Is it any wonder that progress seems to be so elusive in the Municipality of Meaford?

How can progress in our municipality ever happen when the community's elected leaders can't even get their priorities straight.

On Monday night, in one of the most politically mystifying decisions ever made in the Meaford council chambers, a majority of councillors combined to defeat a recommendation to move ahead with the hiring of a consulting firm to help conduct the long awaited (and promised) operational review.

This is the same operational review that council made its top priority after the 2009 budget was set. This is the same operational review that Deputy Mayor Mike Traynor was willing to defeat the entire budget over. This is the same operational review that has been promised to municipal residents and ratepayers during the past two years.

CAO Frank Miele recommended the municipality hire the KPMG consulting firm at a cost of $20,000 to help conduct the review. The $20,000 price tag was $5,000 more than the amount budgeted for the job. However, Miele said he hoped to negotiate with the consultants to get the price knocked down once the project was approved by council.

The CAO won't even get a chance to mitigate the slight over expenditure. Council sent him back to the drawing board by defeating his recommendation in a 4-3 recorded vote.

Not surprisingly - considering this council's record on decision making - staff were not offered any instructions on how to proceed. Council has said no and it was obvious on Monday night that elected representatives had no idea what should follow their no.

If an operational review is truly council's number one priority, shouldn't the CAO have been given an opportunity to mitigate that $5,000 over expenditure?

Several budget tools could have been available to manage the problem without affecting the current budget. Does the municipality have some reserves that could be used? Could development charges be used? Could the cost of the project be spread out over two years with that extra $5,000 coming from the 2010 budget?

It seems clear to use that this council could have taken a more progressive approach to this matter and approved the CAO's recommendation contingent on the extra $5,000 being covered in a manner that didn't affect current year operations.

Now, because of this council's short sighted thinking and inability to make forward-thinking decisions in a progressive manner, the operational review has been delayed. We can only guess at how long that delay will last.

What happens next? We don't know and neither do the elected leaders in this community.