The City of Elliot Lake has once again reached out to a Toronto-based consulting firm, this time to recruit a new City Treasurer. Elliot Lake has been without a treasurer since Dr. Timothy Vine resigned the post last year to accept a job as CFO for a Manitoulin healthcare system. Between pressures arising from that resignation and the extra work involved in preparing for and completing last year's municipal election, Elliot Lake was forced to hire KPMG. The financial consultant did the heavy lifting this year in preparing the 2019 city budget and tax rates which was delayed by several weeks, as compared with previous years.
At Monday night's city council meeting Elliot Lake CAO Daniel Gagnon recommended hiring Feldman Daxon Partners in Toronto, as a recruiter for Elliot Lake's next treasurer. The cost is $29,380. Gagnon recommended their bid from among all 30 firms which responded to the city's request for proposals. The final six bids ranged from a low of just over $28,000 to one at $40,950.
Councillor Chris Patrie supported the CAO's recommendation but questioned the two-step approach Gagnon used in screening the bids. Patrie said even if more complete information on how it was done could only be considered by council in closed session, that's the way he would want to see staff recommendations on request for proposal submissions presented to city council, going forward.
Gagnon said Feldman Daxon Partners is expected to come up with a candidate for treasurer in 9 to 12 weeks. He told council, "We received the original bids in the 30 or so range and then opened the financial proposals after the first two who only met a minimum threshold, so you're not inordinately reviewing proposals." He added, "If they don't meet this, the basics, they shouldn't be opened."
Gagnon went on, "Recruitment will require actual headhunting, talking to candidates and trying to work them into an opportunity, you know, a break for our position." He went on, "It's an incredibly tight labour market out there and we have certain advantages, but it takes for those advantages to come across and you need to do a national sale to candidates to get over the natural disincentives and challenges that require some thought for, say someone who's relocating from somewhere else to, quote-unquote, a remote community."
The recommendation for Feldman Daxon passed unanimously, with all six councillors on hand in favour. Councillor Luc Cyr sent his regrets and did not attend the Monday night meeting.
It was just 10 days earlier, on Friday June 28, that Elliot Lake City Council chose another Toronto consultant, the Daisy Group, headed by prominent Liberal author and political consultant, Warren Kinsella, to help in the city's push for provincial and federal government infrastructure funding. In a special council meeting held just before Canada Day, council decided to hire the Toronto firm to help with "strategic assistance" in dealing with the senior levels of government. That as Elliot Lake moves forward with several grant projects, in particular those relating to the proposed Community Hub recreation project.
The Daisy Group was contracted to represent Elliot Lake for between four to six months at a fee $6,000 per month. Gagnon explained, "Hiring the Daisy Group would greatly assist us in clarifying" some of the process involved in "lining up our application in the best possible way." He promised the city's application for funding the Community Hub will be ready to submit by late fall.
Patrie said, "I'm in agreement with this as well. But we have very limited time." He added. "Our staff is over-burdened and we don't have enough staff to put in the effort that we're going to require."
For his part, Mayor Dan Marchisella noted, "Our MP and MPP have done a lot of great legwork for us" on the Community Hub, "but having someone on the ground on a regular basis that knows what is going on is like having front line troops." He concluded, "I think it's a great way to proceed." Like the hunt for Elliot Lake's next treasurer, the vote to hire the Daisy Group as a city funding lobbyist was also unanimous in the earlier meeting.