Central Frontenac council agreed Tuesday night to spend an estimated $159,000 on new financial software, with no competitive process appearing on the public record, four weeks after it adopted a purchasing policy that, by the treasurer's own description, requires open competition for contracts over $75,000. The contract is more than double that figure. No councillor raised it.
The motion, moved by Councillor Susan Irwin and seconded by Councillor Bill MacDonald, authorized the township's manager of financial services and the clerk to sign with a company called Munisoft to replace the township's current system, at that figure before HST, with the cost going into the 2027 budget. The treasurer told council he had weighed three options: the township's existing Diamond system, Business Central, and Munisoft. He had visited the Town of Merrickville, which has run Munisoft for years, and described it as the right size and the right price for a small municipality.
What he did not describe was a competition. There was no mention of a request for proposals, no tender, and no open bidding process. The purchasing policy council adopted on May 26, By-law 2026-27, requires an open competitive process above $75,000, and council authorization above $100,000. The contract exceeds both thresholds. The policy allows exceptions. The treasurer's report said so directly: it acknowledged the open-competition requirement for purchases above $100,000, and recommended that council make an exception on the grounds that the township had not been able to find a more affordable option. Council voted to accept that recommendation. No councillor asked what criteria the policy requires for a valid exception, or whether an informal review of three products, without a formal process, satisfies them. The treasurer noted he had once warned the software could cost as much as $300,000 in 2027, which made the lower figure, in his words, a pleasant surprise. After the vote, Mayor Frances Smith called the price a lot of money but said that "nowadays with the computer world it's nothing."
Council awarded the Mountain Grove Road resurfacing contract at $479,996.25 before HST. The winning bid was read out under the name GML Sand and Gravel, though the agenda had listed the company as Gemmill's Sand and Gravel. Three companies bid, and the price came in well under the $700,000 council had budgeted. The public works manager said he would put the savings toward the worst stretch of Brock Road, and possibly part of Long Lake Road, once he knew how far it would stretch.
Council also dealt with five road closures in a single public meeting that opened and closed inside a minute. On four of them, at Blue Heron Ridge, Williams Lane, an allowance off Ramo Road, and one in the former Hinchinbrooke township, the applicants will cover the cost of the survey, the appraisal, and the transfer, the usual arrangement when a private owner takes over an unused road allowance. The fifth, on Gibbs Road, is different: the township is covering those costs itself. Planning coordinator Abigail McKinnon told council the closure followed a case where navigation systems routed emergency vehicles onto Gibbs Road during a medical call, and that nearby properties no longer rely on it for access.
In other business, council adopted the minutes of its May 26 meeting and gave By-law 2026-30, a protocol for municipal support resolutions on utility installations, all three readings. Three councillors gave notice of motions they intend to bring forward: Nicki Gowdy on a township-wide Community Improvement Plan, Bill Everett on a community radio station for the Northern Frontenacs, and Cindy Kelsey on speed limits along Arden Road. A resolution from MacDonald asking the province to revisit its timeline for Highway 7 improvements, including passing lanes, carried, with a friendly amendment from Gowdy adding the Minister of Infrastructure to the list of recipients. Council also approved its budget policy for election and non-election years.
Council ended the night in a closed session on seven items: three on the purchase or sale of property, two on negotiations, and two involving personal information about identifiable people. A closed session's outcomes do not become public until council returns to open session and reports them, and those results were not yet posted when this was published. NFNM will report them once the minutes are out.
The Munisoft contract carried without a single question about whether the grounds for its exception to the township's own purchasing rules hold up. NFNM will be asking.