Mayor Cam Guthrie says the city needed to “get a handle” on what was happening with the city-owned corporation that runs Guelph Hydro.
On Wednesday the city announced it was taking full control of the board of Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc. (GMHI), the city-owned corporation that oversees Guelph Hydro and Envida, Guelph's community energy program.
It was being governed by a board that included municipal officials and a group of independent citizens.
“We needed a fresh set of eyes on what was happening at GMHI,” Guthrie said in an interview. “Greater reporting, greater transparency, greater accountability.
“I did not feel there was enough reporting coming back. I always had lots of questions. What’s going on over there? What’s happening?”
Guthrie became a member of the board when he became mayor.
The new board consists of Guthrie, councillors Karl Wettstein and Cathy Downer. City CAO Ann Pappert will be the new interim CEO. It will report to council on a quarterly basis.
The new set-up will be re-evaluated in roughly 18 months.
“The benefits to having a corporation set up are many. But when you have something that’s separated from the municipality it loses some of that transparency and reporting,” Guthrie said.
He made a point of stating the move had nothing to do with the performance of the outgoing board.
“It has zero to do with the independent directors. They were excellent,” Guthrie said.
Ted Sehl, the outgoing chair of the board, politely declined comment on the move.
“This move is a good thing. It’s exactly what we need to do as a corporation. It’s better for Guelph,” Guthrie said.
GMHI will now report to council on a quarterly basis.
Guthrie said the new governance model in interim and will be evaluated in roughly 18 months.
The 2015 annual report of GMHI has yet to be released. It is due by the end of June.
The decision to overhaul GMHI’s board was passed by a 10-3 vote of city council on Feb. 29 following an in-camera discussion.
Because the agenda for that meeting was for an in-camera session, there were no media present for the ensuing public session vote or any discussion that took place in the public session.
The city also announced on Tuesday that Pankaj Sardana will become the CEO of Guelph Hydro, taking over from Bud Smith, a GMHI board member appointed to the position 10 months ago on an interim basis.
Sardana had been serving as chief financial officer of GMHI, a position he formerly held at Guelph Hydro.
