Audit Committee – March 4, 2026

Audit Committee – March 5th, 2026

Transcripts:
00:20:17
Good afternoon. My name is Lisa Karns, counselor for W 2, and I would like to call to order this meeting of audit committee for Wednesday, March 4th, 2026. Burlington as we know it today is rich in history and modern traditions. Many of our First Nations and the Matei. From the Anesnab to the Honosi and the Matei, our land spanning from Lake Ontario to the Niagara Startman are steeped in indigenous history.

00:20:38
territory is mutually covered by the dish with one spoon welcome belt covenant an agreement between the Iraqua Confederacy, the Ajiway and other allied nations to peaceibly share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is part of the treaty lands and the territories of the Missagas of the Credit.

00:20:57
In the event of an emergency, please evacuate the council chambers by the nearest exit staircase, which is located through the doorway marked with the exit symbol. Once you’ve evacuated the building, please gather at Civic Square outside of City Hall. City of Burlington Committee and Council meetings are live webcasted and archived on the city’s website.

00:21:17
Today’s meeting is being captioned digitally through our agenda management software. I will remind everyone to slow down and speak clearly so your words can be captured by the software. And I would also ask everyone attending virtually to please use the appropriate microphone so your words can be captured accurately by the software.

00:21:38
We do have rules of engagement in committee meeting and we ask everyone to be please be respectful while others are speaking and listen as you want to be listened to. Reminder to committee members to adhere to the procedure bylaw and limit your questions to two at a time. We are not making any decisions at this meeting.

00:21:57
Only recommendations that will go to city council for final consideration on March 10th, 2026. By way of introduction of our members, our first order of business for today’s meeting is to conduct a roll call. And I will now turn it over to the clerk who will take attendance of the members present and to confirm our quorum. >> Thank you. Matthew Moore.

00:22:22
Matthew Moore >> here. >> Um Cartek Gupta >> here. >> Michael Dilio here. Etiandura present. >> Mayor me Ward >> present. >> Councelor Charman >> present. >> Councelor Karns >> present. >> We have quorum. >> Thank you very much. Staff joining us today are Kurt Benson the chief administrative officer, Suzanne Jillies our committee clerk and other staff in attendance will be introduced as each item is announced.

00:22:57
So the approval of the agenda for today um I will ask would anyone like to make changes to the agenda? I don’t see any and so I’ll ask for a mover to please move the approval of the agenda. Thank you at all those in favor please. Any opposed? And that does carry. I will now ask my committee members are there any declarations of interest? Seeing none, we will continue to our delegations.

00:23:28
Our delegates will have 10 minutes to provide their comments. We will provide uh them with a timer clock in council chambers to keep track of your time, which you will be able to view at the podium or on your screen if attending remotely. Both are in person. Once you are done, please remain to answer any questions committee members may have for you.

00:23:46
And I will remind committee members that your questions should be for clarification only and please try to keep your questions to one minute or less. We have two registered delegates for today’s meeting. Jim Thompson will be speaking regarding aquatics space allocation audit AUD526. And when you when you are ready, you may begin and have 10 minutes.

00:24:10
You may want to raise the podium. I’ve got two questions that weren’t really answered in the uh report. Uh the first one is why did the adult swim team feel they had to ask to get excuse me why did they have to ask to get an alternate method of providing the certificate of origin? Presumably they were the winning bidder in 2020.

00:24:48
So they should have been able to provide it the same way city staff has assumed that um that Ghack and BAD would be able to provide it based on what happened in 2020. So that’s a point that isn’t clear to me. Uh the other point that isn’t clear to me was that the bid closed on the 17th of April. Um, the intent to award was supposed to be the 28th of April, but according to the table, the staff had to call BAD on June 5th to tell them that their bid was rejected because they were missing a critical piece of information.

00:25:37
It strikes me that that shouldn’t have taken over a month to determine that the bid was non-compliant. Uh so could somebody ask what was happening during that month? And lastly, uh I think that this is an overly technical legal way to proceed. the staff would made a decision to extend both bids based on a question from the adult uh side of the procurement issue.

00:26:14
uh they didn’t extend the same courtesy to the the to the youth side when the issue of the certificate of the certificate of the the certificate was requested. They they requested an alternate method to provide the certificate and the staff decided that they didn’t need to pass that information on.

00:26:41
So why did they decide that they needed to extend the time for both bids but they didn’t need to provide the information that alternate means of providing the certificate that proved you were a nonprofit to both competitions. There’s some there’s a disconnect there. The report says that it was a reasonable decision because both biders had provided it in 2020 but things changed between 2020 and 20 25.

00:27:20
Um also there’s a number of places in this report where the auditor suggests that improvement could be made. Uh it doesn’t make it into the executive summary. Um specifically, um staff should consider clarifying this passage in future procurement to prevent biders from potential misrepresentation. That’s on page six.

00:27:47
And it’s and it’s in with reference to biders may be contacted to clarify their submissions. So that’s one place where he says that it should be improved. And it also says city staff should consider broadening the types of evidence that biders could submit for future procurements to demonstrate their not for profofit status.

00:28:08
But that those are the learning points that should come out have come out of this and they don’t make it into anything that says here’s the stuff that needs to be fixed so that this doesn’t happen again. And I I had other things, but without the answers to those the two questions, I I don’t really want to get into them.

00:28:30
So, if there’s any questions, I’d be happy to take them now. >> Okay. Thank you very much for joining us, Jim. I’m just looking to the committee members to see if there’s any questions. Okay. And they do not have any. Thank you. Our next delegation is going to be uh Cody representing Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club regarding aquatic space allocation audit AUD0526.

00:29:09
Amazing chairs and members of the audit committee. Good afternoon. My name is Cody Brat and I’m speaking on behalf of the Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club, GI Hack. We’ve been a part of this community for years, delivering programs for Burlington swimmers and supporting local families.

00:29:21
We share the city’s goal of safe, accessible, high-quality aquatics opportunities for residents. I’m here today because the past year has been extremely difficult, not only operationally, but reputationally for many involved. And I’m here because the auditor’s report provides what the community has needed, clarity.

00:29:38
The audit was directed by this committee to independently review the city’s documentation, decision-making, and compliance with the procurement bylaw. Its key finding is straightforward. A youth RFP bid was appropriately disqualified because a mandatory requirement, a certificate of incorporation, was not submitted by the closing time.

00:30:01
This report confirms that under the procurement bylaw, failure to meet mandatory requirements results in rejection and that the disqualification was technically appropriate and correct. That matters because it puts the core issue on the record. The process worked as written. The report also reinforces the broader context.

00:30:21
Pool time is scarce with limited inventory, population growth, and strong demand for >> Cody. The clerks advised me to stay on topic and not uh discuss the allocations or the pool time. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh it’s a direct I would disagree with that because it’s directly written in the audits report that pool time is scarce and that’s what I’m referring to and the audits.

00:30:56

Okay, we’ll look for the guidance of the clerk but continue. Um the city uh in that environment, the city needs a process that is fair, transparent, and unbiased. And the audit committee confirms that that’s what this RFP was designed to achieve. GI participated in the cityrun process in good faith.

00:31:16
We submitted a compliant bid. We followed the rules and its mandatory requirements exactly as community organizations were expected to do. And yet after the award, we are publicly cast as the villain. Despite that, and despite having weight lists and a clear need for every hour of water we were allocated, GX still made a decision to put kids first.

00:31:34
We gave up pool time and event time to reduce disruption of swimmers and families in the community. Even while we are confident that the process of the RFP had been followed, instead of focusing our resources on swimmers, staff, safety, and programming, we were pulled into a prolonged public controversy and ongoing dispute at a significant cost.

00:31:55
We spent tens of thousands of dollars and with real disruption to families who rely on stable access to pool time. So today, respectfully, our request is simple. Let this report be the turning point. The community deserves clear acknowledgement. The procurement process was followed and confirmed by the auditor and that organizations should not be demonized for participating in lawful, unbiased city process.

00:32:18
Second, as we look ahead, I ask the city to to commit to consistency and clarity in future procurements and communications, keeping procurement outcomes objective and policydriven, free from politics. It would have reduced the confusion, protected public trust, and made this process far less traumatic for everyone involved.

00:32:42
And lastly, finally recognizing as the auditor outlined the underlying issue of capacity. This is bigger than any one organization. When inventory is limited and demand keeps rising, conflict becomes inevitable. The long-term solution is increased aquatics capacity. The city needs at minimum an indoor 50 meter pool.

00:33:01
We remain committed to collaborate constructively and in good faith to rebuild trust and help Burlington move forward. Thank you for your time. Thank you. I’ll just look to my committee members to see if there is any questions. Do not see any. So, thank you for joining us today. That now completes the delegations for today and I will go on to our consent agenda.

00:33:25
There are three items on that today which are 7.1 the status of the management action plans AUD126, 7.2 two quarterly dashboard for the office of the city auditor AUD226 and 7.3 resourcing for the office of the city auditor AUD0626 and before moving forward with the consent agenda I want to point out that there is a confidential attachment to report AUD126 and if a member has questions that would require going into close we need to pull the item and go into close before taking a vote on that item That’s the status of the management action plans. And so I’ll now look to the committee. Do you want to go into closed for that appendix? And I’ll just give you a second to make that reference. I do not see anyone that wants to go into closed.

00:34:23
Okay. Few remind a reminder that if you are just commenting on a consent item, there is no need to pull it. and all members will be given an opportunity to comment prior to the committee vote. Does anyone have any uh questions that they want to pull a consent agenda item? Okay, seeing none, would anyone like to comment on the consent agenda after I have a mover for it? >> Thank you. Moved by councelor Charman.

00:34:54
Anyone to comment? I will now call the vote, please, on the consent agenda. All those in favor? Any opposed? That does carry. Thank you. We are now going to move over to the regular items. Seeing that nothing has been pulled, we’ll go to 8.1 performance management process for the city auditor AUD226.

00:35:17
And I welcome Mache Jerich, city auditor, to make some opening remarks. >> Good afternoon, chair, and thank you for the opportunity to provide some introductory comments. Uh as the audit committee may recall uh your terms of reference identify a requirement to perform the performance evaluation for the city auditor.

00:35:35
This is an annual report. It’s an annual uh recurring thing uh that we’ve done for the last three years. Uh the process is largely very similar to what we’ve done in the past and it is also highly aligned with the HR corporatewide performance development and growth management uh process.

00:35:55
Uh there’s one small change uh this year which is a focus and a prioritization of on the implementation of the whistleblower program which is scheduled for this year. It’s that’s in the audit plan as well. Thanks for your consideration. Okay, I will just look to any of my committee members if they would like to comment or any questions.

00:36:18
So I do need a mover still. Mayor me ward. Thank you. Any comments? I’ll comment. Good job. Uh, and I’ll now call the vote. All those in favor? Any opposed? That does carry. Thank you very much. Our next item is risk to our objectives, the corporate compass TRN0126. And I now welcome Leia Bazudi, corporate strategy, corporate strategic lead, risk management to make some opening remarks.

00:36:58
Thank you, uh, Chair Karns, and thank you to the audit committee for having me here today. I was just reminiscing. It’s been actually, uh, over two years since I was here last, and so, uh, thanks for having me back. Um I just wanted to basically provide you with a little bit of an opening um to the report before you and it’s basically providing the audit committee with information on work that was conducted on risk to our objectives our corporate compass in terms of our corporate work plan and previously I’ve reported to audit committee on this type of analysis before specifically pertaining to uh vision 2040 um was the last time that this type of uh report actually came forward and contained in this report as you can see are the most common risks to obtaining our objectives at a higher level um in terms of us as an organization working towards obtaining those objectives which are found in the corporate compass and what I wanted to highlight as well was what’s coming next and I’m happy to report that the work on

00:37:58
the ERM or enterprise risk management has begun interviews are being u scheduled and are upcoming and this work should be completed by the end of Q2 which will of course give us a top 10 risk register in terms of enterprise risk management for the corporation which I know some of you have a strong interest in actually uh seeing come forward to audit committee.

00:38:16
So that will be coming and I’m happy to answer any questions that you might have at this time. >> Okay, just looking to my committee members for any questions. Okay, I’m going to ask a quick question. So Leia, it’s really important that when we do get that top 10 risk that it’s tied back to KPIs and objectives, how are we doing with creating KPIs for every uh level of risk within that projected list that you’re going to be having? >> So through you chair Karns to the chair.

00:38:53
Um at the moment uh the focus for myself is actually uh twofold. So one if you actually look at the risk to our objectives and the work that’s before you almost all of them and the work that was conducted is actually tied back to the objective that has a KPI and a target in relation to the corporate compass and the risk work that was done for staff in their area was to help them with what they saw as what could stand in their way of achieving those objectives that KPI and that target.

00:39:17
So that work has been completed for the corporate compass itself. the enterprise risk management lens to be honest the first goal is to actually get folks across the organization I’m meeting with each department uh to have that conversation of those top to develop the risk register in terms of those top 10 risks and that would be my goal for our first round.

00:39:40
We are not um uh as sophisticated as I know some of you uh have experience with and so the first round is to get that risk register to get us to that point where we have that work it’s val it’s evaluated um can be used towards budget can be used towards uh other work in the organization and we might then be able to explore and expand on that in other years in terms of our sophistication and our level for achievement of uh various various uh uh linkages u things like that.

00:40:14

Okay, thank you very much. So it’s actually those linkages I’m looking for. So for a time when I was hearing the words KPIs in this organization which may be uh distance from what some of the audit committee members may be used to in a routine basis they sounded a lot more like baselining and then the KPIs would be aligned with the objectives.

00:40:34
So, how much work have we done on being able to actually identify all of our baseline data that is required to institute a KPI key performance indicator to get to that to achieve what this risk assessment plan is supposed to tell us through you chair. So the work that was completed in this particular uh instance in terms of um our corporate compass uh almost all of the objectives that people uh had targeted for themselves has just not only baseline data but in our corporate dashboard has actual gathered data for all four quarters of uh 2026. So we have baseline we have four quarters worth of data. uh some instances folks have already actually achieved their first target and we’ll be looking towards refining that and actually setting perhaps later targets um in terms of that that work. So in for this specifically, I would say um most

00:41:32
areas have their baseline and work that they’re working towards. Um in in terms of other work with KPIs and other things that I would leave to my um my boss um chief transformation officer to answer that question. Sorry to the chair. So um 2025 was a baseline year as you as you articulated in terms of the the the setting and the identification of KPIs which are more operational KPIs.

00:42:01
Um so we now have a year’s worth of data. We’ve also been working on on um using PowerBI to create dashboards internally facing dashboards. Um you will recall yesterday um a committee that we also articulated through the presentation of the horizon 2050 report that we are actually looking at creating externally facing dashboards as well.

00:42:22
That is on our work plan for 2026 probably 2027. We do need to do some enhancements to our website to be able to embed something like a PowerBI dashboard um into our outwardly facing website. But we are working on um the the the monitoring of KPIs using KPIs to set and refine targets. Um and that is something that we will be looking to do assuming council adopt Horizon in 2050 which will require us to look and make some modifications potentially to our corporate um KPIs.

00:42:52
Then we would look to identify new targets as a result of that which would happen in early 2027. >> Okay, I’m going to take that information for now. Um, Mayor Meard followed by Councelor Charman. >> Thank you. And through you, Chair. Um, this is really, uh, interesting and great work, Leah, and and the whole team.

00:43:15
I’m wondering if, um, and I’m kind of up at the 40,000 foot level here with Paul, but if you’re starting to see any themes around the most common risks show up. When I read that list, I thought uh legislative changes jumps out at me a lot. Uh we’ve had lots of things done to us. Maybe funding uh as an issue. Uh capacity uh may be an issue.

00:43:40
Are you starting to see some of these risks pop up as higher than others or more frequently cited? And um you know, what should council as a whole be thinking about uh about that? through you uh chair to the mayor. Um so the ones that you see here were the top I I can’t call them um they’re not our top risks in this sense because we didn’t do impact and likelihood so they don’t have a mathematical value but they were our most common across the organization.

00:44:13
And so these six are our most common risks across the organization and that’s why they’re here uh for you and they’ve been presented to management as well for everyone to have an understanding as to what people are saying is can potentially stand in their way of achieving their objectives. So yes, legislative changes we’ve seen that across the last couple of years with things coming at us on a Friday evening and changing what we need to do and that’s um how we have to adapt new bylaws, how other things have to change.

00:44:43
And there’s other things in here as you can see in terms of um staff capacity and budgeting and turnover and there’s there’s many different things that we are um as staff uh can impact our achieving objectives. I would um in my professional opinion I would expect some of these things are going to show up on our erm risk register which is going to be slightly different than of course this one but uh when I bring that one forward I’m sure we’ll have a bit more of a robust conversation about that as well. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, as a followup, so of those six, would you say they’re all sort of equally uh risky or are some of the sum of the six uh understanding there’s a universe of risk out there and and so you’ve picked the six? I I’m just curious if if within that six there’s any more uh any ones that stand out more than the others through you, chair to the mayor. So this is actually in order of how much they actually showed up. So when I say the

00:45:42
top six, number one was was as listed uh >> prioritization. Yes. Okay. Okay. Um, and you can also uh tell that some of these things are actually integrated because of course lack of prioritization can impact capacity which can also impact staff which can so there’s a lot of these things that are highly integrated and please remember these are specific to how staff were feeling in terms of their confidence level of achieving their corporate um objectives.

00:46:10
Right? So that’s again um uh sort of the lens by which this is presented versus when you’re when you talked about the risk universe. >> Um a lot of staff uh when we do this particular work we don’t have a look at what is a global risk or what is out there in terms of say cyber security or other things that you might expect to find on your top 10 risk register which we will be bringing back to you later um where some of those global type risks will show up.

00:46:37
We specifically talk about the risk to how staff feel in terms of how confident that I’ll be able to achieve my objective both by the time that I’ve said and to the way that I have said that that should be obtained. So that’s what this specifically deals with, but there will be overlap to the other things that come forward. >> Yes, >> I I didn’t realize that was an order of priority. So that is extremely helpful.

00:47:01
Thank you, >> Councelor Charman. Thanks Leah for this. Um, as I was looking at the list, it it looks sort of like a red risk registry that we free see from the international uh internal auditors association and and you know the the uh sort of standard internal audit kind of logic. Is am I reading that correctly >> through you chair? I’m sure it does fit to standards because anytime we do work um in in relation to risk, we we follow uh certain protocols and we look at certain things. But this was uh developed by us and the way that um if you will recall when the framework uh came forward with risk how we were going to actually do some of this risk objective work. Um we modified it slightly. I looked at Koso in terms of our uh sort of foundational for some of this work and then we burlingtonized it as we like to say uh to make it something that would be both use uh

00:47:59
useful to us but not also overwhelming in terms of taking up staff time but something that we would actually be able to help us in terms of functioning and and looking forward to um helping us achieve our objectives. So uh it isn’t again I would say because um when you do your risk register as you know it has the rankings with likelihood impact sometimes velocity sometimes other things and you get an actual mathematical score which gives it a very simple way to fit in the risk register from the top down to the bottom due to that mathematical score. This was not done in that way and it became a because of the way staff would describe things because of the different objectives that we have across the organization. These became the common themes that came up across the organization and that’s why I’ve termed it um most common six versus top six. Can you say probably that’s um the same? Yes. But because one is not done mathematically, you can’t accurately say it that way. Is that helpful? Well, you you understood where

00:48:58
I was going with the question clearly with your answer. Um, which is this this looks to me as it’s very internal looking and and we talked a lot about in the past about objective century risk management that tends to look at the total corporate goals in terms of big things like how will we achieve another 70,000 people in the next 25 years.

00:49:17
And as we’ve got the now the new strategic plan kind of pretty well nailed down, will we get actually back to looking at the um the objective centric risk management logic at the high level or do you think the hybrid that you’ve been working on is going to do the job for us >> uh through you uh chair to councelor Charman.

00:49:39
Um so what was done this time round because we had done two rounds right with the with vision 20 240 um and then we knew you were looking at the new strategic plan to come in. Uh the decision was made at the time to focus on um the corporate compass and the work that staff were doing over the next 5 years because that is a little of a shorter runway for us to be able to look at in terms of what can actually get in our way of achieving that.

00:50:05
So, we took it from that higher level to one level down, but not to the actual erm or um uh uh sorry, the day-to-day operational type risk analysis that’s that is often done. Can we do this type of analysis to uh the strategic plan that was just passed? Absolutely. If you direct us to do so, we can actually accomplish that.

00:50:30
But it was thought that it would be um a little um more helpful for staff to actually look at the things that they’re trying to accomplish in the next 5 years and have them have a look at what can stand in their way and what they can do about it so that they might actually be able to help themselves then if they are going off the path or not looking to actually meet that objective but they’ve actually done risk work to help them with what they’re trying to do in the next 5 years. Um and then help them get that. So in that vein, it’s not included here, but staff themselves have robust uh analysis for them and their own objectives within their work, but they are with them as staff in order to help them achieve those objectives. So each each commissioner um and each chief received documentation from all the work that was done within their teams for the work for these uh most common six to come out. So there’s this is this is the higher order and higher level um of all

00:51:29
of that work, but staff themselves have all of their detailed work because they’re the ones who need to if they’re going off a path and they don’t think they’re going to achieve their objective. They’ve done the work to say what what can I do proactively or reactively to help me then get back on p on the path to actually achieve that objective that I’ve said I’m going to achieve.

00:51:50

Yeah. So I as I read them I I see precisely that. um which is which is not particularly strategic. It’s simply focused on the goals that have been they they’ve said well those are our goals from a process point of view which are ra largely defined by bylaws and laws. Um and the question for me is then how do we get back to a strategic view for the corporation and align them and and now that we have the 2050 plan we didn’t manage to do that with the with the 2040 plan as much as I would have liked to have seen. Um, so now we’ve got some clarity around the 2050 plan. Um, I would I would ask that so you need a staff direction to do this or are we going to see it in the enterprise risk management um overview because that needs us to look at the strategic goals for the corporation for the next 25 years and ask ourselves not about the 5-year view but about the 25-y year view and what are the step back risks we should be thinking about and preparing for now at the operational level because they are not necessarily the same things

00:52:48
that we’ve got here. through you to chair. Um I’m looking at um uh our chief transformation officer and he’s shaking his head that we don’t actually need a staff direction for that that we can but I’ll let him speak to that. Thank you >> through the chair. Um so Horizon assuming that council approve it at the council meeting really opens up an opportunity for us to revisit you know how we you know how we take a community strategic plan like Horizon 2050 build that into more you know more short to medium-term planning horizons through a four or five year work plan and then tie that back to our risk-to- objectives recognizing that there are medium-term objectives and then long-term objectives as well and looking at and using the KPIs which um which um you know councelor Karns identified to be able to highlight how are we tracking and trending towards those and so what what we you know what what I would hope to do where I don’t believe that we do need

00:53:46
that um you know that that direction is in early 2027 with the with the formation of the new council work with that new council work with staff to develop the next version of our corporate compass our multi-year business plan but also then incorporate the risk to objectives and then where those objectives are enterprise risk and um and operational in nature tie those back into that as well so that it is this cohesive riskmanaged and um and quality assured program >> well I certainly appreciate the comments uh my view of the on the objective risk uh centric risk management is is a very technical one uh and I don’t know to what degree we have much knowledge around the table on this because we went through some training five years ago um but it’s it’s rather different from anything you’d find in Koso um they are not as objective centric and and strategic. My my question is when you come to things like uh operational risk um when we are live in a world

00:54:44
where there’s increasing u uh sophistication in technology deployment that as we look out into the future and we ask ourselves tech those questions about well where do we have to be in in 20 in 10 years 5 years 10 years 15 years time what are we doing now about that technology or understanding and and how we have to get there I just use that as an example I use the same thing about transportation um because our transportation system um is is not designed for most community members in Burlington. is more has a different orientation and yet our biggest issue actually politically is is congestion on our roads and that is solvable but and so there are whole sort of set of strategic things that I don’t see mentioned in here so we need to talk about those things but I’d have be happy to have this conversation with you and if u if I can be helpful I will be pleased to be so the chair I’d welcome the opportunity to talk to you councelor Sharon comment. That was a comment.

00:55:46

Yes. So then you’ve moved it. >> Move. >> Thank you. >> Okay. But no, not before Liz. >> No, I I just wanted to um through you chair uh to councelor Charman. Um the one great thing I would say um that’s a for us as an organization that’s happening as well is that um uh you know mache um sorry city auditor myself and the individual um responsible for um our uh business continuity planning um who delves into our operational risk.

00:56:15
We’re working extremely closely together and Robin, sorry, Robin and I um are u a business continuity um individual. Um when I’m going out to do interviews this year for the enterprise risk management, uh Robin is following up um in terms of business continuity planning in terms of what uh if those risks happen and uh what what that looks like.

00:56:37
We are um extremely well integrated this year in terms of having a look at the risks to our objectives contained within the corporate compass. The risks that we are doing for erm and then actually following that that up with operational risk and our business continuity planning. And for myself as a risk professional, this is an extremely um great thing to see how this is all actually fitting together and working um simultaneously to assist us as an organization in terms of what’s coming forward and then also to work with staff in terms of the risk to their objectives and what they’re trying to achieve. And um for us, yes, it I understand what you’re saying with that really long-term vision and and having conversations around that, but for staff itself, it’s it’s when we’re trying to accomplish um that, you know, the corporate compass gets set up our work corporate work plan for the next 5 years to help us to get to what that vision is for that 25-y year plan and we chunk that all out and

00:57:36
then having conversations around what am I trying to do to contribute to that over the next couple of years and what can get in my way actually and um in itself helps us to achieve that strategy and that 25-year vision because we’re making progress and we’re making things happen within that 5-year plan.

00:57:53
So, it actually all fits and dovetales exceptionally well. And sorry, I just I just needed to say that. Thank you. >> If I could just comment, thank you for that. I know you know what I’m talking about because you went through the training with Tim Leech. So, that’s fine.

00:58:06
Um actually my bigger issue is the articulation of the of the absolute long-term goals. So KPI actually what are we trying to accomplish for 2050 in in hardcore terms versus what we are able to do today and and that then um makes it clear what it is what what those steps are because what I what I worry about is what I’ve seen in past that staff say

02:00:01
The responses were in my view reasonable and rational. Uh in short, the staff people stated that they assumed that all of the biders uh were aware in the youth competition were aware of the correct requirements for the mandatory requirements because they possessed they already possessed the correct document and they had submitted those documents in the prior competition.

02:00:23
So there was an ass underlying assumption that uh they didn’t uh that uh they already had that information. Uh another question uh chair karns was around the 85% residency requirement. Uh that was a mandatory requirement in the in the in the competition. When I looked at this uh exactly it was referenced several times.

02:00:49
uh it was require it uh among other things it said the 85% uh was a pri priority was would be given to and I quote priority would be given to the bidder that could demonstrate an 85% requirement and the RFP document also stated and I quote demonstrate how your organization will ensure a minimum of 85% of of participants are Burlington residents quote unquote my view on this was that Um uh well the the document itself says demonstrate how your organization will come up to that 85%.

02:01:29
It didn’t explicitly say that the winning bidder shall have 85% uh um city of Burlington residence uh requirement from the onset uh which in my view was a was a reasonable inclusion as a mandatory requirement which the procurement bylaw allows for mandatory requirements. It’s we’re really parsing out words uh Chair K uh Chair Karns and to Mayor Midwart, but the the wording in the RFP says demonstrate how you’ll get there as opposed to you shall have 85% immediately should you win this competition. And so I I I took the view that uh demonstrate how you will get there uh means that should you win this, you know, give us a plan uh in and it was an evaluation. it was in the evaluation uh requ criteria to to say how you will get there. What is your

02:02:26
plan for achieving an 85% requirement? Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um I don’t see any other questions from committee members. Um the purpose of of my bringing this forward was truly to bring lessons learned from the city auditor’s review into future scenarios. Um, how might we take your findings uh administratively and bring them forward into any of the work that’s yet to be done? There were a couple of recommendations here, but they didn’t come to the top.

02:03:01

Uh, thank you, Chair Karns, for the question. And uh you know the the delegate brought up a good point and I frankly I might agree with him that uh typically my audit reports provide some recommendations and uh in this case I didn’t explicitly put them in the executive summary. Uh on page six I there were two recommendations I provided which was one on page six was that uh um um staff should consider clarifying the passage around biders may be contacted to clarify their submissions to prevent potential misinterpretation. In this particular case, uh the bidder was not contacted to clarify their submission because staff were concerned about the legal concept of bidder repair. And then secondly, on page seven, I provided a recommendation that staff should consider broadening the different types of evidence that biders could submit for future procurements to

02:04:00
demonstrate that they’re a not for profofit. Uh and again, I take it from a from a lay person’s perspective. they may not necessarily I certainly didn’t understand the difference between a certificate of status letters patent articles of incorporation before I did this audit. So I think that uh the ultimate objective was to uh demonstrate not for profofit status.

02:04:20
So the recommendation was to consider some other types of evidence or to broaden uh the types of evidence that the city could collect. But the delegate had made a good point uh in the future I should provide those right up front in the executive summary. I take that point. It’s a it’s a good point. Thank you.

02:04:37
So with that point, would you like the opportunity to bring something back for council that could be carrying this forward or would you like to just work with the CFO when the procurement um bylaw is reviewed this year? So through the chair um as you did mention we are working on uh um procurement um bylaw and service review which we will be bringing in later in the year and we’ll be having some preliminary conversations with you.

02:05:07
So we have noted um these recommendations as well as u previous audits that were done. So we will address them um in that if acceptable to you in the in the updated bylaw when we bring that forward and we’ll show you where that language is. Thank you very much and I appreciate that because the the technical nature has a place and so does a conceptual nature.

02:05:30
So we want to get that um crafted into the bylaw. Councelor Charman >> that time >> please. >> Thank you. I want to thank the auditor for the work that you’ve done here. you’ve done precisely what you needed to do which was inspect it and qualify whether it was done properly or not and you have done that and it was done properly despite the fact that nobody wanted to believe that a lot of people didn’t want to believe that so I really appreciate that we’ve done this work that was a special request of the of you to do this you responded accordingly um it was a contentious matter uh I agree it was legally technical but It was legally technical. That’s the point. And and I I appreciate the uh the CFO’s perspective

02:06:28
on taking a look at the procurement policies that got us here and uh if there are things we might want to do different in the future, that will become a function of uh reading the regulations and uh what we can and cannot do. So, thank you very much for doing the work and it’s much appreciated. Thank you.

02:06:45

Thank you. I see no further questions or comments at this time. Uh so I will now call the vote on aquatic space allocation audit AUD526. All those in favor? Any opposed? Thank you. Uh please note that Michael has uh dropped off. Thank you. Uh this now brings us to the end of our agenda and I’ll look now for a motion to receive and file information items.

02:07:13
Mayor, all those in favor? Any opposed? Any staff remarks today? Any committee remarks? Okay. And now I will look for a motion to adjurnn at the end. Thank you. All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you very much. We are now adjourned.