well,duh! like they shouldn't know where 4 and a half million dollars went?

I wonder how much money was wasted on more consultants studying downtown?

After only six months of time lapse, how come we do not here any more of "Not so Smart Growth on the Ground"? The City spent more than $500,000 on this study alone, which provided no greater insight into the downtown problems, except to create some pretty pictures without any kind of financial plan.

They should look at consulting fees in all forms of government. They hire consultants to do jobs that are already being don by employees. It seems to be the trend, hire a consultant anyone in house is too stupid to the job.

They should look at consulting fees in all forms of government. They hire consultants to do jobs that are already being don by employees. It seems to be the trend, hire a consultant anyone in house is too stupid to the job.

It would be funny if it wasnt so sad... I can envision that conversation:
"yeah, so we are spending over 4 million on some stuff each year. Would you like to know about it at budget time?"

BY ALL MEANS,lets find out where the money went and then bring the Engineer,Manager,Superintendant or Bureaucrate responsible for that particular project up on the carpet and ask a simple question. Why are we paying for your so called expertise and then having to go and hire a consultant? If you are not capable then you should be replaced by someone who is. The taxpayers are tired of paying consultant fees for imformation that should be available from our own staff. Can't take the Heat then hit the Street.

Okay ... here is the way the game is played ...

Governments have to do work.

Right wing governments are in; taxpayers see people not working. Results? Reduce size of payroll.

Left wing government in; taxpayers see too much money being spent on consultants. Results? Hire more staff for cost saving.

Which one is right?

What should be done? Try this.

Compare the work that was done 25 years ago by each cost centre for a population of about 75,000 to that being done today for a population of about 75,000.

Report out such ratios as internal versus external costs, comparative cost centre costs, staffing levels, capital projects, maintenance, services, etc. etd.

Remember, counsultants are only one type of contracting out. The police are contracted out, snow clearing is contracted out, some maintenance is contracted out, and on and on it goes.

Don't hit one area. Know where the money is going and understand what is needed, why needs change over time, where wants creep in over time, and which is the best from a quality point of view as well as a time point of view and a cot point of view, to get things that need to be done, done.

Good luck. If this is not already been done, which it should be, look for more time and money to be spent.

Information is available from staff. But not at the push of a button. It typically comes with research time to find what is needed and development time to come up with a plan of action.

Let us just look at one project.

We have no bridge designers on staff that would put their P.Eng stamp on drawings, we have no people on staff who can draft up an engineering drawing, we have no surveyors on staff who can aligne a bridge, we have no soils engineers on staff who can prepare a soils report for the design engineer, we do have a transportation engineer on staff who might be willing to do the transportation study.

Each project, each service one looks at will pan out in a similar fashion, whether on the physical or social side of things.

The staff at City Hall are administrators, that's it!

gus for mayor!

Gus, your the man for the mayor seat. Or the real power.... city manager.

If it is so simple, and we all know the solution, we tell them on this blog site, so why don't they pay heed to the people who has both feet on the ground.

Thanks Gus, both your feet is on the ground.

Vote in anyone you want. But as soon as they get into office, thier ears get plugged, eyes get clouded over and they don't hear any voice other than thier own.

Remeber the consultants hired to tell us 1 in every 4 homes in PG use wood for heat. That cost would have filled a few pot holes.

It must be approaching the 10 year mark that taxpayer funds have been spent on the dream of a community energy system.

The city gives an olympic hopeful free ice time and then sticks to seniors by reducing their taxi savers by 1/2. Just great that they are more concerned with 1 figure skater than seniors who have lived in PG for years and supported the city through their tax dollars.

Give the Boundary Rd engineering to a firm who was not the lowest bidder. The rational is they had more hours involved so the hourly rate worked out to less per hour than the lowest bidder even though their overall cost was higher. Did the thought ever occur to council that maybe the lowest bidder was more efficient or had a lower profit margin?

How the residents of PG continue to elect these incompetent people to council is beyond imagination.

Declining population, schools closing, and what do we get, air fairies, city hall spin doctor, backyard weiner roast cops, old building and land downtown, higher taxes, and the list goes on.

Maybe city hall should get themselves a shoebox and start keeping receipts for work done by consultants. Rats! I could, or would or should be hired by city hall just to "consult" them with this idea. Darn!

The City would not need all those Engineering consultants if they hadnt got into the Bridge building business. They bought the bloody bridge from the Provincial Government for $1.00 and then over the years spent Millions on overpasses, approachs, maintenance, etc; then after all that was done, they decided to tear down the old bridge which could have been repaired for $750,000.00 and build a new bridge.

So they then build a new bridge for approx $12.5 Million dollars including approaches, etc; and rerouted traffic for 4 years that cost taxpayers and industry Millions of dollars in additional fuel, and wear and tear on our vehicles, not to mention the pollution because of the hundreds of thousands of additional miles that had to be driven over the four years.
Total cost of the $1.00 bridge would now be in the area of $20 Million dollars.

This has little to do with consultants, and a hell of a lot to do with incompetance, and letting contracts, and last but not least job security for City employees.

There are many, many, hair raising stories of incompentance by the City of Prince George, however very few people in this town say anything. They just pretend everything is just **great**

To name a few. Bringing the bloody icebreaker from Quebec to run around in the Nechako, without accomplishing anything. Running a hot water pipe line from Intercon Pulp to the Cameron St., Bridge to keep the water from freezing.

There are many more, but you get my drift.

Resident wrote: "Remeber the consultants hired to tell us 1 in every 4 homes in PG use wood for heat."

The key thing to learn from that?

That the people at the MoE and the ones at City Hall don't know how to question unreasonable outcomes of studies.

It is the blind City Hall administrators leading the blind consultants.

Lots of education and paper pushing experience, but no street smarts.

Palopu wrote:

"Bringing the bloody icebreaker from Quebec to run around in the Nechako, without accomplishing anything. Running a hot water pipe line from Intercon Pulp to the Cameron St., Bridge to keep the water from freezing."

So the ice jam was removed. How can you convince anyone that it was not one or both of those efforts?

I agree with resident - giving Boundary Road to a higher bidder makes no sense. "Did they gove any thought..." is an obvious answer - no, unless you consider the question, did they give any thought to actually using a flawed decision process that favours their buddies - then of course the answer is yes.

It seems odd this story died because as a PG taxpayer I am insulted that City staff - apparently charged with making suitable purchasing decisions on our behalf - recommended that paying more for the same service was a good idea. I assume they did little to no homework on the issue as they appear above accountability.

So engineering consultants (according to other news sources - sorry Ben) are paid up to $833 an hour according to the numbers from Boundary Road??? A quick search on the internet brings you to an organization called the Consulting Engineers of BC, http://www.cebc.org/ where they have lots of info and a member list. Interestingly enough, the 2 failing bids were from companies registered with this organization, but the winner was not. I wonder why they aren't a member - my guess is because they have a set of guidelines to follow (do a good job, do it efficiently, and don't gouge clients) that doesn't align with the obvious close ties to decision makers at City Hall that think protectist spending policies will help us in some way.

I vote gus for Mayor too.

Lots of misinformation out there.

Ben will be happy to hear that the PG Citizen screwed up and will be issuing a retraction tomorrow. The local consultant proposed 8200 hours for approximately $800,000 (less than $100 per hour) and their local subconsultants (geotechnical and electrical)had approximately the same number of hours for $700,000 in fees.