Effort underway by council to reform NPCA board
Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn’s efforts to reform Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s board of directors hit another snag last Thursday when regional council ran out of time to hear his motion.
The motion, if it had passed, would establish a formal process for appointments to the NPCA board that puts citizens first in line.
Council spent hours at its last meeting behind closed doors dealing with the CAO contract controversy. When councillors emerged there was about 40 minutes left before curfew, and not enough time to finish all the agenda items.
“The board members should have the skills and abilities to do the work of the NPCA board, and the proposal was to put citizens first,” Augustyn said. “Instead we talked about ourselves a lot tonight and the shenanigans that have been going on here.
“I will continue to focus on this. A majority of councils have already recommended this. I think it is a change that we need to make for the transformation of the NPCA.”
Under Augustyn’s motion, after October’s election, each of Niagara’s 12 municipalities would publicly advertise and make recommendations for the appointment of a qualified and independent citizen with appropriate skills and expertise.
The suggestion has been made before. Will it be different this time?
“The quick answer is the auditor general has intensified governance as a huge issue at the NPCA,” Augustyn said. “We need to fix this. We need to change it and give the power to folks in the community that will reform the NPCA.”
Pelham council raised the issue in 2017, which coincided with regional councillors putting the town’s finances under the microscope. The machinations put the mayor in the crosshairs.
“It cost the town a lot of money but we proved them wrong on all counts, and, on the other hand, the auditor general’s report
showed we were right with what we were saying about the NPCA for a long time.
“Now is time to turn it over to citizens to make it right.
“We need to clean this up for the Niagara Peninsula and our reputation. It doesn’t help when people are looking from elsewhere for a place to invest, and they see multiple investigations.”