Former Collingwood CAO Kim Wingrove, who held the office during the 2012 Collus sale, wrapped up part of her testimony at the judicial inquiry in tears, stating she had regrets, and should have “stepped away.”
“I was raised to be someone … to not give up and to not quit,” said Wingrove before today’s hearing lunch break at 12:45 p.m. “If you take on a responsibility you see it through to the end. In this particular instance where it was very clear to me early on that this was a situation that was far beyond my ability to affect a positive result from, I should have stepped away.”
Wingrove said she regretted she wasn’t able to cause things to turn out differently, “and to be better able to stand up to some of the situations that I saw.”
“I’m sorry to the people of the town,” said Wingrove before breaking down.
Wingrove started her turn on the witness stand in the judicial inquiry on Tuesday (April 16). There was no hearing yesterday (April 17). It continued today at 10 a.m. with Wingrove on the stand taking questions from inquiry counsel, Kate McGrann.
The judicial inquiry was called to review the decision to sell 50 per cent of Collus shares in 2012 and subsequent spending of funds received by the town in the sale.
Much of today’s question and answer between McGrann and Wingrove referred to her role on the strategic task force charged with coming up with a request for proposals to purchase Collus shares, rating the proposals that came in, and choosing a successful proponent.
According to Wingrove, KPMG consultants were hired to put together the RFP for the sale of Collus, and Ed Houghton, former president and CEO of Collus groups, “took the lead on the project.”
When pressed for more information about how and when some of the decisions for weighted criteria and scoring system we made, Wingrove said she couldn’t recall who made all the decisions, and whether or not they were decided by consensus of the task force.
“My feeling at the time was that KPMG was taking direction from Mr. Houghton rather than giving direction to us about what needed to happen,” said Wingrove. “Mr Houghton was often the person who made the presentations and who communicated with the group and KPMG were there more in a supporting role.”
She said she found the scoring system unusual, and in fact, had never seen one like it before.
According to an email from Houghton to the strategic task force he and Dean Muncaster, chair of the board of Collingwood Utility Services (Collus) “decided that for each criteria the best proposal shall receive the full points.”
The example included in the email to the individuals responsible for scoring the bids, suggests if they find “respondent ‘a’” has the best proposal for “support for employees and their careers,” they should receive the full 10 points. In the case of a tie, both proponents would receive 10 points.
There was a strong impetus to move the process forward,” said Wingrove of the sale. “It was my sense that putting up red flags along the way would not have been welcomed.”
Later, she did raise a red flag, when work began on the bylaw to complete the share sale.
Documents included and summarized in the foundation document show the town’s lawyer Leo Longo of Aird & Berlis sent a draft bylaw to Ed Houghton, Kim Wingrove, town clerk Sara Almas, and John Mascarin (another town lawyer at Aird & Berlis) on Jan. 17, 2012 asking for input on some of the clauses.
In particular, one of the clauses included in that initial draft of the bylaw included a statement requiring town staff and solicitors to report back to council prior to the closing of the transaction.
The next day, Dennis Nolan, the executive vice-president of corporate services and secretary for PowerStream sent revisions to the bylaw to Houghton.
One revision submitted by Nolan was to remove the requirement of town staff and a solicitor to report back to council before closing.
One hour later, Houghton sent a draft bylaw back to Longo including Nolan’s revisions.
Longo added the report-to-council clause back in and sent the draft bylaw to Mayor Sandra Cooper, Deputy Mayor Rick Lloyd, Wingrove, Clerk Almas, Houghton, and three other Aird and Berlis lawyers.
One hour later, Houghton sent a new draft to Wingrove once again removing the report-to-council clause.
A couple more back-and-forth emails and the final draft approved by council did not include a report-to-council clause.
Wingrove objected to that exclusion.
“My concern was that we were asking council to take a decision on a matter that was not yet complete,” said Wingrove, adding she didn’t know until receiving inquiry documents that PowerStream had input into the town’s bylaw.
Later, Houghton’s lawyer, Fred Chenoweth, suggested there was a good reason for PowerStream to look at the bylaw in the interest of making sure it’s right.
“Wouldn’t that be a reason?” he asked Wingrove during his cross-examination.
“No, because normal practice would have been that those agreements would have been completed and the bylaw simply reflects council’s decision to move forward with those agreements,” said Wingrove. "The negotiations would have been complete."
She told McGrann earlier in the day she was very concerned about the process followed to come up with the draft bylaw and she had “multiple phone calls” with the town’s lawyers (Longo and Mascarin) on the matter.
“I felt at the time that I had done what I could do,” said Wingrove.
Finally, McGrann asked Wingrove about her termination from her job at the town. Wingrove said she was told by the Mayor (Cooper) and Deputy Mayor (Lloyd) on a Tuesday morning that council had decided to terminate her employment and Wingrove said they asked her to consider resigning.
“They tried to make the pitch that it would be better for everyone if I just resigned,” said Wingrove. “I said I wouldn’t do that.”
Wingrove was fired on April 10, 2012.
The hearing today has concluded. Not all parties have had a chance to cross-examine Wingrove as a witness. Commissioner Frank Marrocco said he would bring Wingrove back in May when she returned from holidays to complete the cross-examination. The next hearing date is Tuesday, April 23. Former mayor Sandra Cooper is the next name on the witness list.