Councillors here want to be kept up to date on cost overruns on major capital projects sooner rather than later.
On Nov. 15, Mayor Lou Maieron offered a motion based on concerns previously voiced by councillor Josie Wintersinger in a letter for council’s information. That letter outlined concerns about getting information on the Hillsburgh fire hall project.
Maieron offered a motion in hopes of garnering council’s support. His concern involved recent capital projects going significantly over budget – combined with a decision by council not to get regular reports.
“As a new councillor, I’d like to understand how three capital projects went over budget and how they were initially under-budgetted for,” he said.
He also asked who is responsible and how the project was tracked. “Did council authorize the overages?”
Councillor Barb Tocher recommended the mayor meet with staff first, to get a better understanding of what happened – and then bring concerns to council.
Maieron thanked Tocher, but said he talked to some of the individuals who were councillors at the time. He said none recalled seeing reports as the projects went over, but rather getting the information at the end “when it was what it was.”
Tocher said once staff became aware of the issues or problems that required additional cash, they brought it to council.
“Some of [the projects] were over budget only because of the fact that all of the tenders came in hugely over the amounts estimated – they were not over budget – the tenders came in higher than anticipated.”
Maieron said he would consider her advice, but he remained concerned because the extra was paid for with municipal dollars.
Town manager Lisa Hass said even when there is cost sharing with other levels of government, that support does not increase because the tenders are over the estimates.
“And council was fully aware of that, and authorized it,” Tocher said.
She said it had to, or the tenders would not have been approved.
Councillor John Brennan disagreed council voted not to get reports on capital projects. “I believe what we voted on was not to request a specific report on the fire hall. At the time, the intent was to have a committee of the whole meeting at the end of the month, at which point council members would have received the update.”
Hass said the fire chief is fully prepared to have a report for council.
Tocher added the idea was council anticipated receiving reports on major projects from every committee – not just the fire committee.
Maieron said the issue caused him some loss of sleep.
Wintersinger said her concern with the fire hall was because it was at council at the time.
Tocher said she voted against the original motion because she did not want the reports “to be just about the fire hall.”
Councillor Deb Callaghan said her vote against the fire hall report was because she believed council was moving to the committee of the whole project, and that it would be dealt with at that time.
Wintersinger said it is fine to have verbal reports, but she still wants something in writing. “If it’s written down, there’s no question.”
Callaghan said written reports could be supplied at those meetings.
Maieron agreed there should be reports on such projects. He said when costs go over, people head to council with questions, and one of the first people they contact is the mayor. He added the reports do not have to be complex, and could be a simple one page document.
