town’s motion have the air cleared was not considered by regional council at last week’s meeting.
“I wasn’t even on the agenda, despite all those people being there,” he said, referring to people who were in attendance at the regional council meeting hoping to hear the discussion about Pelham council’s request.
“I was hoping that it would be dealt with and the Region would reverse its decision,” Augustyn said.
While he doesn’t know when it will be before regional council for consideration, in the meantime he said the town has taken it upon itself to inform its creditor — Infrastructure Ontario — that its finances are in order.
“Really, we’re just concerned about Infrastructure Ontario that they know what the results of the KPMG presentation were,” Augustyn said, adding “council made sure our resolution was sent to them.”
“There will be reasonable people, I’m sure, looking at this … We hope that they’re not going to rush to judgment.”
Although the Region’s Nov. 16 motion originated at an audit committee meeting held two days earlier, Augustyn said the committee won’t be in a position to discuss it until after a two-thirds majority of regional council votes to reconsider it.
Augustyn called it “frustrating” that despite efforts to address concerns, the town continues to face accusations.
“Now these folks still don’t believe it. I don’t know what they believe or don’t believe,” he said. “But I put my faith in a professional accounting firm that’s saying there’s no problem. There are green check marks next to what we’ve done.”
He said there are other issues in Niagara that need to be dealt with, other than rehashing concerns that have already been addressed by a third-party accounting firm.