Steven Hill
[email protected]
District of Squamish Council changed course and decided to go against its established purchasing policy at its regular meeting Tuesday (Jan. 10), award $130,000 consulting contract without going through the public tendering process.
Councillors Jeff McKenzie and Mike Jenson, who last month voted to adhere to tendering procedures set out in the DOS's purchasing policy, changed their votes to allow engineering and work related to the Powerhouse Springs water supply move forward.
Mayor Ian Sutherland brought the issue to council, although it had not been part of the regular agenda.
"A couple of councillors have asked me to bring this back to council," said Sutherland. "They feel they may have misunderstood and voted incorrectly at the previous meeting."
McKenzie said he had changed his mind on the issue.
"I think this is a bit of an emergency situation," he said. "Staff adheres to the purchasing policy most of the time. I think there is a time factor, and if we are to supply enough water for our constituents, we have to move ahead."
Coun. Corinne Lonsdale said she was surprised to see the issue back before council. "Frankly, this blows my mind," she said.
Lonsdale had initiated the previous motion calling for adherence to properly established policy, and said the community would not be happy with the new decision.
"After the last meeting, people were coming up to me saying it was the right decision to stick to the policy," said Lonsdale.Coun. Ray Peters, who voted both times to go against the purchasing policy, said it was an issue of timing.
"We are not against the public process," he said. "I support the public process, but it is because of time constraints."
Sutherland said it would take too long to go through the public process of tendering out the contract, and would result in work not getting done at Powerhouse Springs in time for the upcoming summer months, and the resulting high demand on the town's water supply.
Lonsdale accused Sutherland of "fear-mongering" in regards to the adequate supply and safety of the town's water.
"I don't know what has happened in the past two years to make our surface water so unpalatable or bad," she said. "We should not fearmonger, which is what we are doing."
Sutherland said he was not fear mongering, and cited concerns expressed by ministry officials about water in the community.
"In the purchasing policy there are stipulations which say we don't have to use the policy in certain instances, and this is one of those instances," he said. "It is either get the work done for July 2006 or July 2007. The summer months are a problem, and we need to get the work done for this year, before those demands are put on our water supply."
Lonsdale said she doubted the work would get done on time, regardless of whether council pushed forward or not.
"Things seldom happen when they are supposed to," she said. "We will likely go through those summer months without this anyway. Tendering out is a six-week procedure. And if this is so critical, why has staff taken so long to address it?"
Lonsdale and Coun. Raj Kahlon both encouraged council to adhere to the established purchasing policy, before members voted.With McKenzie and Jenson reversing their decisions from the previous meeting, the motion to stick to the public process was defeated 5 to 2.
Council then passed a motion to give $130,759 to Kerr Wood Leidel Associates to commence engineering work on Powerhouse Springs.
