- by Teresa Carey…
The reeve of the RM of Armstrong has sounded the alarm bell about his council’s decision to rescind a recently approved purchasing policy, a policy which is now required to be put in place by all municipalities under the Province of Manitoba’s Municipal Act.
“The province has said that all municipalities must have a purchasing and procurement policy in place. We had that, now we don’t,” Reeve Garry Wasylowski said in a telephone interview on Jan 14.
The purchasing policy, which sets out the rules by which the municipality shall make expenditures, for example, in such areas as the awarding of contracts for public works projects, was written up in the fall of 2011.
At the RM of Armstrong’s Dec. 11 regular meeting, Councilor Les Marchak provided written notice to reverse or rescind resolution #246/11, the municipality’s purchasing policy. This motion was brought forward at the following council meeting, held on Jan. 8.
According to council meeting minutes, Reeve Garry Wasylowski stated that a vote to reverse or rescind the purchasing policy will be a contravention of the Municipal Act.
Regardless, four of the five council members, Les Marchak, Diane Woychycshyn, Carol Lavallee, and Allen Evanchyshin, all voted in favour of rescinding the policy, while only the newest councilor, Allen Pfrimmer, along with Reeve Wasylowski, voted against doing so.
“You can always amend your policies,” said Wasylowski. “They didn’t amend. They decided to rescind. I don’t think it’s good practice to ignore the Municipal Act.”
“It makes you wonder if they want to follow the rules,” he added.
Wasylowski is frustrated by what he describes as different members of council wanting to operate independently of council.
“Under the Municipal Act, the council runs the municipalities. The philosophy here is that the councilors run their wards and they don’t have to be responsible to council,” he said.
Wasylowski said that, among other things, operating a municipality in such a manner is a waste of money, with supplies such as culverts being ordered one at a time versus in larger quantities to serve other projects on the go.
In addition, with members of council going it alone, it makes planning and costing out public works projects for the whole municipality more problematic, and ends up costing more in the long run, Wasylowski explained. He raised the question of why the RM even hired a surveyor to oversee public works proposals, which cost the municipality about $8,000 in 2012.
“This council has not been the most amicable that there is. We get along, but certainly there are issues,” Wasylowski said.
“I’m now the “bad” person for bringing up that stuff, [but] the public needs to know what’s going on.”
Armstrong’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), John Livingstone, meanwhile has given notice to council that under S127 (1) (f) and S128 (1) of the Municipal Act due to Council’s Contravention of the Municipal Act.S251.1. that the contravention must be rectified.
Council has therefore scheduled another meeting for Jan. 15 in order to discuss this matter further. The earliest a new purchasing policy can be put in place would be at the next council meeting in February.
Stay tuned for next week’s Interlake Enterprise for more details on this story.
