Collingwood council is being asked to consider taking down plaques posted at Central Park Arena and Centennial Aquatic Centre listing the names of the town council members in office when the facilities opened in 2013.
According to a staff report headed to council via the Strategic Initiatives Committee meeting on May 3, a member of the public is asking council to remove the plaques.
The plaques list the date the arena and pool building were opened in 2013, and list town council members Mayor Sandra Cooper, Deputy Mayor Rick Lloyd, and Councillors Mike Edwards, Kevin Lloyd, Ian Chadwick, Keith Hull, Dale West, Sandy Cunningham, and Joe Gardhouse.
The plaque also indicates the design-build contractor for the facilities as BLT Construction/Sprung, and notes the town’s project manager was Ron Martin.
Both the Centennial Aquatic Centre and the Central Park Arena were built, in part, with funds the town received from the 50 per cent share sale of COLLUS to Powerstream in 2012.
Both the purchase of the buildings and the share sale were the focus of the Collingwood Judicial Inquiry in 2019 and 2020. The final report by the commissioner of the inquiry indicated the share sale and purchase of the Sprung structures/hiring BLT Construction were not done in a fair and transparent way.
“Undisclosed conflicts, unfair procurements, and lack of transparency stained both transactions,” stated the commissioners' report.
The report addresses the “generational” personal relationships between then-mayor Sandra Cooper; her brother Paul Bonwick who acted as a consultant for both PowerStream and the construction company contracted to build the recreational facilities; Ed Houghton, who held many roles in town and Collus leadership positions, and then-deputy mayor Rick Lloyd.
Current town staff are bringing the plaque request to council to ask for direction on whether to remove the plaque from Central Park Arena and Centennial Aquatic Centre and replace it with a new one indicating simply the date the building was opened.
Council could vote on the matter on May 3, with the final decision being made at a full council meeting later in May.
On the same agenda is another request from a member of the public to revise the town’s volunteer award – the Order of Collingwood and Companion to the Order of Collingwood – policy allowing the town to revoke or rescind the award if a recipient is “found to do a disservice to the town” before or after receiving the award.
Staff are recommending a new procedure to revoke or rescind the award for “criminal or unethical” conduct. But the matter still requires a council vote.
Former town CAO and CEO of COLLUS, Ed Houghton, was named to the Order of Collingwood for the 1998 awards. Houghton held leadership positions with the town and COLLUS during the share sale and when the town purchased Sprung structures through BLT.
Both the consideration to remove the plaque and create a policy to revoke an Order of Collingwood award are part of a list of recommendations and updates from staff resulting from the recommendations that came from the Collingwood Judicial Inquiry.
The report for the May 3 meeting includes a breakdown of the public feedback received by the town through the EngageCollingwood website and via a public meeting hosted by the town on April 7.
The report is asking council to sign off on a review of several of the town’s bylaws as they relate to the commissioner’s recommendations. You can read the full report here.
The May 3 Strategic Initiatives Committee Meeting starts at 2 p.m. on May 3.
