A motion at county council to consider hiring an auditor general to review its operations died on the floor after councillor Lou Maieron failed to garner support from any of his fellow councillors.
Maieron moved a slightly changed motion from one he had previously given notice of in November.
In his revised motion, Maieron asked “that staff be directed to investigate the practicality, reasonableness and costs of proceeding with a County of Wellington operational review. Also determine the practicality, reasonableness and cost of appointing an Auditor General to perform same and report back to county council.”
The vote was taken at the Jan. 30 county council meeting.
Maieron told the Advertiser this week that he intentionally “watered down” his original motion in a bid to garner some support among councillors. He said prior to the vote he had received some verbal support, but when the motion came before council support had dissipated.
“Since amalgamation, I don’t think the county has looked at an operational review,” Maieron told council at its Jan. 30 monthly meeting.
“An operational review judges how well a corporation is doing. I would suggest the county does things very well and suggest we could do better. I don’t think we should have anything to worry about.”
However councillors seemed satisfied with the way the county is operating and supportive of the work done by county auditors, with no votes cast in favour of Maieron’s motion.
“I didn’t think I’d have the vote, but I didn’t think I’d be left alone,” Maieron said of the final outcome.
Warden Chris White told the Advertiser on Monday that he was not prepared to support the motion due to the possible cost of having a review done.
White questioned whether it would achieve anything to have an outside source review spending when county staff are competent to handle spending within their departments, which is then presented to county committees before eventually coming to council.
Maieron maintains that since he was first elected to county council in 2003, there has been a “60-plus per cent increase in the tax levy.”
White said he could support Maieron’s motion if it dealt with a review of a department and not the entire county operation.
He suggested Maieron convince the planning committee headed by the Erin mayor to conduct a review of its operations and spending. White said a department review could show what costs might be involved on a larger scale.
