The advantages of a finance committee should go without saying - the cost is minuscule and the amount of work required by administration or council to establish such a committee is infinitely close to zero. Conversely, an external committee would be looking for efficiencies that may have escaped council and/or administration. In addition, if the committee did not work out favourably it could be disbanded at any time. What's the problem?
On Dec. 13, council could have established the long, long overdue finance committee immediately. By a 6-3 vote, council did not totally reject its formulation but did only agree to a rather diluted version: subject to administration's recommendation such a committee may be established but even then not until October, 10 months away.
Claims that "council as a whole acts as the audit and finance committee" are, at best, only theoretically true. However, even if such claims are absolute gospel why would there be so much reluctance to obtain an opinion from a knowledgeable third party? It is true that RVC does have an annual audit, the major purpose of which is to ensure funds have not gone missing and are properly accounted for.
However an audit will not recommend better ways to use those funds but a finance committee will do just that. Council and administration claim that such a committee is unnecessary, flies in the face of best practices for both business and government. Once again council was handed the opportunity to clearly show RV finances are transparent and open to scrutiny. Once again council clearly showed transparency and scrutiny are not in the cards in Rocky View, at least not until October – after the next election.
Jerry Arshinoff
Councillor, Division 2 (Springbank)
Rocky View County
