By Pepper Parr
July 15th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Mayor Meed Watd told Council members that “What we’re here today to discuss is based on a procedural perspective. We directed staff, particularly the City Solicitor, to proceed in accordance with the the instructions as directed by committee. And of course the public doesn’t know what committee directed staff to do because too was done in a Closed session.
That is as much as we have for you at this time.
Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kears asked: “Do you think any conversations around bringing this particular item or scenario to the audit committee for review”?
Mayor Meed Ward replied: “The matter that’s before you is the legal report in relation to potential litigation with respect to the procurement process. Any discussion with audit is a completely separate matter and not related to the litigation and the matter that’s before you in this report right now.
That was all the public got.
Council went into closed session and came out an hour later, saying city legal counsel was meeting with both swimming clubs to find a solution that did not result in litigation.
Shortly after that Council adjourned – they come back in mid August.
Nothing more than that.
Cody Brandt, Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club (GHAC)
Everyone has buttoned down, working secretly, in that the public doesn’t know what is going on and we suspect few of the swimmers and their parents know very much. Bits and pieces will get mentioned which further confuses the issue.
It’s messy.
Cody Brandt, Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club (GHAC) attended the Council meeting – he didn’t delegate. There was no one present from the Burlington Aquatic Devilrays
There will be a bit more to pass along tomorrow.
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Bruce,
No biggie.
The City can Terminate for Convenience at any time per the T&C RFP issued that would form part of a final Contract if in fact it was or has or even been issued. That mitigated any claim if prompt action is taken.
The unethical approach taken in the RFP means that GHAC would need to poach swimmers from BAD as the RFP evaluation criteria astonishingly gave no credit for current local membership I strongly believe BAD have a much larger potential financial claim. Even damages etc. Worst case could collapse their organization.
What is astounding to me that this has not yet been brought to a conclusion. It seems that the entire administration and council are neutered incapable of action.
Most concerning as a taxpayer if this spectacle was a common situation just what other administrative improvements might be needed to handle maintenance needs, capital purchases and contracts for the city.
To reiterate a prior comment I made use of a construction RFP document is ridiculous when a straightforward one page pool rental agreement would suffice. The city could advertise annually, bi-annually etc. Interested parties could submit a pre-qualification document.
Bruce,
No, the RFP in itself is unethical in its structure especially giving no evaluation credit for the number of Burlington residents in any proponent’s program. After all these are Burlington pools.
There is no such thing as a “current, valid certificate of incorporation”. What should have been requested was written confirmation from Service Ontario that their non-profit corporations were in good standing.
How on earth does one see this as a competitive bidding situation. The pool rental rate is fixed along with number of hours. It might be competitive if there were no rates given and then lets award to the highest bidder for pool time. I do not advocate for that.
The use of a construction document in these matters is ludicrous. All either of these organizations are doing is “renting’ pool time for local swimmers, nothing more. A one-page rental agreement. You can google and find a template easily!
What is really concerning is that both staff and council appear to be completely neutered and are incapable of; recognizing the problem they have created; and taking prompt remedial actions. They prefer to hide behind the City Solicitor. Meanwhile the kids and their families suffer. Burlington needs new staff and a new council.
I can’t begin to imagine how this team functions at all when handling other serious matters involving expenditures. Little wonder the city portion of 2026 taxes is at 5.8% out of the gate. No wonder our municipal taxes have exploded.
Find me on LinkedIn. This is easily done, and we can grab a coffee. I will bring a copy of the 2025 RFP. We can go through it together. I have no interest in what they did in 2020.
What is a “procedural perspective”, anyway in lay terms? IMO the issue is and was grounded in how COB via an RFP process rejected the BAD proposal based on the questionable rejection of their bid based on the request of a document that is not provided by Service Ontario. Enough already with word salad responses. Time to get real.
A travesty.
The only reasonable costs GHAC could claim in litigation is the time their organization spent in developing their proposal. The longer though this “do nothing” administration and council does nothing could potentially add to their claim……
In the meantime, the Devilray’s potential claim will keep snowballing.
If this administration and politicos were only capable of fulfilling their responsibilities, recognizing their errors and promptly acting, consulting with the City Solicitor would be unnecessary.
Councils apparent action is to let the City Solicitor negotiate a solution. Unreal. They should all resign.