January 19/04 Report
9:30 am in the Council Chambers

Committee members in Attendance:
Chad Collins - Chair,
Dave Mitchell - Vice Chair
Dave Braden
Phil Bruckler
Murray Ferguson
Tom Jackson - entered 10:25 am
Margaret McCarthy
Sam Merulla
Mayor DiIanni - ex-officio member - entered about 9:54 am; apologized for not being able to stay due to a meeting with the Premier, left at 10:48 am and returned at 12:50 pm missing the delegations on "water" but returning for the final votes

Non-Committee Councillors in attendance:
Brian McHattie - entered 9:53 am
Maria Pearson
Terry Whitehead - entered 11:04 am

The meeting was very long, lasting at least until 2:30 pm. There was a short break after 2 pm when I left, but there was still an agenda item to deal with after the break. The above description of councillors coming and going is not likely completely accurate because due to the length of the meeting Councillors were leaving for washroom and food breaks - I heard there was pizza in a room just off the Council chamber.

The major business for this meeting was 1. for Councillors to hear a recap of the two week previous committee meeting - Monday, January 5, 2004, staff presentation which was a recommendation to enter into a public-private partnership (ppp) with a private company through a tendering process, to accept one of these companies to operate and maintain Hamilton's water and wastewater system. I won't go into details but Hamilton is just coming to the end of a ten year contract with private water/wastewater management done by a series of companies - beginning with Philip Environmental in 1994 which company went bankrupt and began the series of companies to the present on of American Water Services (AWS) which is owned by a larger multinational conglomerate.
The staff presentation was done by Jim Harnum of the Public Works Dept. (He was also the main presenter one week ago) and consisted of slides reviewing the recommendation and Councillor questions from last meeting answered. However, the staff report attached to the agenda was identical to the one attached to the January 5 agenda. The written staff presentation found in the agenda basically presented - a. To keep the ppp and put out tenders to companies to bid on keeping the present system; b. To go to a municipal or public system as is the case for most municipalities in North America. Pro's and cons were presented for each option but there was no costing of the public one and a statement of $703 thousand per year saving for the ppp option. 2. Public delegations had been invited from the previous meeting to speak for 5 minutes to the two options presented by staff

All other business of the Committee was postponed including a delegation request - from Hamilton Action for Social Change regarding Aboriginal Treaty Rights (in Red Hill Valley) and a discussion item on Smart Commute Initiative (two people in wheelchairs who were there to speak to this issue were required to sit from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm - 5 hours without a lunch break!).

Councillors were given a chance to ask questions on the presentation and I won't transcribe all of my notes but it became clear that Councillors McHattie, Merulla and Jackson were very unhappy with the way in which the options were presented and the recommendation for one option with a lack of information presented on the public option. McHattie in particular asked for information on the previous contract - details as to how many times an over $10 thousand maintenance expenditure was done over the last ten years. This is the cut-off line for who is responsible for the repair - the operator if below, the City if above. Councillor Mitchell didn't want staff to spend time on the past; Merulla said - "how can we make a decision today?" DiIanni said there were more "knowns" than "unknowns" and is in favour of the ppp. Merulla wanted to know - if privatization has so many efficiencies why not privatize police, fire and ambulance services?
At 10:50 am the public delegations began. Collins asked the speakers to keep their remarks to "5 to 10" minutes each. I will list them below but not summarize all their remarks - just summarize the general trends of opinion:

1. Joan Field
2. Sid Ryan of CUPE who was speaking for Gus Oliveira and CUPE 5167
3. Wayne Marston, President, Hamilton & District Labour Council
4. John Thombs - retired City Works employee
5. John Shymko - The Council of Canadians - Hamilton Chapter
6. George Sorger - WATER - High School students Water testing results at the Woodward St. Treatment plant
7. Lynda Lukasik - Environment Hamilton
8. Sarah Ehrhardt - Council of Canadians Water Council
9. Stan Spencer - AWS Vice President - present operator in Hamilton - a powerpoint presentation
10. Murray Lumley
11. Andrea Kelly - Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace
12. Don McLean
13. Marilyn Baxter - Bay Area Restoration Counci
14. David Pace
15. Charles Eleved
16. Richard McDonald
17. Margaret Vernon

All of the above speakers except Stan Spencer (representing the present private operator) spoke against having Hamilton enter the ppp and wanted Hamilton to at least consider the public option more carefully. Marilyn Baxter did not favour or oppose the ppp. Some criticisms/comments (I won't quote all) were that this brief consultation is not sufficient - by being held in the daytime it shuts out people who must be at work; the whole process does not follow the recommendations of Justice O'Connor of the Walkerton Inquiry or the Munk Report (referred to at least three times by speakers) - "Good Governance in Municipal Restructuring of Water and Wastewater in Canada" - November 2002 (which Hamilton had some responsibility for) which recommended transparency, openness, accountability and that the public must be consulted and at least three options and up to six options considered (City staff only presented two and recommended one).

#12 Don M. recommended that the City keep the Municipal option alive even if going to ppp tenders,so as to keep some competition on the table. He stated that Hamilton's budget of $1billion while some of the multinational water giants have budgets of more than $40 billion would make negotiations a David and Goliath scenario. #16 speaker Richard M. who had real experience setting up water systems in Mexico using a very consultative model for the U.N., warned that the multinational water companies have a poor record in poor countries but maybe Hamilton could hold them to account (?).

#17 Margaret Vernon who hadn't come prepared to speak was perhaps the most eloquent when she said "if I had to make a decision today based on the lack of facts backing up each option I would vomit."

At about 1:00 pm the Committee conducted further discussion on the matter. Merulla moved to table the decision because not all the people have been consulted. McHattie, Mitchell and DiIanni (who returned to the meeting sometime at the end of the delegations discussed the $10 thousand threshold for maintenance once again; McHattie felt this rule represented a "loophole" for the private operator to just allow a piece of equipment to deteriorate if it would cost more than $10 thousand to fix, placing the cost on the City; DiIanni asked "how will past history help us"? Whitehead also could see no reason why the operator couldn't share its information with staff; DiIanni proposed a two year "snapshot" instead of looking through ten years of records. A motion to ask for the ten year information from staff was made by Merulla and seconded by Jackson. It was defeated with Merulla, Jackson and McCarthy and Collins voting for it; Mitchell, Bruckler, Ferguson, Braden and DiIanni (all suburban) opposed. Note that DiIanni effectively cast the deciding vote.
An in camera session was requested to deal with a financial "reconcilliation" problem between the City and AWS. Jackson expressed disappointment that a decision to go with a private contract was being considered at the same time as an unknown reconciliation with the present operator. He "could not make a decision today." Merulla recommended tabling the decision until further public consultation. Whitehead - "why can't we get stats from private contractor?" McCarthy wondered why Hamilton was going private when only 6% of municipalities are going this way. Jackson - "why can't we hear the facts on the present contract?" Merulla made a motion to table the decision, seconded by Jackson. It was defeated - Merulla, Jackson, Collins voted for; McCarthy, Ferguson, DiIanni, Bruckler, Mitchell and Braden opposed.
Merulla became more frustrated - "can't believe we're moving on the motion based on the lack of information from staff" - he said "this stinks"; McHattie was disillusioned,disappointed and a disturbing decision - more information needed on the public operation, Walkerton was being ignored; Collins finally spoke up and indicated why he wouldn't be voting for the ppp - many calls to his ofice, water an essential service; should be public, sees risks in ppp; Jackson was opposed, nervous; not enough information, company names keep changing. Couldn't hear anything Ferguson said but he was ok with the recommendation. Whitehead was disappointed - this ten year contract on water needs as much consultation and information as the budget. DiIanni said "keep focus on water quality - it has not been criticized." The vote to accept the staff report was carried by the same numbers as the previous vote.

Council adjourned for a few minutes and still had one item to deal with but I left just before 2:30 pm.

Another excellent article on this meeting by John Milton can be found at http://hamilton.indymedia.org/feature/display/5451/index.php

Public Presentations and Councillors

Public Presentations began at 10:48, ended about 12:50

• DiIanni: left at 10:48 returned at 12:47, so he heard none of the public speakers all the way through
• Collins: gone less than 5 minutes
• Mitchell: left at 12:07 back at 12:25;
• Ferguson: left at 10:30 back at 10:54; left at 11:40 back at 11:50; left at 12:35 back at 12:45 (missed part or all of eight speakers)
• McCarthy: left at 12:40 back at 12:48
• Braden: gone less than 5 minutes
• Merulla: left at 11:40 back at 11:48; left at 12:26 back at 12:50
• Jackson: left at 10:42 back at 11:16; left at 11:40 back at 11:48
• Bruckler: there all the time