North Huron Council votes to not pay outstanding Columbus Centre repair invoice
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
Ongoing complications regarding a sizable unpaid invoice from the Wingham Columbus Centre was addressed at Monday’s North Huron Council meeting. There has been, in the past, confusion surrounding two separate, but intertwined organizations - The Knights of Columbus and The Columbus Centre - which are both involved with the management of the municipal-owned community hall located in the Wescast Community Complex.
In 2019, North Huron applied to the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) in order to fund renovations to, among other things, the community hall in the Wescast Complex. The upgrades included the installation of energy-efficient lighting, which was budgeted at $35,000, and the installation of a sound system with acoustic panels, which had a budget amount of $55,000. Both those approved projects have been completed, and their invoices have been paid by North Huron, using ICIP funds.
The township received an additional invoice, in the amount of $74,145.91, for additional work done at the Wingham Columbus Centre Hall. North Huron staff determined that these works were not part of the original ICIP project, and were not authorized or approved by council. The invoice has remained unpaid up to this point.
Staff recently met with the members of the Columbus Centre that had initiated this additional work, in order to get to the bottom of the situation. The members explained that they believed the additional works were part of the initial grant, as they had received approval from North Huron staff members that are no longer employed by the township. The current staff conducted an internal audit, and found no documentation of any kind to support their claim. The Columbus Centre also had no documentation of such an approval.
There has also been no money in the budget allocated for this additional work, and it does not align with North Huron’s bylaws relating to the purchasing of goods, services and construction.
Staff looked to council for direction on the matter. North Huron could either choose to not financially support the additional work, or support the additional work and direct Townes to pay either some or all of the invoice, using funds from the Wingham Columbus Centre Reserve Account, which currently contains $127,070.
An arrangement was made previously in which payments pledged from the Knights of Columbus would be collected by North Huron, and deposited into the Wingham Columbus Centre Reserve Account, with the intention that those funds would be used towards improvements at the Wingham Columbus Centre, subject to council’s approval.
Councillor Anita van Hittersum was not in favour of paying the invoice. “You can’t spend money you don’t have without asking first... we can’t start doing things like that - it’s inappropriate.” She brought forth a motion that North Huron not pay the invoice. Deputy-Reeve Kevin Falconer agreed with her, and seconded the motion.
Councillor Chris Palmer, who is the council representative for the Columbus Centre, urged that all sides of the story be considered before voting. “We’re not doing a good job if we don’t know everything,” he said. “These are reputable people.” Palmer went over some of the details he’d learned at the meeting, explaining that the Columbus Centre members had believed that they had been given verbal confirmation from two unnamed members of staff that they should go ahead with the work. “Unfortunately, those individuals are not with us today, so we can’t check,” Palmer lamented. Of the over $800,000 North Huron had received from the ICIP, the Columbus Centre members claim they were led to believe that $160,000 was theirs with which to work. They also claimed they had never been provided with the written agreement between the township and the Columbus Centre that stated otherwise. Palmer felt that there had been errors on both sides, as it is North Huron’s responsibility to properly disseminate information, which in this case, he feels, it failed to do.
Falconer asserted that the Columbus Centre’s defence is based entirely on hearsay. Councillor Mitch Wright agreed that there is no evidence to support one side or the other, but also wanted to explore the viability of the second option. “What is the purpose of the Knights of Columbus reserve fund?” he asked. “And what is the appropriateness of using it for these improvements?” Clerk Carson Lamb explained that those funds can be used for capital projects to improve the Columbus Centre, after they’ve been approved by council. Wright summarized the complications of using the reserve to pay the funds, saying “it is an appropriate use of funds, but perhaps an inappropriate process was followed.”
Van Hittersum’s motion was brought to a recorded vote. The votes in favour of not paying the invoice came from Falconer, van Hittersum and Councillor Ric McBurney, while Palmer, Wright, and Councillor Lonnie Whitfield voted against the motion. The tie was broken by Reeve Paul Heffer, who voted “yes”, which means that the Columbus Centre will have to find another way to cover the $74,145.91 worth of work.