David Free and Meaford

Ratepayers Newsletter of 2005

2009-05-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

MEAFORD VOICES
Newsletter of the Residents Association of Meaford, Sydenham and St Vincent
Edition 4 Sept/05Taxpayers discuss Meaford municipal affairs
main page

Chair: Graeme Kirkland, Vice Chairs: Jake Doherty, Ian Fife, Georgina Hill, Treasurer, Bill Taylor, Secretary Donna Phillips, Directors Bonnie Fife, Anne Kirkland, Terence Phillips, Dave Collis, John Howard, Margaret Howard, Ben Kortland, Monique Doherty, Peter Silvester, Ken Thomson, Judy Thomson, Don Haddow, Gord Phillips, Grant Walker. Gerd Heber, Peggy Richardson

THE FACTS ARE IN Ratepayer concerns about the administration of Meaford were justified.
According to:
• a report by staff at the Ministry of Municipal affairs,
• another by BDO Dunwoody, Municipal auditors and
• a report by, the recently appointed Treasurer of Meaford, David Free.

Ratepayer concerns over the administration of the Municipality of Meaford were justified and the situation is probably worse that we ever knew, with the limited information available to the public.

The Minister of Municipal Affairs, The Honourable John Gerretson, has replied to Meaford ratepayers' petition for an audit. He did not authorize the audit requested, but he sent back a 49 page report from his staff. The report, commented on our concerns and said that a lot of things in Meaford needed fixing. It made numerous recommendations.

The Minister's response was disappointing. The three reports which are now available, suggest that the Municipality has incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, in unnecessary cost to taxpayers, over the five years since amalgamation.

We will never know the full amount of taxes we have paid to cover this waste and we can never recover money spent. We can and must now convince all members of Council that the time is up. The Municipality's administration must be fixed. No more excuses for staff and no more delays.
The act of signing the ratepayer petition had a far greater impact than perhaps taxpayers realize. It put Council under the spotlight at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and both Councillors and auditors felt the pressure.

Reluctantly perhaps, Council eventually supported the petition and the Mayor's proposal to split the job of Clerk/Treasurer and hire a new treasurer.

In March this year Council hired David Free, a highly qualified individual, as Treasurer. While Council did not give him their unqualified support, they did agree to do something which we had campaigned for at the last election; they appointed citizen volunteers to a new, advisory committee of every Municipal department.

Petition Background

a. In August 2004, fifty ratepayers decided to appeal to the Minister of Municipal affairs to audit the affairs of Meaford. When this idea became public, over one thousand other residents wanted to sign the petition. The petition was sent to the Minister on September 13th 2004. To justify the request a listing of over 100 items of concern was included with the petition. The lead petitioners met with Ministry officials on October 19, 2004 and addressed the following seven broad categories of concerns
b.
c. Conflicts of interest, dereliction of duty and code of conduct
b. Budgets and financial reporting
c. cash management accounts payable and account receivable practices
d. Human resources policies, practices and expense control
e. Purchasing practices and inventory control
f. Employee and council payroll practices,

Specific Municipal decisions The Minister's response to the petition was received on July 18th 2005, Ten months after it was submitted. Mayor Reif Through the efforts of Mayor Wally Reif, with support from Deputy Mayor Harley Greenfield and Councillor, Frances Richardson, Council finally acknowledged the concerns of residents and supported the petition for an audit.
Mayor Reif was elected on a platform of openness, honesty and integrity. His experience and expertise in public accounting and administration, has provided very strong support for the improvements sought by the Residents Association. His patience and persistence have already led to many improvements in the Municipality, during the long wait for a decision by the Ministry.
The Mayor fully supports the idea that many more changes are necessary to fix the problems mentioned in the various reports now available to Council.

Treasurer David Free
In March 2005 Council hired David Free to be the new municipal treasurer.
In May, with Free facing obstruction and a lack of co-operation within the municipal offices, Mayor Reif presented a resolution to Council asking members of Council to endorse Free's activities for improving operations.

The resolution was defeated by old-time councillors in a 4 to 3 vote.

The Treasurer reviewed ratepayer concerns

One of Treasurer David Free's first acts in office was to review the list of ratepayers' concerns which was filed with the petition to the Province His findings, in a 19 page report, told Council that administration was inefficient, costs were out of control, the administration is so poor that we could be vulnerable to fraud and what few financial reports Council had received, were too little, too late and the numbers were wrong.

He reported that municipal assets were badly managed, bills not sent out, taxes not collected, recovery of GST not processed, interest rates paid were too high and. municipal sewer and water services were not adequately managed.

Free reported to Council that things are even worse than ratepayers realized, with the limited information available to them and told them that the concerns presented by the ratepayers are warranted.

Still, a hard core of old time Councillors failed to express shock or horror at this devastating report and at the failures that took place on their watch.

What the Minister said:
In his letter to petitioners, the Minister said " I would like to acknowledge the commitment of the lead petitioners in pursuing and encouraging good governance practices in your community and I commend you for your helpful approach ..." and reported that:
"There is evident need for Meaford Council and administration to give priority to positive changes that will assist in building public trust, improving internal and external communication and strengthening council and staff relations."

What the Ministry staff said:

The Ministry staff report was long but light on original thought and some of its comments are factually incorrect.

The report largely repeated the points made by petitioners and responses given by staff. In many cases they avoided the issues and said "This matter is a local decision of Council and administration"

They referred us to the Act that governs Meaford and all Ontario Municipalities" 'The Municipal Act states that: It is the role of council to develop and evaluate the policies and programs of the Municipality and to maintain the financial integrity of the Municipality " and said "the Province of Ontario expects local councils to be good financial managers." Items on which they did express an opinion, were couched as recommendations such as these:

Review existing policies and practices for accounts receivable, accounts payable and taxation billing.

a. Improve awareness of long term commitments such as proposals, costs, budget impacts, long term financing, cost recovery, expected outcomes.
b. Hold budget discussions earlier in the year.
c. Prepare an update on investment matters.
d. Make an effort to educate public about purchasing policies.
e. The human resources area needs to be brought up to current days' standards in terms of establishing the rules of business within the Municipality .
f. Formulate a code of conduct for members of council and employees.
g. Develop a quarterly newsletter with information about projects, planned meetings, and opportunities for public input.
h. Prepare a written policy on personal use of municipal vehicles.
i. Develop policies on Fire Board issues.
j. Prepare a policy as to what constitutes a meeting for council remuneration purposes.
k. Review purchasing practices for consistency

What the auditors said:

The Municipal auditors, BDO Dunwoody, prepared and reviewed the 2004 financial statements.
Preparation of the statements required three hundred adjusting entries. This is fair evidence of how inaccurate the accounting was.

This was their fourth audit since creation of the amalgamated Municipality. In their report to Council and Ratepayers, under the interested eye of the Province, and with a eye on the ratepayer petition, they put their concerns in writing in a way they had not done previously.
This time, they came back with the some of the same comments as David Free. They reported that, internal controls are inadequate, accounting is inadequate, management of municipal assets is inadequate etc. These are some of their comments:

a. Unpaid taxes amount to $1.5 million. Free's comment.... We can have them down to less than $400,000 by year end
b. Reserves amount to $3.4 million. Free's comment ... there are far too many reserves
c. The Municipality has spent $2.0 million on capital expenditure stretching back as far as 2001, which have not been financed by taxation or by borrowing. Free's comment... a significant effort is required to address these matters.
d. We assessed control risks as below maximum. Free's comment.... Below maximum is an understatement.
e. The Municipality has made $52,000 of payments of behalf of developers. Free's comment... these amounts have now been billed to developers.
f. There is an opportunity for unauthorized changes to pay rates and other unauthorized adjustments. Free's comment ... the salary system should be changed from hourly to salary
g. The accounting system permits anyone with access to the accounting program to make adjustments to the books. Free's comment.... Security for the financial systems is very wanting and must be addressed.
h. We recommend that management prioritize a review of the control over cash collections from off-site locations (pool harbour, arena campground). Free's comment.... Little to nothing has been done to correct this for four years, despite public outcry and an annual citing of weaknesses by the auditors.
i. Employees are entitled to a payout of half of unused sick leave. The unrecorded liability at year end was$39,000. Free's comment.... It is suggested that sick leave benefit be terminated entirely. These payments are bonuses we cannot afford.
j. The municipality shows an unfunded liability of $920,000 for post employment benefits of the former Town of Meaford staff. Free's comment... The exact amount is unknown. We need professional help, from a actuary, to calculate it.

Agenda for the next 12 months

Council's job now is to make sure that issues raised in these reports are addressed and things that are wrong are corrected.

Councillors must put their denials and their petty political agendas away, and throw their support fully behind Wally Reif and David Free and insist that things that are broken, get fixed.

We are entering an election year. In November '06 we get to choose again who we want to run the municipality. Here are the top items we would like to see Council achieve before we are asked to vote.

Ratepayers efforts over four years.

Following amalgamation in 2000, the 14% reduction in taxes, which was promised did not materialize.

Municipal costs rocketed up and turned into a 40% increase in taxes.
For four years Meaford ratepayers have been telling Council that costs are out of control and financial reporting, financial controls, budgeting are defective.
Ratepayers presented reports to council, wrote letters to the papers, ran a survey of citizens and,, during the2003 election, campaigned for openness, accountability and public participation. One thousand signed a petition to the Province asking to have Meaford audited.

Throughout all this, a hard core of Councillors, our elected representatives, denied there was anything seriously wrong in the administration of Meaford, and maintained that staff were overworked and that things were being fixed.
They have been proven wrong. Things are seriously amiss. They can be fixed but it will take time.

1. Give full support to David Free and communicate to staff that Council will not tolerate any obstructions to him doing his job.
2. Prepare and implement a tough code of conduct policy for staff and members of Council.
3. Prepare a comprehensive human resource and payroll policy and procedures.
4. Prepare the 2006 budget before the end of 2005
5. Make whatever changes are needed, so that monthly financial statements can be delivered to Council.
6. Restructure the Municipal organization so that morale is improved and staff are allowed to flourish.

Councillors have 12 months to show us that they take their responsibilities to us seriously. There is time to do this. Come election day we will have to choose who among the candidates we will trust with our money.

Organization and Leadership

Under the present organization, four senior staff members report to committees of Council. Morale is low. Inevitably with this kind of organization, turf wars exist and progress is impeded. It will take leadership and a team spirit to fix what ails Meaford
Council can fix this problem by appointing a Chief Administrative Officer to whom all senior staff report.

Notable quotes
"Stop re-offenders. Don't re-elect them" ... A roadside sign "Being accountable means, I have to give you the reasons for my decisions".... Mayor Wally Reif
"I will never support a zero tax increase for 2005"... Councillor Sam Luckhardt
"The Meaford Hall budget is flexible"... Chair of Meaford Hall Board John Kerr.
"Denying fault in the face of facts is irresponsible and unprofessional"... David Free, Treasurer

Sewage Treatment plant

The Treasurer has revealed that Meaford sewage treatment plant is processing hundreds of thousands of litres of rainwater. He would like to see a capital expenditure project next year which would separate sanitary and drainage sewers and so save hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment costs. He expects that the project would pay for itself in savings over just three years. The treasurer besides his accounting designation has a degree in civil engineering.
Meaford Hall completion date delayed.

The original date for opening the renovated Meaford Hall, for public use, was Christmas this year. At Council, on Monday Aug 15th, John Kerr, Chair of the Meaford Hall Board, reported that completion of the Hall would be delayed until March 2006 because of a last minute decision to give the elevator eight foot doors, rather than the planned seven foot doors, to accommodate standard sheets of plywood.

The cost of borrowed money for the Hall renovation is about $20,000 a month and operating costs are expected to be in excess of $10,000 a month. Until the building opens, it cannot generate any revenue to offset these costs; delays are expensive.

Despite assurances that the project is on budget and on schedule, the final cost of the renovation has not been determined. Questions about the cost of furnishings, which were not included in the estimates approved by Council, remain unanswered.

The brief conceptual plan for operation of the Hall was presented to the public on April 19th 2003. More than two years later, Council has still not seen a proper business plan. Ratepayers are urging Council to insist that a business and marketing plan be prepared, to enable the Board to start taking bookings for its use. It is in everyone's interest that the building be well used.

Councillor Luckhardt is the only member of Council to sit on the Hall Board.
This newsletter is brought to you as a public service. It was delivered to every address in the Municipality, at a cost to RAMSS members of about $1,400.

NO Deficits in Meaford Under the Financial Management and Corporate Leadership of David Free

2009-04-13T03:23:00.000-07:00

In ALL instances and under my leadership, Meaford complied with all laws and professional practices.

The financial statements of 2006 as prepared and authored by BDO CLEARLY show there was a $131,000 surplus.

Insofar as the fiscal year 2007 my management of the corporation was effectively over thrown by the mayor and deputy mayor in February of 2007 as the CAO/CFO to advance their personal agenda of anarchy. Based on my limited knowledge of the final 2007 financial results causing the alleged deficit, there were; legal settlements, significant legal costs, runaway projects, a hiring spree in transportation, a general hiring spree (12 extra people), expensing of capital projects and ultimately the total absence of fiscal or operational management.

I cannot comment on 2008 other than, Section 290(3) of the municipal act provides;
(3) In preparing the budget for a year, the local municipality,
(a) shall treat any operating surplus of any previous year as revenue that will be available during the year;
(b) shall provide for any operating deficit of any previous year and for the cost of the collection of taxes and any abatement or discount of taxes;

Based on my observations this has NOT been done for 2008 or 2009.

David Free and Meaford: Customer Service Excellence Award 2006 by Meaford Chamber of Commerce

2009-03-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

David Free and Meaford: Esteemed GTF Board Member Resigns in frustration (Privacy of the individual respected)

2009-03-21T06:45:00.001-07:00

A highly respected member of the community (doctor), with significant depth in directorship and governance (Canadian universities) resigns his position on the GTF board in frustration over the actions and attitude of its members. See body of letter below (Privacy has been respected)

David Free and Meaford: Accuracy, Accountability and the Media

2009-03-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

(What Others are Saying) As posted on the other blog site is complete rubbish, lies and obviously serves someone who is emotionally disturbed and obviously a Georgian Theatre Festival supporter.

No one is identified for his or her comments except for one, who emphatically denies this statement as it provided on this site. Commentary by Tom Nesbitt is absolutely false. A personal meeting with Tom months ago stated he was shocked by the report noting that he did talk to a secretive journalist who was trying to put words in this mouth. When Tom tried to have the statement corrected the newspaper refused.

The alleged response on my cell phone as printed on the website is absolutely false.

The issue related to the GTF lawsuit is in the hands of the courts as others have formally noted, there was no choice other than legal means in an attempt to stop their malicious self absorbed attacks on myself. Council agreed to protects its employees and like it or not they agreed to pay for the legal action as a means to stop the continuing harassment and defamation to myself by the employee, board of directors and their volunteers of the GTF. As one witness states "It is my firm belief that throughout the summer of 2006, Mr. Free acted in the best interests of the municipality in dealing with Ms. Staines and the GTF. At all times, I found Mr. Free to be professional in his dealings with myself, Meaford Hall, as well as the GTF and Ms. Staines. The GTF, on the other hand, acted vindictively towards Mr. Free and, from what I witnessed and overheard during my time at the hall, made it their goal to discredit Mr. Free and ruin his reputation within the community through slander and misinformation."

My business style is to achieve results. Shareholders, ratepayers, boards of directors expect nothing less. Anyone who believes that leaders are put in place to lose is grossly misinformed. Business is not pretty and there is aggressive competition. In turn around situations no one has time for platitudes or niceties, it is either succeed or die. When I inherited the financial affairs of Meaford it was near death several times notwithstanding fostering operations that made its survival fragile at best.

As stated previously, the author of the suethearts website fabricates information and hides their identity. All of this is cowardly in particular in the fact of the posted lies. A web site that specializes in reputation management provides anecdotes of people subject to anonymous bloggers and irresponsible media that attacks individuals. These video interviews speaks to the character of attackers and the damage they try to do. You are encourage to go this link and watch the video interviews to see what others have had to tolerate in their lives and the legal impacts that follow.

https://www.reputationdefender.com/pressRoom

David Free and Meaford: 2007 BUDGET REPORTED BY THE MEAFORD EXPRESS

2009-03-20T04:19:00.000-07:00

The problems stem from the media (Owen Sound Sun Times)July 2007

2009-03-12T04:21:00.002-07:00

Editor:

I don't know if I am the only one fed up with the local media's preoccupation with Meaford and its problems, but I certainly have had it up to here.

While Mr. Den Tandt may argue the point, it has become apparent to me that selling papers is more important than reporting the news.

The latest article by freelancer Frank Dabbs in The Sun Times is just one more example of what I feel is biased reporting.

Mr. Dabbs' opening salvo calls Free the "undisputed boss of the administration and a member of a tight-knit echelon leading the life of the municipality."

To my way of thinking those are fighting words, highly-charged words with a negative connotation.

He is, in fact, referring to the mayor and council - a mayor and council elected democratically, despite the media's best efforts to bring about the contrary result, by an overwhelming majority of the citizens who were totally fed up with the old boy's club that had run things - not well - in the past. Dabbs says, referring to the election of Reif et al, "led by two conservative lobby groups." I am not in either group but may I suggest that it is made up of citizens of all political stripes.

"Free has become a political lightning rod for the controversies he fanned."

Oh? That's funny.

I would have said that Claudia Staines, the former manager of the Georgian Theatre Festival, had a fair part in that nonsense.

We have a theatre group that failed to pay the rent and wanted to sail along without reins.

Thankfully Free and council had the common sense to call them on it, whereas Staines took it upon herself to write various arts groups in the province telling them about the controversy.

Now we also find out that essentially, that group is insolvent and cannot afford to stage plays in Owen Sound.

"Veteran political participants say he inherited the administrative fallout of amalgamation acrimony pitting the former town of Meaford against the townships of Sydenham and St. Vincent."

I suggest that that is inaccurate. We were not unhappy to go with Meaford, except they had major financial failings when we came on board. Huge commitments, debts yet to be paid and high taxes.

When Free came in he had to clean up a big mess.

We had not had timely financial statements or budgets in who knows how long. Apparently a big grant was almost missed. The municipality, by point of fact, was running almost rudderless.

Since Free, we have had no tax increase for three years. A coincidence? I think not.

Then we have the discussion by Dabbs about Ian McCallum, the arts executive and consultant who, according to Dabbs, was "on the wrong end of Free's plans." Free simply had the temerity to question McCallum's business plan.

Frankly, I don't know much about arts or cultural programs, but as a chartered accountant, I know nonsense when I see it, whether presented by a "consultant" or not. When I saw the estimates for revenues, etc., for the theatre group, it was obvious to me that someone had rose-coloured glasses on.

It was ludicrous, as proven out by recent disclosure of financial shortfalls of that group. It is patent nonsense to suggest that if one wants an arts /theatre group to be financially accountable, one is anti-arts, anti-culture.

Dabbs refers to acrimony between long-term residents and newcomer affluent retirees.

This paragraph follows one where an anonymous resident is quoted as saying Free doesn't "get it" about local political rivalries. Well, I have yet to meet anyone who thinks throwing up fences, signs and boulders on a road allowance to keep people away from the water - a road allowance which has been used for years - is either OK or neighbourly. To my way of thinking, those kind of people should just take their ball and go home. To blame Free for that one is out of this world.

Dabbs goes into Free's academic and career background at length. In fact, it is so at length and in-depth that it is obvious that someone handed over Free's resume to Dabbs. I should hope that there will be a firing over this disclosure of confidential information.

I have never met Mr. Free, but I would be delighted to sit down with him one day and hear his side of the story.

One thing is clear, however. He knows how to clean up a mess and he is willing to institute change where and when it is needed.

Dabbs says "once the campaign and the mayor was re-elected and deferential rookie councillors replaced those who had challenged Reif and Free in the past . . ."

Now if that is not innuendo, what is? Good heavens, we have highly successful independent thinkers on our council now. Just because they know right from wrong and vote accordingly does not make them deferential.

Has Dabbs ever looked at the curricula vitae of these people? One was an administrator in Georgian College, another is a teacher. Deferential? I think not. Opposed to Dabbs' view? Of course.

Finally, Dabbs makes sure he gets the quotes in from Free about "not wanting the f . . . ing thing (the profile) done." Given Dabbs obvious slant, which I have illustrated in the foregoing, I don't blame Free. I personally would have just hung up.

But I don't blame Free for swearing. He has been put through the wringer by the local media.

Maybe an article about his many accomplishments for the municipality is now in order but, fat chance.

Will this article get published? I doubt it. Should it? You bet.

It's high time fair play came to the table and time we, the people of Meaford, are left to work things out without media stirring the pot.

We have a lovely community.

We are on the right track.

Now leave us alone.

Tim Thompson
Annan

David Free and Meaford: NO DEFICIT FOR 2006 FOR MEAFORD:

2009-03-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

David Free and Meaford: CODE OF CONDUCT RECOMMENDED BY MINISTRY OF MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS

2009-03-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

David Free and Meaford: Meaford Finances Fraud Susceptibility High in 2004

2009-03-09T10:18:00.001-07:00

David Free and Meaford: Meaford's Reserve and Debt Position Strategy

2009-03-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

Meaford Financial History & 2006 Results Commentary

2009-03-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

David Free and Meaford: Mayor of Meaford Ordered 20 People to be fired

2009-03-09T06:30:00.001-07:00

Despite attempts to ignore this bizarre order, the firing of municipal staff was the primary goal of the mayor after his election in 2006. At every turn the mayor was told by myself to obtain the consent of Council to fire all of these individuals since complying with a request from a single Councillor was not legal nor permissible. This issue never came before Council instead every conversation with the mayor was consumed with orders to fire certain individuals alleging everything from extra marital affairs to people being too old.

In some instances staff left the municipality seeing the writing on the wall with respect to disrespectful treatment by the mayor. In one instance a staff member with 2 months to retirement was ordered to be fired or terminated. There was an outright refusal to comply with this order. The Director of HR was aware of these stresses at the time. In many instances these people were targeted for personal reasons of the mayor or some unqualified accusation.

Because of my refusal to engage in these insane and unethical orders my future became limited and the CAO - Mayor relationship detiorated. The former mayor has attempted to deny these directives were issued several times however there is email evidence and credible first hand witnesses.

People to be fired as ordered by Mayor Wally Reif December 2006;

1. Director of Operations (left for Oro Medonte) (high priority firing)
2. Director of Community Services (left for Clearview before he was fired)(high priority firing)
3. Director of Human Resources (to be terminated within 6 months)(high priority firing)
4. Acting Clerk – Lynda Galbraith (deceased)
5. Meaford Hall Manager (contract to be terminated)
6. Tax Collector and Payroll Clerk – Marg Acres
7. Acting CBO – Rick Carefoot (high priority firing)
8. Building Inspector – Terry Freeborn (retired)
9. Accounts Receivable Clerk – Sandy Freeborn (retired)
10. Executive Assistant – Deb Van Landyut
11. Sarah Morrison (left for County)
12. Nancy Eagles (repositioned in clerical)
13. Janette Scott
14. Rod Willis
15. Joanne Collyer (repositioned in Finance)
16. Eileen Plassot – Meaford Hall
17. Mark Pendleton
18. Bob Sutherland (to retire)
19. Deputy Treasurer - Valerie Manning (left for other employment)

Later Firing Orders

20. David Hunks

David Free and Meaford Uncovering Grocery Voucher Problems

2009-03-09T04:22:00.001-07:00

A Meaford Board had put over $400k of the municipality's unsecured cash in the hands various members of the public hands through a fund raising scheme. Regardless of the high risk issues for losses the scheme cost the municipality money instead of raising funds. This report attempts to mitigate the damages and losses for the municipality.

One of the worst Municipal Scams Could have cost Meaford $400,000

2009-03-09T04:18:00.000-07:00

David Free and Meaford SUMMARY OF MEAFORD DEEP ROOTED FINANCIAL PROBLEMS

2009-03-09T04:12:00.001-07:00

Meaford has been described by myself on several occasions as fragile with respect to its ability to survive the projects essentially imposed by its special interest groups. All budget presentations, dialogue with the public and Council also described Meaford as a Financial Mess!

Much work was done to correct deep rooted problems in 2005, 2006 and 2007 however, there was nothing that could save the municipality from runaway projects, bad structure, financial incompetence, inadequate resources and volatile politics.

Meaford Hall was a project that the community could not remotely afford. It could not afford the debt servicing or its operational deficits. This was a common message in all financial reporting and budgets since 2005. Regardless the runaway project has been the source of the community and corporations problems pitting people against one another over an old building that should have been demolished. The Meaford Hall project was 20% over budget ($1,000,000) and 18 months behind schedule. And while other communities struggle to keep basic municipal services Meaford was building a luxury building to serve an arts community that could not or would not pay market price. All of this at the expense of critical infrastructure deteriorating before our eyes.

Regardless the Hall was built and added cost($600,000 in operational costs per year), distractions and the need for unique management and attention for the municipality. This project was approved by the Gerald Short Council and could have and should have been over turned under the Wally Reif Council. There were no supporting reports that provided a comprehensive cost model to the municipality nor was there information identifying its overall financial and administrative impact. Any modest amount of analysis before the project would have indicated a possible 25% to 40% increase in taxes that might have kept the project from moving forward.

Significant professional effort was engaged to improve the operational position of the Meaford Hall. Benchmarking other municipal theater facilities clearly indicated significant new costs were going to be added consequently to be supported by taxation. What was worse for the community a special interest group believed that they should be able to have exclusive use of the hall for almost no cost.

If all of the above was not bad enough, Council had directed and sustained its direction over 4 years to keep taxes increase to a zero level pressured by ratepayer associations. The politicians wanted the fiscal accolades but they did not want the fiscal impacts of their direction which simply more debt. In addition to all of this, Meaford financial systems were in ruin. General ledgers did not contain bank accounts, reserves or many of the operational entities. How any auditor could do an audit was incomprehensible. What was later revealed that financial audits since amalgamation were and remain materially misstated.

During budget deliberations and reports to Council, Meaford's situation was often to referred to as the "perfect financial storm". Lots of project, no funding, no reporting, and no interest to take drastic steps correct the situation. The politicians wanted to bask in the zero tax increase accomplishment however, they did not want to acknowledge the longer term financial impacts of their mandate.

David Free and Meaford: Meaford Projects in Financial Mess: David Free fixed issues and saved millions

2009-03-09T04:09:00.001-07:00

David Free and Meaford Recommends a Foundation to support Capital Needs of Meaford Hall (Approved by Council)

2009-03-09T03:57:00.000-07:00

David Free and Meafords fixes Meaford Hall Project Finances

2009-03-09T03:54:00.000-07:00

2005 MAYORS RANT, for David Free and Meaford CFO

2009-03-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

David Free and Meaford Report by CAO/CFO regarding GTF Imposing Financial liability on Corporation

2009-03-05T12:39:00.001-08:00

David Free CAO/CFO Memo: Meaford in Financial Ruin in 2004 on the Road to Recovery in 2005

2009-03-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

David Free and Meaford: Municipal Councillor's Breach of Privacy and Censure related to David Free and Meaford

2009-03-05T12:23:00.000-08:00

David Free and Meaford: Letter of Reference (Privacy Protected)

2009-03-05T07:17:00.001-08:00

David Free and Meaford: Letter of Recommendation (Municipality of Meaford)

2009-03-05T07:11:00.001-08:00

David Free and Meaford: Letter of Recommendation (Privacy Protected)

2009-03-05T07:08:00.000-08:00

David Free and Meaford: Excerpt of Letter of Recommendation (Source Protected by Privacy)

2009-03-05T07:03:00.000-08:00

David Free and Meaford: Municipal Council's Position Regarding the GTF 2007

2009-03-05T06:56:00.001-08:00

David Free and Meaford: Witness to Alleged Incidents of Concern to the GTF 2006

2009-03-05T06:52:00.000-08:00

David Free and the GTF Law Suit (Media Release)

2009-03-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

David Free and Meaford Media Release by CAO/CFO; Meaford FINANCIAL MISTATEMENTS FISCAL YEAR 2006

2009-03-05T06:38:00.000-08:00

David Free and Meaford: Major Accomplishments (too many to list 75) Saving millions of dollars

2009-03-05T06:37:00.001-08:00

David Free and Meaford: The Other Blog

2009-03-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

The other blog contains information that has been taken from context and is meant as obviously as defamation of myself and the work done in Meaford. I will address the challenges of Meaford separately.

What Others Are Saying

All of the content on the "suethearts" site is rubbish and a total fabrication. This material is fictional written to fit an agenda of sick individuals. If they had any guts, class, or substance they would show their face and be accounted for.

The initial quote alleged by myself with respect to profanities to the Owen Sound Sun Times is a bare faced lie. I did not address the issue at the time because quite frankly the reputation of the journalist as less than honourable precedes him. The merit and value of this newspaper and its content is met when it lines the bird cages or finds it way as fire starter.

There is absolutely nothing within this section that can be supported by documentation. My references and accomplishments pre and post Meaford are stellar and supported by evidence.

I will address more in other postings.

David Free and Meaford: The Facts not the Fiction!

2009-03-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

I have created this blog site www.davidfreeandmeaford.blogspot.com to provide the truth with respect to my tenure with Meaford as the CAO/CFO formally rejecting lies and misinformation anonymously posted on another blog site. It is more than apparent that the "other blog site" exists to defame and discredit myself. The defamatory blog site exists for no other reason than to satisfy some deep rooted and demented emotional desire to spread lies or to seek revenge or better yet not owning up to their problems and shortcomings. Vengeful blogging has become a disturbing pattern of behaviour of cowardly vengeful people in the internet world. The bloggers are found out and successfully sued for multi millions of dollars. Please see attached link. https://www.reputationdefender.com/pressRoom

I was encouraged to create site to essentially provide context by listing the problems I inherited while in Meaford and how they were addressed and any recognition received along the way. I have had assistance in creating this blog in addition I have identified myself and contact information to be accountable for what is written, provided and posted.

I currently have no interest in Meaford nor its current state of affairs. Although I understand intimately the problems of the corporation, the politics of the community is quite frankly beyond help. I have occasional conversations with friends and sometimes I am contacted by people in the community with respect to stretching my memory on the past affairs of the community. I provide my best and honest response to those who are interested in listening.

Insofar as another blog site, this was apparently went online 20 days after my resignation from the municipality. This site is www.suethearts.blogspot.com. As stated this is obviously a GUTLESS attempt to defame or discredit my efforts in Meaford.

It is my understanding that since my departure the municipality has struggled financially and politically. Council should have been aware of the impact of my departure in 2007 but instead chose to ignore the risks. I issued a press release with respect to the problems of the 2006 financial statements and that remains. It was by February of 2007 I came to realize that Meaford was politically and financially a runaway corporation and there was little I could do in my capacity to "right the ship". For the record, the 2007 budget was at the hand of the mayor and deputy mayor in pursuit of another zero tax increase.

I will address some of the items within this suethearts blog site while others are just too foolish to provide any attention.

Thank you for your interest.

David Free, MBA, CMA, CET,