Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps has backed away from a proposal to sole-source a $55,000 contract to a consulting firm to help council develop a strategic plan.

Instead, councillors have directed city staff to develop a strategic planning process that’s to be completed by the end of February.

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Helps had recommended council hire Intelligent Management Inc., a consulting firm that works with organizations “to create robust and systemically sound strategies and action plans” and has a track record in moving organizations “from silos to systems.”

But after receiving feedback from some councillors and the public, Helps changed course and decided instead to recommend city staff develop and implement the strategic planning process.

“I had some feedback from councillors that they weren’t happy with price; they weren’t happy with sole-source, and I’ve amended the recommendation as such,” Helps told councillors Thursday.

“I have spoken with the city manager and he is confident that there are adequate in-house resources to accomplish a strategic plan that will meet the needs of council and of the public,” Helps said in her report.

The $55,000 expenditure would have been almost four times the $15,000 the city spent three years ago for a strategic-planning exercise.

Helps had proposed the money be drawn from $105,000 left unspent in the corporate consulting budget.

“The sole-source proposal was meant to speed the process along so council could set to work in a timely manner to complete a strategic plan by the end of February,” Helps said in a report to councillors on Thursday.

Helps said in an interview this week that she met Intelligent Management founder Domenico Lepore before the November municipal election but he neither worked on nor contributed financially to her mayoral campaign.

A web search shows that Intelligent Management blogged in support of Helps prior to the election.

Helps told councillors Thursday her earlier recommendation to hire Intelligent Management was based on her own experience in the field of strategic planning.

“It has nothing to do with any personal connection or, worse yet, a financial connection that I have with the company,” she said.

“I have been engaged a number of times by a number of organizations in this community as a strategic planning consultant myself — it’s an area I know a lot about. It’s an area that I’ve done a lot of research on.”

Councillors Ben Isitt and Chris Coleman both thanked Helps for listening and changing course.

Only new Coun. Margaret Lucas voted against staff undertaking the exercise. She said she was concerned about the workload, given the short timeline.

“I don’t know how they can possibly do their jobs plus do a fairly significant strategic plan,” Lucas said.

bcleverley@timescolonist.com