Municipality of County Warden Ron Baillie said Wednesday that request for proposals for a governance study is on the agenda for a shared services meeting Sept. 9.
Mayors and the warden, along with each CAO, usually attend the shared services meetings and since all the players involved will be in attendance, governance will be discussed.
"We still hope to have the request for proposals out in September," he said. "We are not changing the terms of reference, but we are going ask for the ones in the report to be broken down for costs."
For example, Baillie said, policing will be included in the request for proposals, but if it is going to eat up a large portion of the money set aside to do the study, chances are it won't be included in the final draft. He said the budget for the study remains the same.
In March, all of the local municipal units agreed to put in their $25,000 share for the study.
The province had originally agreed to give the municipalities $100,000 to put towards the study, but the councils were concerned the criteria proposed by the province wouldn't cover the areas that needed to be studied.
The municipalities counter-offered with new guidelines and a request for more funding in order to complete it. The province answered their request by stating it would pay 50 per cent of the cost of the study, up to $150,000. If the study's cost comes in less than $300,000, then any unused money will be returned to the province.
He admits the governance study has not been a priority for many councils over the summer because municipal leaders have been spending the last few months working out the details surrounding the closing of Pictou County Shared Services.
However, the governance study continues to be a topic of interest for Westville town council. During the Monday meeting, Coun. Lennie White asked for an update on the request for proposals.
"We all agreed to it in March, yet it continues to sit and we are approaching September," he said.
White questioned why the governance study has been discussed in a mayors and warden meeting in the past, but Westville councilors know little about what takes place at these gatherings.
"What authority does the (mayors and warden) meeting have?" he asked, adding that Westville has heard nothing about it since it agreed to put in its share of the costs.
Council asked their CAO Scott Fraser to contact the provincial municipal advisor to find out the make up of the committee and its function as a group.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Sueann Musick
Quelle/Source: The News, 28.08.2013
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