Archive

Treasurer vindicated in BDO report, public session tonight

April 27, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Mike Pickford

It has been another controversial week in Orangeville as the community continues to debate the merits of keeping the Orangeville Police Service or transitioning to a potentially cheaper Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) service model.

The issue was once again raised at Town Council this past Monday as the municipality received its requested independent analysis on the financial figures relating to police costs presented by Treasurer Marc Villeneuve on April 3, where he concluded that a switch to OPP could eventually save local taxpayers $4.5 million a year.

That report was met with skepticism by many of those in attendance that night, with numerous other individuals in the community taking aim at Mr. Villeneuve for what they perceived as bias towards the OPP’s new funding model. Those perceptions, however, were put to rest Monday when representatives of BDO Canada LLP supported the Treasurer’s numbers.

“Overall, we comment that the Treasurer did a tremendous amount of work in preparing the financial analysis presented to council. His analysis was extensive. He gathered data from various sources, spoke to other municipalities, validated his assumptions and incorporated contingencies. Based upon our review his assumptions were valid and analysis thorough,” the BDO advisers wrote in their report to council.

“The financial analysis presented indicates that policing services for the Town of Orangeville will cost the Town much less under the OPP bill model,” the report continued.

But the report stopped short of confirming some numbers provided by Mr. Villenueve, such as the projected annual savings following the initial three-year transitional contract between the municipality and the OPP, stating that a projection is simply “future-oriented financial information prepared using assumptions.”

The report explained that “since a financial forecast or projection is based on assumptions regarding future events, actual results will vary from those forecast or projected and the variations may be material.”

Those comments follow hot on the heels of a presentation made to the Orangeville Police Services Board on April 18, where Maurice Hodgson, a corporate consultant hired by the Orangeville Police Association, said the Treasurer’s document presented to council was “found to be flawed with errors and omissions and, more specifically, with misleading numbers.”

Mr. Hodgson, a retired police officer with no formal education in accounting, went on to question the integrity and credibility of Mr. Villeneuve’s analysis, saying further assistance should be sought from a “more experienced person with all the necessary skills and abilities” at the earliest opportunity.

Town CAO Ed Brennan immediately reaffirmed his support for the Treasurer’s police costing analysis in a release distributed to local media and most councillors followed suit on Monday with Scott Wilson, Don Kidd, Gail Campbell and Sylvia Bradley staunchly defending Mr. Villeneuve.

“I was disturbed by what I believed to be the antagonistic tone of the presentation,” said Coun. Campbell, who was in attendance at the PSB meeting as one of the Town’s sitting representatives. “To me, the speaker was personally disrespectful to our Treasurer of the Town of Orangeville. I was appalled that a delegate speaker could appear to personally challenge the professional qualifications and professional behaviour of a respected senior manager of Orangeville’s administrative team.”

Coun. Bradley echoed those sentiments, saying she too was appalled to see a “consultant that has no expertize in accounting” attempt to discredit a professional with more than 12 years of accounting experience. “I find it highly disgusting that they did that.”

Sgt. Doug Fry, the local police association’s president, was also in attendance at Monday’s council meeting and he came in for some heavy criticism from some members of council for his decision to hire Mr. Hodgson as a consultant, but he wasn’t afraid to defend his decision when pushed to do so.

“Mr. Hodgson is a very experienced individual with an impressive resumé. He has extensive consulting experience for several police (bodies and associations) across the province… How the information was presented maybe didn’t sit well with everybody, but that’s the way it went,” Sgt. Fry said. “The document from the association’s consultant and the BDO OPP Costing Advisory Report that we’ve had the opportunity to read, both point to a lack of factual basis to justify a $4.5 million cost-saving projection.”

He added, “With that said, we hope council will look seriously at getting an independent review of this before they make a decision.”

A full independent review may not be necessary for council as many of the sitting members are waiting with baited breath on the result of tonight’s highly anticipated public information session at Orangeville District Secondary School. Kicking off at 7 p.m., local residents will for the first time be afforded the opportunity to pose questions to representatives of both the OPS and OPP.

While it’s no secret that Mayor Jeremy Williams has been supportive of the OPS in recent months, he has maintained that the public’s voice is the most important as the municipality seeks to make a decision regarding the future of its policing services.

“This public information session will be the last opportunity for people to weigh in because we will be making a decision after that,” Mayor Williams told the Citizen earlier this month. “I’m really wanting to do what most of Orangeville wants to do. That’s my role, that’s my job as Mayor. Right now, based on the input I’ve heard from residents and some of the things I’ve heard at council over the past few meetings, I will be supporting our Orangeville Police Service.”

Readers Comments (0)