A deputation before Oro-Medonte Township council on Wednesday couldn’t have gone worse for anybody involved.
The person who was making the deputation had his request dismissed.
And council walked away with egg on its face — the result of a flip-flop that could have potentially been avoided.
Andrew Deane, of Room Consulting Inc., was in front of township council looking for a reduction in the penalty — $13,687.09 to be exact — which the township’s building department had slapped on his client, Nino and Melissa Campoli, for building without a permit.
They’re building a house at 11 Pemberton Lane in Shanty Bay.
In his deputation to council, Deane argued the Campolis made an honest mistake and requested council reduce the penalty. He suggested an adjusted fine of $1,695.12 would be more appropriate.
“The error occurred when the footing for the shared wall between the house and the landscape was formed and poured,” Deane wrote in his deputation to council. “This one wall overlapped both parts of the project, house and garden.
“Upon learning of the error, construction of the landscape work and the back wall of the house were stopped immediately and have not started again,” he added.
Deane's plea found sympathetic ears.
Councillors David Clark, John Bard, Rick Schell and Robert Young agreed that council should consider reducing the penalty.
When council voted on the motion, that the request to reduce the penalty be respectfully denied, confusion reigned. Due to the wording of the motion, some councillors weren’t entirely sure what they had just voted on.
Mayor Randy Greenlaw tried to provide clarity.
“From what I heard, and Madam Clerk please correct me if I’m wrong, is the motion is to deny waiving the penalty,” Greenlaw said.
“That is correct,” responded the clerk.
A quick trip around the table confirmed that councillors voted the way they intended and no error had occurred.
The motion was not carried.
Before moving on, the clerk requested council provide direction on what they would like to do, now that the original motion had been defeated.
The clerk provided council with a couple of alternatives: to reconsider the motion at a later meeting, or provide an alternative motion, one that might provide a specific penalty.
As council was debating an appropriate penalty, the township’s chief building official, Garry McCartney, raised his virtual hand, requesting the opportunity to speak.
He told council, “the situation on site was a little bit different than what was indicated by Mr. Deane.”
McCartney said there were more footings poured than what Deane indicated — “about 50 per cent more.”
McCartney also told council no building permit has been issued for the construction of a dwelling on the property — “it’s under review currently” — and that site-plan approval had not been issued when they were pouring concrete and excavating.
“Site-plan approval would be required in order to do any site works,” McCartney said. “The only approval that had taken place was through the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority.”
McCartney’s comments took council by surprise.
“Why wasn’t more information provided to us on council in order to make an appropriate decision until potentially the last minute?” asked Clark.
“I was away on holidays until yesterday at such time that I reviewed and had an opportunity to look at the documents that Mr. Deane was proposing to council,” McCartney responded. “My apologies.”
Deane confirmed there was no final approval for site-plan control.
“We had received approval from the conservation authority and, while the site-plan control process had not reached its ultimate conclusion, we had been in our third month of site-plan review. We’d answered all the comments,” he said.
“The only thing we were waiting for was sign-off from the director, so we knew that the process was going to reach approval," Deane added.
He said the conservation authority’s approval of the landscape retaining walls were not going to be overruled by site-plan control, because the conservation authority contributed to the site-plan control process
“True, there was no final approval for site-plan control, but nothing was going to change on those footings,” Deane said.
Greenlaw advised Deane that’s not how the township works.
“At the end of the day, what needs to be clear, and everyone should understand, is that the authority of building permits is the township. It’s not Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority,” Greenlaw said. “Approval comes from the township, not (conservation authorities) or other entities.”
Council called for a reconsideration of their earlier decision and subsequently voted to deny Deane’s request to reduce the penalty.
