Strathroy-Caradoc Council this week had a healthy debate on a motion brought forward by Ward 2 Councillor Brian Derbyshire that a forensic audit on the last 3 years of the municipality’s financials be conducted. Ward two Councillor Greg Willsie proposed a revision to the motion by introducing two actions.
First, for the Municipality to release statements from the last three years showing budgeted versus actuals for all operational and capital projects making this standard practice moving forward.
Secondly, to bring on a third party to conduct a review of the Municipality’s spending allocation on Capital and Operations to see if spending patterns are inline with other successful municipalities.
CAO Trisha McKibbin commented in relation to financial statements from previous years, she told council that those details are in budget draft documents of previous years of budget and actuals.
Councillor Willsie responded to the CAO’s comments stating that every document that Council received in previous budgets did not include previous capital projects and over or under budgets, they only included operations.
Ward one Councillor Steve Pelkman did not hesitate to express his displeasure in the motion as a whole.
In the end Council denied the motion on a recorded vote total of 6-3 with Councillors Derbyshire, Willsie and Pammer being the three votes for the motion.
written by: C. Soares