Keep up the good work Brian!

If they run true to form he will probably not get anyone to second the motion. If this happens then the motion dies.

Not getting a seconder has been one of the reasons we have never been able to get into the nitty gritty of the goings on a City Hall. Past Councillors were frustrated at the system, and basically just gave up.

We shall see if Skakun has anyone on his side on this issue.

In the absence of a municipal auditor this request should be a no brainer. It would only take a few seconds to pull the file containing the invoices to see what goods or services were provided,the department involved, and who gave approval.

Even if the payments resulted from in camera discussions, that should not be a problem because we all know that Brian can keep a secret:P

You’re right Brian, it should be an easy process to access this kind of information. I hope you succeed with this motion.

This kind of information should be available to any tax-paying resident of Prince George. It would sure increase confidence in the City management if we could have open access to financial information.

Geez.. I dont care for Skakun at all..but on this issue he has my total support. Good luck Brian.. I hope you get the required support to see this through… and if you dont.. kind of makes the rest of council looking they have something to hide from us tax payers

The fact that this City is doing this is totally unconscionable. This is not the first time this is happening. I cannot, for the life of me, understand that those who take ultimate accountability in an organization cannot get information such as what seems to be asked for. This would be a reason for a director of a company to resign to protect him/her from legal action in the case of mismanagement. Of course, there are many who would like this in the case of Brian. Is this the intent?

So were/are these companies working on projects which are privileged and continue to be so because the work is still ongoing? If so, that would be an easy explanation. Or is it really that hard to get this information together? If that is the case, what kind of a useless recordkeeping system is the City operating? Either way, this is a black mark on this City’s administration.

click and print. Shouldn’t be too difficult.

Just looking to see who BWP Consulting is?

Possibly an engineering firm with a Canadian office in Surrey?
http://www.bwp-eng.co.uk/BWPContact.html

Or a mosquito control company, without a web page.
http://www.cowboylife.com/index.asp?p=231&cmd=viewarticle&nArticleID=316

“click and print. Shouldn’t be too difficult.”

It is when the system is not advanced enough to do that ….. or if the data entry from paper has not been done yet ….

Remember, many of these people were likely very bus looking things up for KPMG ….. if this is the level of information they are honestly able to NOT deal with, then I wonder how good the information gathering exercises for KPMG were?

I mean, when this sort of thing occurs, the quality of the City’s work capacity is exposed to the extent that one has to wonder “so what else can the City not do”.

It’s all about accountability, and this council has proven itself accountable to no one other than themselves. From the Haldi Road fiasco to this inability to provide basic information regarding some hefty expenses.

What are they hiding?

Well L&M is a major player in the Haldi Road fiasco – I’m really curious to see how this plays out

Don’t worry palopu, I am certain that our F&A guru, herr stolz, will second the motion as he is keen to see the City operate efficiently and transparently.

I just hope they spend as much time analyzing Brian’s request as they did going round the horn for the outrageous extra 1500 bucks required to operate our little gem railroad in our most popularly used and visited parks in our community.

Tripping over dollars to pick up nickels and alienating the community groups that make this northern town worth living in, imo.

Speaking of spending details, are councillors required to make their spending public yet?

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/09/18/ottawa-city-councillors-file-questionable-expenses
Llllllllllllllllllllllll

Axman: “Which raises the question, why are we taxed so heavily? Easy answer, the government needs the money”

Easy answer? A VERY simplistic answer!!!

Government is simply another monopoly. We might have the opportunity to select who governs every few years, but we do not have the opportunity to select who actually does the work for government. And we certainly do not have the opportunity to evaluate how well these people really do their work. But it seems that more and more there are attempts to improve that. If there were not those fundamental problems, then we would not have to put accountability systems in place.

So, some governments might be run very effectively, while others are not. The same with companies. There is nothing about governments which prevent them from being ineffective. In fact, quite the opposite has been and still is true.

All one has to do is look at the whole Core Services review fiasco we just went through and will continue to go through.

Gus

I understand that council voted quite some time ago to allow the City Manager Derik Bates the authority to direct award contracts for 1 million dollars and below.
The provincial minimum is $50,000 or less with a limit of 3 direct awards annually. Anything over the amount of $50,000 needs to go to public tender on Bid BC to ensure fairness and the best value for tax dollars. This should be questioned and dealt with now as this is illegal practise for government.

Well on January 10 at 7:pm the City will be hosting a public meeting at Van way School to address issues around the OCP. The Mayor said she will be in attendance as will some of the other players. Remember don’t stir up the pot until you see the whites of their lies.

There are three methods each with its own solicitation and award procedures.

1. An Invitation to tender is the usual method used when public competition is sought for requirements of more than $25,000.

2. A Request for Proposals (an RFP) is the usual method used for competitive purchases where an award based on price is not practicable or advantageous to the City.

3. A Request for Quotation will be used for purchases of less than $25,000.

reflecting – The problem is the majority of people in this city have no idea this change to the OCP is for ALL of the city – not a selected area.

As for Skakun – Go for it and I hope others – which I doubt will follow suit.

Another question would be to ask why is just how much is L&M involved with this city, According to the KMPG report it was suggested to use them as a contract but denied saying it would look like a conflict?

BWP is the firm that helps with the city’s mosquito control program. 89 thousand doesn’t seem to be out of line.

that is one of the risks of these types of things – it invariably brings out the “give me a truck and a shovel and I would do it for half that” crowd.

Having said that, the transparancy should be there.

Question. Why would the city place a small notice in the Citizen on December 22 2012 that impacts the whole city. Did they hope no one would notice or is it their attempt to save us ( the taxpayers) money. Perhaps they don’t want anyone to attend except their soldiers. It’s simply an issue of mind over matter, they don’t mind and you don’t matter. Whats new?

Posted by: axman on January 3 2013 1:23 PM

BWP is the firm that helps with the city’s mosquito control program. 89 thousand doesn’t seem to be out of line.

You are right about the price axman. The question is, was it tenderd on Bid BC or direct awarded. Any contract over 25K has to be tenderd and awarded to the lowest bider or a reason given why not awarded to the lowest bider.

You are correct Axman, 89 grand is not a freaky number for mosquito control if that is indeed what the expense if for and if so, what’s the trouble with a councilor having access to that info upon request, in a timely manner? Seems like a whole lot of hoopla for nothing…unless there are line items that are much preferred to be kept quite.

007 “..understand that council voted quite some time ago to allow the City Manager Derik Bates the authority to direct award contracts for 1 million dollars and below.
The provincial minimum is $50,000 or less with a limit of 3 direct awards annually. Anything over the amount of $50,000 needs to go to public tender on Bid BC to ensure fairness and the best value for tax dollars. This should be questioned and dealt with now as this is illegal practise for government.”

Agreed, that is the million dollar question. Granting one person the power to play with such a big number just gives too much opportunity for shady dealings, imo, no matter who is sitting in the GM’s seat.

All will be well when they simply drop the word “acting” from Soltis title.

Odd that almost every time something questionable comes up, L&M is hiding behind the door.

middle finger
don’t you mean hiding behind the REAR door

2012 Program Updates From the city website: The City of Prince George employees and BWP Consulting, the City contractor, started monitoring for mosquito larvae on April 27.The first aerial portion of our mosquito program occurred on May 9,10, and 11, 2012 on swamps in College Heights, Cranbrook Hill and the Hart highway. Monitoring and treatment have commenced in all areas of the City. We will be treating sites both by ground and air when larvae reach threshold levels.

The cost of aerial and ground spraying does not come cheap – 89 grand. Question is would a contractor alone been able to do it all cheaper without using city employees?

Did L&M have a contract with the City for the Boundary Road project?

Links don’t seem to want to work for me – check it out, Appears to be more and more problems for municipalities elsewhere also.

Alleged conflict of interest probed in Rossland, B.C.

Wonder how much in wages was spent by the city for mosquito control etc along with a contractor? The total bill will be a hell of a lot more than 89 grand to kill those nasty critters!

blog/view/14770/1/local+engineering+firm+lands+boundary+road+project?id=140&st=8620

Rounder, yes they did, the tune was over a million. The link here may work.

As a taxpayer, I don’t want frivolous requests by uneducated people creating burgeoning administration costs, so that Mr. Skakun can go on another witch hunt.

There are over 2800 suppliers on that report, some with payments in the millions, why not ask about them? Are you suggesting that there is wrong doing in regards to the supplier information you’ve requested?

What a joke.

Onlee edjumacated peeple shood ax kestions.

Keep up the good work, Brian.

L&M is also one of the biggest campaign donors to the inside group of politicians in PG. Obviously their no bid contracts should require greater scrutiny. I support Brian on this issue.

Frivolous? Uneducated? Witch hunt? Somebody doth protest too loudly!

I doubt the $1mllion was for direct award. I suspect it was for signing authority. In other words. He had the authority to award a contract which went though the proper procedures, he could sign the contract which did not need council approval if it met the budget as proposed.

Good work Brian. Why should a motion be required at all for this information to be brought out…..is there something that we the taxpayers aren’t supposed to know? Is it not part of the councillors job to question where the taxpayers money is being spent? Councillors authorize budgets and therefore must have access to all the books. The idea of needing to make a motion and then to be told this results in “extensive work not required by City council” is absolutely unacceptable. The system needs to be streamlined so obstacles cannot put in the way of any council member who questions where the money is going. Is this council’s idea of “transparency”. It would be extremely disappointing if you are not able to get this information out to the taxpayers in which case we need a real shakeup in council — maybe an internal audit. Maybe this is what we needed instead of the core review. The next election can’t come soon enough for me. There are other questions I would like to have answered as well:
1. How much has the Haldi court case cost the taxpayers?
2. How much were the taxpayers on the hook for with Councillor Frizell’s jaunt to Dakar for the World Council of Municipalities? Where are the priorities when it comes to spending? How did this benefit the City of Prince George in these times of supposed restraint? Or do we need another costly core review to tell the council how not to waste money.

I would be especially interested in seeing what the outcome of the L & M Engineering query is.

Keep digging Brian…we are behind you 100% Too bad there aren’t more council members who will follow your lead. Makes you wonder?????

We can at least rest assured there was foul play if Brian is denied his request.

On the subject of L&M. Maybe someone can look into why the city notices in another rag looks to the common lay person the OCP changes the city wants to make looks like the changes will only be for a certain area.

When in fact the city according to the proposal submitted from L & M states the changes for the WHOLE city. Why does the public only get half of the story?

The people of this city deserve the full truth. If this MAJOR OCP change goes through it will set a precidence that the city can carry on doing what ever they want. This OCP is for ALL of the city!

January 10 have your say and become a concerned citizen lets show the city the whole of the city should not be changed for one developer no matter who it is.

“Presentations by the City of Prince George and Recovery Centre Proponents”

That heading suggests to me that it is a collaboration between the two groups to present their views to the public, in other words the people of Prince George. The city (we) are paying for it. The proponents as of December 13, 2012 (Brian Fehr and Craig wood) will be represented by L&M engineering. Are they going to speak to land use issues only or are they going and address social issues surrounding the old residence at 5877 Leslie Road?

reflecting – here is a section from the proposed OCP change for the WHOLE city:

“Policy 7.5.9 Permit affordable housing and/or special needs housing, at
densities Council considers appropriate, in all the residential
areas, including rural areas.”;

It does not affect just one area as the common person reads the notices in another rag. This city’s excuse is they only have to follow the basic according to the acts.

Meanwhile, it looks like the WHOLE city is being conned IMAO. It is up to the public to inform themselves…….as the city sure in heck won’t help you….

You got that right guesswhat. The City operates under the premise that the less the citizens know the better. They would never go out of thier way to give additional information.

We have many cases in the past 10 years where the City uses its best weapon. **BS baffles brains** to muddy the water, so tha citizens do not know what the hell is going on.

1.We are presently in the process of changing the OCP to accomodate vested interests, on the Haldi Road Treatment facility.

2.We are in the process of selling off the Pine Valley Par 3 golf course to vested interests, under the guise of needing the money from the sale, and to increase the tax base.

3. They have slowy advanced North on Highway 16 and are now up too the Playhouse Theatre. This will be the next big **tear down** for the City. Then they will purchase and demolish to Rolla Dome, and Walla the whole recreational area from Range Road to Highway 97 will have been gleaned away from the citizens of Pr George and sold to vested interests.

Such is the way of life in Prince George.