Morantz wants audit into parkway extension confusion before civic election

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This article was published 09/01/2018 (2992 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Charleswood Coun. Marty Morantz hopes an internal audit into the Wilkes-Sterling Lyon Parkway project will be completed and its findings released before next fall’s civic election.

Morantz told reporters that he intends to bring a motion to Wednesday’s executive policy committee meeting calling for the city auditor to investigate how the project unfolded and why the public was not informed about the change in the route until the fall.

“I think there are a number of things that went wrong,” Morantz (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Whyte Ridge) said Tuesday. “That is the reason why I want to have our auditor examine this file. I don’t have all the answers.”

CAO Doug McNeil has refused to answer questions from councillors or the news media about how the project unfolded, insisting he and Morantz had been kept in the dark about the project details until after they became public in October.

McNeil said that the questions being asked by councillors will likely be the subject of the internal audit, which will be conducted by city auditor Bryan Mansky and his staff sometime this year.

Coun. Janice Lukes has questioned the value of the audit, adding she doubts the city auditor will be able to find anything new that hasn’t been disclosed to date. Lukes wanted to hold a special meeting of council over the holidays — with McNeil suspended pending discussions on his job performance and status — but she was unable to gather the 11 votes necessary to hold the meeting.

McNeil will be subject to a job-performance review sometime later this year by a subcommittee of council, including Morantz and councillors Russ Wyatt, Matt Allard and Cindy Gilroy.

Morantz said the rules of the process are currently being developed by the public service.

“I am concerned that this was not flagged earlier within the CAO’s office,” Morantz said. “Having the opportunity to reflect about this over the holidays… I do feel certainly more questions could have been asked at the time.”

Morantz said that he doesn’t expect to put a deadline in his motion but will direct Mansky to re-prioritize the audit schedule to ensure the project is reviewed before the Oct. 24 election.

Morantz said he anticipates there will be a lot of discussion and debate on his motion at Wednesday’s EPC and on the floor of council, adding he believes concerns about the timing of the audit will be addressed. He said he now believes that the problems surrounding public disclosure of the project was the result of an “institutional breakdown” rather than by any one individual.

“My main concern is why wasn’t there was a big red flag put up with this road…. Why didn’t someone say to the CAO or to me, ‘By the way, we’ve changed this route,’” Morantz said. “It’s a very reasonable question to ask, why didn’t that communication take place?”

Notwithstanding media reports that the former director of public works told McNeil and others about the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension plan, Morantz maintains no one brought it to his attention.

He said he believes there was a breakdown in communication within the public service and between the public service and elected officials.”

“We need to fix the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca