It’s painful to write this column.

Our city has a lot of good things going for it, but instead of tackling the issues that hold Winnipeg from reaching its potential, council has routinely been sidetracked by various shenanigans.

When one considers just the shenanigans that are public, it’s pretty clear that further investigation is needed.

Ask yourself when you last saw a reputable guy like Winnipeg Police Association President Mike Sutherland called for the RCMP to investigate the city? You couldn’t think of another situation either? Join the club.

When the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a donation-based taxpayers’ watchdog organization, presented at a recent council meeting on the fire hall audit, we suggested something similar; the police, RCMP or provincial government should step in.

That position was put forward after careful consideration and it wasn’t just based on the recent fire hall audit.

The audit on its own could perhaps slip by as ‘just another debacle’ at the city. But it’s not alone. It’s part of a pattern of large contracts being sole-sourced by the city.  It’s part of a pattern of transactions that have many scratching their heads and wondering, “what just happened?”

Also contributing to our position were concerns we heard about from people working in the commercial real estate industry. We proactively contacted a number of professionals in the industry to get their take on some of the more questionable deals and the feedback was unanimous – something is wrong. In fact, it’s rotten. Each participant seemed to have a different story of some highly questionable transaction.

We’re now at a point where almost everyone who follows things closely at city hall seems to have the same opinion – something just isn’t right.

Well, not everyone has picked up on that sentiment. Some councilors still seem to have their heads in the sand, blind to what everyone else sees. City hall is burning and some councilors are worried about fixing the crease in the window drapes.

In fact, ten councillors just voted to appoint the former CAO’s right-hand man as the new acting CAO even though the recent audit noted he was aware of a number of inappropriate activities (eg. building a fire hall on land the city didn’t own), but apparently didn’t tell council. Even worse, council didn’t seem to discuss the fact a second audit is coming at city hall and could critique some activities that took place under the watch of the new acting CAO.

To be clear, there are no reports indicating the new acting CAO did anything illegal. But given remaining questions about the fire hall audit and the fact we haven’t seen the next audit, his appointment was not the best choice at this time.

Whether city hall likes it or not, the wheels are coming off its wagon and it’s destined to crash into a wall of accountability. Respected media pundits have called for resignations, the police union has called for an RCMP investigation and citizens are starting to man the proverbial pitchforks and torches.

It’s too bad it had to come to this.

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