Core Review Contract Officially Awarded
Monday, March 26, 2012 @ 7:07 PM
Prince George, B.C.- Council has accepted the proposal for a core review to be conducted by KPMG subject to a couple of issues including a more detailed stakeholder consultation.
Mayor Green says that when the Select Committee on Core Review examined the KPMG proposal, “I thought it (consultation plan) was a little light.” She was not able to say if expansion of the consultation process would mean the price tag would go up, “We’ll have that conversation with them” says the Mayor, but she told Council she is hopeful it will not mean additional cost. City Manager Derek Bates says “There is an element of City participation expected in that public consultation.”
She also says there will need to be a conversation on the issue of “administration costs” as KPMG is proposing a 5% additional fee on top of the bid of approximately $284 thousand dollars.
Councillor Brian Skakun says if City Staff are expected to be working on this project, there should be a value placed on that work, “That could push the cost of this project over the proposed amount and I’m not comfortable doing that.” Skakun says the public has told him loud and clear that they want the review to focus on how the City is spending their tax dollars.
Councillor Skakun asked if the City is going to get value for the dollars being spent . The Mayor was quick to respond “Absolutely we will get value for every dollar on this project” says Mayor Green “This is not a new innovation, Core Review is something you are hearing more and more about every day across North America people are having a good hard look at how they run their business , or how they run their City or how they spend their public dollar, and it’s a question that needs to be asked and analyzed and if there’s an opportunity for us to identify efficiencies or savings, whatever that looks like we need to harness every opportunity we have around that. So from my perspective this will be money well spent regardless of the outcome because we will have the answer to those key questions.”
City Manager Derek Bates says this Core Review has three parts, making it different from other such projects in other communities. The Prince George review involves three parts:
· Core Service review
· Service efficiency review
· Revenue review,
Councillor Garth Frizzell wanted Staff to come back with some sort of system that would track how much time the City staff will be spending on the Core Review. Although he had a seconder for that motion, he and Councillor Brian Skakun were the only two who voted in favour of it, but that was not enough to make it pass.
The contract has been awarded subject to the following points:
a) That each of the Phase 1 through Phase 4 milestone reports proposed be presented to the Select Committee on a Core Services Review, and that each milestone report describe thebasis of the next phase of work;
b) That the engagement/public consultation component of the proposal be expanded, and that KPMG provide a fully defined consultation plan to engage the public, Council, and staff;
c) That KPMG include a review of the information provided by the City respecting the service inventory template as a consultant task; and
d) That KPMG’s proposed administration cost be established by mutual agreement between the parties.
The Core review is expected to be completed in September of this year.
Comments
IMO I think most taxpayers in PG have what they call a “core review” for themselves every month insofar as their taxes and servicing costs rise regularly, leaving less disposable income for them. And the review is free for them.
City hall employees being involved in the core review smells like cover-up. Kind of like asking Green if she thinks she is doing a good job as mayor.
Get all this nasty costly crap done during the first year and then we can all relax and forget until the next election. Then we won’t remember. Cheap but tried and true politics. Start fixing the roads about 8 or 9 months before the next election and watch the (fools) voters get ya re-elected. Keep up the good work, Shari.
KPMG will be laughing all the way to the bank with all the extra charges that will creap in because this is being controled by a committee made up of a bunch of `elected managers`.
The mayor`s comments are also humoress. The last time I asked my accountant to do more without getting paid he laughed.
KPMG`s response will likely go along the line of, sure we can do more consultation but if it takes more time it will naturally cost more.
So I guess this is where some of the “revenue” from our new parking meters are going? City council crying about 80k in lost revenue, and then dropping 284k on a “review”???
This is going to turn into a “coregate”.
The saga continues to get worse. I can’t wait till politicians can be charged wih FRAUD after they are elected. Just tell the truth, people like that!!
The majority of this council can come up with all kinds of excuses as to why any exercise or action leading to basic transparency/cost savings CANNOT be done while whitewashing and spinning why the opposite MUST be done…all the time choosing to not ask the right questions, bulldoze right over those council members that do, not getting their facts straight or listening to the ROAR of Citizens
yet we are consistently subjected to our Mayor’s “perspective” and assurances that council knows best, with their hair-brained decisions and post election flip flops. Folks wonder at the undercurrent of resentment, anger and mistrust that is thicker than the dust out there.
When it comes to politicians what are those sayings about “once bitten” and “turning the other cheek and fools?”
The **Core Review** should look into City staff pouring over Government documents looking for grants, then coming up with projects, that require matching funds, and then borrowing the money, building the (useless) project, and putting us further in debt. Community Energy System, and River Road Dike to name a few.
The could also look into stopping the $300,000.00 per year payment to the Charles Jago Sports Centre, and turn this building over to the University where it belongs. (Let the Province pick up the additional costs of running this white elephant)
It goes without saying that IPG is a drag on the economy of Prince George, and makes no useful contribution to the City. It never has, and never will. Why cant they make the tough decisions and get rid of IPG? Who would miss them. Maybe they could sell the building on first ave., and make a few bucks. I doubt that anyone would buy it. It fact IPG should never have bought it.
Lets try and sell some of the property that the City owns. God knows they own enough.
Lets go for five years without any increases in wages, benefits, taxes, or service costs.
No tax breaks for business that locates downtown. If you dont want to pay taxes, then locate in a town other than Prince George.
“Lets try and sell some of the property that the City owns. God knows they own enough.”
Carefull what you wish for. There might yet be such a hot demand for City land that they’ll even start to sell the streets, potholes and all. :-)
Comments for this article are closed.