5 Questions Collingwood should ask about Acting-CAO Ed Houghton

With all of the conflict arising from Collingwood Town Council’s August 27th vote to abandon the popular Central Park recreation plan, and go ahead with the purchase of two fabric structures and a change of location from the original plan, I have become interested in how this process came about, and it’s long term ramifications for the current and future residents of Collingwood.

One of the key players in this conflict, is the current “acting” CAO of the town, Ed Houghton

“A chief administrative officer (CAO) is responsible for administrative management of private, public or governmental corporations. In a municipal context, the title is usually used as an alternative for city manager or county executive.”- Wikipedia

I will admit, that prior to August 24th (the day I started following this story), I’d never heard of Mr. Houghton. I did not know of his spring appointment, nor of his history with Collus. I did not know of the previous CAO, nor the reasons she was in fact “previous”.

Since that day, I have read everything I can find on this situation, filed several FOI (Freedom of information) requests, researched many of the choices and statements Mr Houghton has made, and come up with a list of questions I believe the residents of Collingwood DESERVE to have answered. After all, he is the Senior Bureaucrat, the most powerful non-elected official in our town.

So here are some of the questions I would like to have answered.
———————————————————————————————————

1. Is Mr Houghton an employee of the town, or just of Collus?

I filed an FOI with the town, asking about this. The answer was “There is no contract for the Acting CAO, and he has NOT received or is receiving any remuneration, pay or salary for his role since appointed in April up to this date.”

So, he is working for free. Scratch working, he is in fact volunteering. I don’t know of any other way to take that answer.

On April 12, 2012, the town passed a by-law “appointing” Mr Houghton as Acting CAO. Not “hiring”, but appointing. See the by-law below

http://www.collingwood.ca/files/Apr%2012_12%20SP%20Council%20Agenda%20Pkg_Revised.pdf

This leads me to my next question…
——————————————————————————————————

 2. Why should we accept that Collingwood’s Acting CAO can not be held accountable by a contract?

What kind of exposure does this set up the town for, should something go wrong. Did Mr Houghton apply for this job? Was he recruited, and if so for what reasons? Without having a contract, or being an actual employee of the town, does he have to follow the town’s HR Policy Manuel? It has many important sections for employees on Employee Definitions, Behavior and Conduct in the Workplace, Confidentiality, Probation, Termination, Pay, Job Evaluation, Pension, Code of Ethical Behavior, Business Expenses, Proper Use of Email and Internet….just to name a few. As he is a volunteer, how can we be certain Mr Houghton is accountable for these.

Let me give you an example…

On June 14th of this year, Deputy Mayor Lloyd sent and email to Mr Houghton. Here is that email…

From: Rick Lloyd
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2012 5:41 PM
To: Ed Houghton
Cc: Sandra Cooper; .Town – Councillors; Marta Proctor; Marjory Leonard; Sara Almas; Larry Irwin
Subject: Centennial Pool / Outdoor Rink

Good afternoon Ed

I would like to request if at all possible to have a price for a building that would enclose the complete Centennial Pool.

A building structure that I would be interested in is the building produced by Sprung Building Products.

I know that they have representatives in Ontario and they would come and price a structure.

As well I would recommend to get a price as well for one of their structures to cover the Outdoor Rink.

Sprung Building systems are used for Ice Rinks, single, double and triple ice rinks as well Swimming Pools.

These Buildings are well insulated and have a Warranty I think of 30 years

Thanking you in advance

Rick Lloyd

Deputy Mayor

Town of Collingwood
 ———————————————————————————-
Now right or wrong, I am going to assume that the Deputy Mayor knew that the Town of Collingwood’s CODE OF ETHICS for Members of Council reads: “Members of Council will acknowledge that only Council as a whole has the capacity to direct staff members to carry out specific tasks of functions.”

So, by sending this email, the Deputy Mayor appears to have knowingly breached Council’s Code of Ethics. I think that if Mr Houghton had been concerned with ever being held accountable, he would have asked the Deputy Mayor to have council vote on requesting a staff report, before undertaking this project.

This also made me wonder that if DM Rick Lloyd requested this on June 14th, and council as a whole didn’t request a staff report until July 16th (which didn’t even name Sprung),  when was the decision that was voted for on August 27th, actually made.

With nothing in place to hold Mr Houghton accountable, how is that serving the residents of Collingwood?

A proper CAO contract would read….

– You shall be required to faithfully observe and implement all by-laws, policies and resolutions of the Council of the Town of Collingwood and all guidelines, administrative policies and procedures of the Town of Collingwood, as may be amended and implemented from time to time

– It is understood and agreed that a conflict of interest or the perception of one does not necessarily involve monetary gain, but may arise in a variety of ways.  You shall be responsible for recognizing and avoiding circumstances that may give rise to actual or perceived conflict of interest situations. If you perceive a  conflict of interest or a potential conflict of interest you shall notify the Mayor in writing as soon as you are aware of the conflict;

– Employment is subject to the Town of Collingwood’s Human Resources Policy and Procedural manual.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

3. In Councillor Keith Hull’s “20 questions”, a question reads in regards to the Sprung project, “Who is responsible for ensuring that due diligence is completed? Is it the Acting CAO?

The town’s 3 paragraph response to this question, does not even attempt to answer it. So, we are left asking whether Mr Houghton has, does  or will take any responsibility should this project have any problems. Quoting the August 28th E-B, “In his report, Houghton noted Sprung was the lone supplier of architectural membrane buildings.”  I quickly searched google and found…

http://www.norsemanstructures.com/industry-selector/sports-recreation.aspx

When I contacted them, their response was…

Thank you again for your interest and reaching out to us here at Norseman. I confirmed with my Manager Gerri Masciangelo that we were not approached about this project. Also, to confirm your items of concern;
1) we can provide a structure with liner and insulation – R30 value can be Achieved. We do this all of the time in projects in northern Alberta ( oil sands).
2) Norseman can provide complete turnkey service for a project – ranging from structure, foundations, installation, heating, electrical, plumbing and so on.
3) our products and services can be applied to LEED points and certification
4) we have world wide references on projects as big as mining projects as well as recreational facilities( English premier soccer, hockey arenas, tennis courts and more

 If needed we can schedule a meeting or presentation on Norseman. We would be more than happy to be allowed to participate on a bid. Please let me know how else we can help!

So, what IF Norseman or another company could have done it for millions less? What if Norseman or another company decided to pursue this legally?  It makes Councillor Hull’s question even more important. Who is responsible?

Now Mr Houghton in his research of covered structures, created a “Membrane Competition Spread Sheet“, which I was able to acquire after filing my first FOI. It listed 8 companies (including Sprung), and provided information such as references, guarantees, environmental program, verified independent engineer and more.

The thing is, I spoke to two other companies in this report AFTER Mr Houghton released it, and not only were many of his “facts” wrong, but neither of these companies had ever spoken to ANYONE from the town’s staff. This is verified in the email to me from Norseman above.

Now this made me curious, as to whether Mr Houghton’s ENTIRE spread sheet, had been made up “after the fact”, simply to appease the residents who were upset with the towns decision. So I thought I’d do the right thing, and ask Mr Houghton for the contacts he used with each of the 8 listed companies. On September 28th, I sent him the following..
———————————————–

Mr. Houghton;

 

    Could I please get the contact name/contact info for each of the 8 companies listed on your Membrane Competition Spread Sheets?

 

Sprung

Big Top

Calhoun

Yeadon

Megadome

Norseman

Bright Span

Rubb

 

Just the name, phone # and their title would be great.

 

Thank you in advance

 

Steve Berman

——————————————————-

 

I never heard back from Mr Houghton, but for some reason he felt the need to forward my email to Mayor Cooper. Later that morning I received this email from her.

 

Hello, Steve:

Staff time is very important as we move forward with the operation of entire municipality.

The answers to your ongoing questions are the following:

Your email this morning at 8:41 to Mr Houghton for the contact information of companies listed as Membrane Competition can be found on each of their websites.
 ——————————————————-
I replied;

I fully appreciate how important your staff’s time is, as I hope you can appreciate how important my time is to my family and my work as well. I was simply looking for the 8 names, saving me hours of having to call each company and try to locate the person staff spoke to, or any other steps needed to acquire those contacts.

 

    Would you please reconsider my request and have someone email me the 8 names, 1 for each company contacted, so that I may speak to the same person staff spoke to in each case.

—————————————————————-

Her final reply was;

 

Steve:
You have my reply.

Respectfully
Sandra

—————————————————————-

Transparent….no. Suspicious…yes. I have since submitted my request for the 8 contact names by FOI on October 12th. I am still waiting for a response.

——————————————————————–

4. When will Collingwood get a full time CAO?

 

On October 9th, I submitted an FOI asking for, “A documented summary as to how the Town plans to broadly promote the opportunity, recruit and select a replacement of the vacant CAO position, complete with timing for same”.

I was informed that no such item exists.

I also asked in the same FOI, “What are the educational requirements, skills and competencies that will be required of the new CAO”

I was again informed that no such item exists.

On October 17th, I found the answer to “When will Collingwood get a full time CAO”. Deputy Mayor Lloyd wrote and email that has been made public, stating…

Personally I believe that Mr. Houghton is one of the best CAO,s that the Town has had to date and I for one will be recommending that Mr. Houghton becomes the Town of Collingwood’s permanent CAO .So to answer your question ,we have a permanent CAO in Mr. Houghton.

 Hmmm. Cool hiring process.  That’s ok. This doesn’t seem right to me either 🙂

—————————————————————————————————–

 

5. Is Ed Houghton the right choice for CAO of Collingwood?

  

Well. lets look at some things that have happened in the little over 6 months since he’s had the job

 

–  Mr Houghton stated categorically at the August 27 meeting that the flood plain aspect was not an issue. This appears not to be the case and an objection has been raised to the location of the arena by local engineer Mark Palmer.

 

– In response to Keith Hull’s question why there was no contingency included in the Sprung contracts, Mr Houghton stated none is required as it is a fixed price contract.  But the Town has now opted to include a therapeutic pool with an additional cost, has opted for a 2 tone fabric at Central Park with an additional cost, has had to raise the elevation of the arena (presumably because of the flood plain issue) by 2 ft. requiring a variance and additional cost. In fact it is quite clear from the answers to my FOI requests that the Town has very little firm information about what the facilities will ultimately look like, so there may be a huge issue with additional costs. This should have been covered off with a contingency fee allowance.

 

– Mr Houghton said that the YMCA had abandoned the partnership with the town. This is false and there is posted correspondence from the YMCA on the Friends of Central Park website for people to read that verifies this.

 

– Mr Houghton said that the money to refurbish the Eddie Bush arena is from a Federal Grant. If fact, the Town has applied for a grant of $1 million to cover a portion of the projected costs of $3 to 4 million. We have never heard where the other $2 million is coming from.

 

– Mr Houghton has said that Council tried to “respect” the substance of the Steering Committee Report and recommendations. The town is now building or refurbishing 3 separate stand alone facilities, 1 of which is 45 years old and another that is 65 years old.  The Town is not creating a single multi-purpose recreation centre to be a hub for our community. These facilities do not address the real needs of our community and specifically the needs of the very young and older population. This does nothing to address the needs of our disenfranchised or at risk youth.

 

–  Mr Houghton made a big production of how firm the Town’s operating cost projections were at the August 27 Council meeting. His admissions at the public meeting, which were corroborated by David Grass of the YMCA, show that these numbers are absolute fiction and the town has no idea.  Those costs will likely be $400,000 plus per year.

 

– a dispute about following the towns procurement policy in regards to his recommendations

 

– a protest outside of Town Hall in regards to his recommendations

 

– a march to Town Hall in regards to his recommendations

 

– a public meeting with little else other than outrage in regards to his recommendations

 

– a TV appearance by the Friends of Central Park, that had the clear up the facts in regards to his recommendations

——————————————————————————————————

 

There is actually a sixth question, but it is mine alone. My question is, why do I have to be the one asking these questions? Why is the local media not doing it for us? I have read nothing but articles and comments by the press lauding the work Mr Houghton has done. The Enterprise Bulletin took a poll in April, asking if people agreed with the choice of Mr Houghton for the job. 65% of the people said NO, but the rest of the article was spent belittling their votes. Maybe the press knows something we don’t, but the residents of this town have a RIGHT to know the answers to these 5 questions, and both council and the press have FAILED them in this.

 Take it easy