A Chatham councillor’s proposal to hire a Toronto-based consulting firm to conduct a municipal service review has been voted down.
Councillor Michael Bondy wanted to hire consultants with Grant Thornton to conduct the review, essentially giving the company free rein to find potential cost savings and efficiencies.
“I was asking or council to make a decision on their own to chose a firm that was not directed by administration,” Bondy says. “I think it’s an unfettered way to allow the consulting firm the neutrality to use their own discretion to look into the operations of the municipality, the corporation, and come back with recommendations.”
However, with Chatham-Kent looking at hosting an independent service review in the future, councillors and administration felt that it would be best for many reasons to go ahead with a request for proposal process to have multiple firms bid to host the service review.
Bondy has since been named to the RFP review committee to help with the selection process before the service review gets underway.