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QUESTION ADDRESSED TO MORINVILLE MAYORAL CANDIDATES
We have seen so many changes at the administration level in the town office. Our costs for staffing have increased dramatically. You have retained the services of transitional solutions to solve or add to this problem. We have had to pay horrendous costs associated with this company. The services they provide could easily be provided by our current town manager. As members of our current council we place our trust in you to look after our interests, We have had two town Managers replaced, most if not all of the town staff have either been replaced or resigned. We have seen more studies done during your terms than ever before. Our costs associated with these reviews and the costs associated in replacing these employees have been incredible. Transitional solutions have been a costly drain in our pocket books. We are not St. Albert and can not afford to keep flushing money down the drain.
If you are elected mayor what will you do to wean us off the involvement of this company?
Can you tell the people of Morinville the actual costs to date and do they still work for us?
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Good afternoon. You are certainly well versed in the operations of the Town Administration. Transitional Solutions has provided excellent service to the Town of Morinville. We have engaged them to provide interim CAO services and to conduct CAO searches. Unfortunately, we had to go through that exercise twice. We have also had Transitional Solutions perform the community engagement process for our new Municipal Sustainablilty Plan.
The only current involvement they have with the Town is the provision of a part time interim manager of our Protective Services department. This contract is set to expire at the end of the year and there is no intention to extend it as the work will be complete. The individual currently assigned to the Town has created tremedous value through the complete revamp of our protective services department with a focus on by law enforcement. Under her guidance, we have transitioned from bylaw officers to community Peace Officers.
This change has greatly increased the scope of work these individuals can perform in providing a safe community for us to raise our families. This also necessitated the complete rewrite of a number of our previous by-laws and we have reviewed them all in this area. She has also created a brand new “Standard Operating Procedures” manual that governs the way that department responds to calls. Something we have not had in the past. Again, very intense work that requires very specialized knowledge and experience. Not something we would expect of a CAO. Past or present.
I fully support the reason our CAO takes this approach as I also believe we should hire professionals with the neccesary skill sets to develop the internal processes, policies while creating the expertise in house. Once the large body of research and development work is complete, then we can hire someone to “manage” the department on a go forward basis. The skill sets required to manage a department are considerably different than those needed to develop the policies and procedures.
Quite frankly, at the begining we did not know what that department could, should or would look like at the end of the day. With input from the community and the RCMP, the work performed by Transitional Solutions has created a leading edge Peace Officer program that is sure to be emulated by other Municiplaities across the Province.
I do not have the cost of Transitional Solutions in hand. This information is available in our audited financial statements from prior years. Please feel free to stop by the Town Office at your convenience to pick up a copy as these are public documents.
It is my opinion that Transitional Solutions has provided tremendous service and value to our community. Should the need arise in the future, I would certainly hope they will submit a response to any RFP we may have in areas of their expertise.
Lloyd
Thank you for the questions and your concerns.
Your concern on Transitional Solutions and any other consultant that provides a service to the Town of Morinville I believe is, “did we get our money worth”?
Did Transitional Solutions do what their agreement/contract with us stated? I believe Yes. Was it always a great success? No. With many companies out there, you are always getting their point of view and not always what you would like to see in your own back yard.
As for Transitional Solutions working for our Town in the future – it will all depend on what they have to provide and at what cost.
The money we pay for this type of companies is always high. I don’t have the specific number as all consultant fees are put under one budget line, so you only see the whole total and not of the individual costs of a contract.
I believe we should be doing more due-diligent on future “Request for Proposal” by writing them with information on what we need for the project and only expect changes that are within the budget.
We only need to use these type of businesses when there is no expertise on our staff and that it is needed for the good of Morinville, and not just nice to have.
Thank you.