'Sell/merge Tillsonburg Hydro'
Article content
‘Sell/merge Tillsonburg Hydro Inc.’ recommends a staff report scheduled to be tabled during tonight’s (Thursday, February 27, 2014) meeting of Town of Tillsonburg Council.
Report number CAO 14-04, along with a pair of appendix, is scheduled to be presented by CAO David Calder as item number nine on the evening’s posted agenda.
Its first of four major recommendations is “That Tillsonburg Council as the sole shareholder of Tillsonburg Hydro Inc. approves the disposition (sale, merger, etc.) of Tillsonburg Hydro Inc. through the Request For Proposal (RFP) process.”
Recommendations two through four are for council to directly oversee the disposition process, the four-member Board of Directors of Tillsonburg Hydro Inc. act as a nonvoting resource group to council, and that council authorizes hiring legal, financial and communications experts to facilitate the process.
The report’s executive summary leads with its purpse: “to obtain approval from the Town of Tillsonburg Council as the sole shareholder of Tillsonburg Hydro Inc. for a process to undertake the disposition of Tillsonburg Hydro Inc. (sale/merger, etc.).”
It includes the recommendation for a public process where any qualifying entity may submit a proposal in response to the RFP and in addition. By contrast, a private process is one in which council predetermines those utilities with which it is willing to enter an agreement.
The report is also recommending an open process in the sense that any advertised solicitation may be supplemented by directly contacting potentially interested parties. By contrast a closed process is one in which parties are contacted directly, each solicitation is carried out in private and a public announcement is made upon agreement at the process’s conclusion.
The report estimates associated costs for divestiture of Tillsonburg Hydro Inc. to be between $150,000 and $350,00 for legal fees and between $25,000 and $40,000 for financial advisory fees, for a total range of between $175,000 and $390,000. In the case of a sale, the report suggests transition costs may be recovered to some degree from the purchaser.
The report includes a recommendation for an investment policy to be established in advance of any proceeds from a sale of an asset of considerable worth, and also that a communications expert be hired in order to develop a communication strategy to disseminate information to the public as the process unfolds.
Although regularly scheduled for the second and fourth Mondays of the month, the Thursday council date is the result of rescheduling due to the good roads convention. It will begin at 4:30 p.m. with annual staff recognition exercises, a process estimated to take roughly an hour.