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Five years after he publicly pledged to ban all sole-sourced city contracts if elected mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson has thrown his support behind a plan to give a $60-million sole-sourced contract to a consortium working on Ottawa’s new light rail transit system.
City council’s finance and economic development committee, chaired by Watson, approved a staff recommendation Tuesday to award the non-competitive contract to Capital Transit Partners (CTP) for design and engineering work on the second phase of the LRT project. Only Coun. Diane Deans dissented.
CTP, a four-company joint venture, won a contract for similar services through a competitive process in 2010 for the LRT’s first phase, the Confederation Line.
According to a staff report, the city will have paid CTP about $100 million in 2015 dollars for the Confederation Line work by the time it is completed in 2018.
The proposed phase two contract is worth between $50 million and $60 million, the staff report says, with a $15-to-$20 million option to provide construction oversight and quality management.
The rationale for negotiating a sole-sourced contract with CTP, according to the staff report, is that it takes advantage of the knowledge and expertise that the consortium has built up during its work on phase one of the LRT.
“Their staff acquired significant experience in designing and implementing light rail projects in Ottawa, including an appreciation for the unique aspects of working in the National Capital,” the report says.
Nancy Schepers, the former deputy city manager who is currently a senior advisor to the city’s light-rail office, said CTP is “uniquely positioned with the experience that they’ve gained on the Confederation Line to hit the ground running.”
City manager Kent Kirkpatrick said the price negotiated with CTP – made up of STV Canada Consulting Inc., URS Canada Inc./Aecom, Jacobs Associates Canada Corp. and Morrison Hershfield Ltd. – would be based on the pricing in its current competitively awarded contract.
During the relatively short committee debate on the issue, Watson intervened to express his support for the staff recommendation to award the non-competitive contract.
That was in sharp contrast to comments he made while running for mayor in 2010, when he said he would “ban all sole-sourced contracts by the city” if elected.
“The public trust is damaged and shaken when city hall doles out contracts worth millions of dollars without the proper public tendering competition,” Watson said at the time.
He made the statements in the context of the controversy over sole-sourced contracts awarded as part of the Lansdowne Park redevelopment, which Watson said he would not challenge.
On Tuesday, Watson said negotiating a non-competitive contract with CTP was “the right decision to ensure that we continue the momentum to make sure light rail goes further east, west and south in our city.
“If all of a sudden, midway through the biggest city building project in the city’s history, if we change direction and companies, we set back the schedule and we wouldn’t save the dollars as we’ve been told by our professional staff and we wouldn’t see the continuation of efficiency with the project,” the mayor said.
The only committee member to vote against the sole-sourced contract was Deans.
“On the face of it, sole-sourcing a $60-million contract doesn’t sound great to me,” she said. “If you don’t have a competitive process, you don’t really know what the market is.”
Especially with the economy in recession, many companies eager for work might be willing to “sharpen their pencils” to secure a $60-million municipal contract, Deans said.
But Coun. Keith Egli said the decision to award the sole-sourced contract was “a no-brainer.
“We have an efficient company that knows the territory, knows the project, has the expertise, will have a minimal ramp-up to work on phase two (and) can actually save us money,” Egli said.
dbutler@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/ButlerDon
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City council’s finance and economic development committee, chaired by Watson, approved a staff recommendation Tuesday to award the non-competitive contract to Capital Transit Partners (CTP) for design and engineering work on the second phase of the LRT project. Only Coun. Diane Deans dissented.
CTP, a four-company joint venture, won a contract for similar services through a competitive process in 2010 for the LRT’s first phase, the Confederation Line.
According to a staff report, the city will have paid CTP about $100 million in 2015 dollars for the Confederation Line work by the time it is completed in 2018.
The proposed phase two contract is worth between $50 million and $60 million, the staff report says, with a $15-to-$20 million option to provide construction oversight and quality management.
The rationale for negotiating a sole-sourced contract with CTP, according to the staff report, is that it takes advantage of the knowledge and expertise that the consortium has built up during its work on phase one of the LRT.
“Their staff acquired significant experience in designing and implementing light rail projects in Ottawa, including an appreciation for the unique aspects of working in the National Capital,” the report says.
Nancy Schepers, the former deputy city manager who is currently a senior advisor to the city’s light-rail office, said CTP is “uniquely positioned with the experience that they’ve gained on the Confederation Line to hit the ground running.”
City manager Kent Kirkpatrick said the price negotiated with CTP – made up of STV Canada Consulting Inc., URS Canada Inc./Aecom, Jacobs Associates Canada Corp. and Morrison Hershfield Ltd. – would be based on the pricing in its current competitively awarded contract.
During the relatively short committee debate on the issue, Watson intervened to express his support for the staff recommendation to award the non-competitive contract.
That was in sharp contrast to comments he made while running for mayor in 2010, when he said he would “ban all sole-sourced contracts by the city” if elected.
“The public trust is damaged and shaken when city hall doles out contracts worth millions of dollars without the proper public tendering competition,” Watson said at the time.
He made the statements in the context of the controversy over sole-sourced contracts awarded as part of the Lansdowne Park redevelopment, which Watson said he would not challenge.
On Tuesday, Watson said negotiating a non-competitive contract with CTP was “the right decision to ensure that we continue the momentum to make sure light rail goes further east, west and south in our city.
“If all of a sudden, midway through the biggest city building project in the city’s history, if we change direction and companies, we set back the schedule and we wouldn’t save the dollars as we’ve been told by our professional staff and we wouldn’t see the continuation of efficiency with the project,” the mayor said.
The only committee member to vote against the sole-sourced contract was Deans.
“On the face of it, sole-sourcing a $60-million contract doesn’t sound great to me,” she said. “If you don’t have a competitive process, you don’t really know what the market is.”
Especially with the economy in recession, many companies eager for work might be willing to “sharpen their pencils” to secure a $60-million municipal contract, Deans said.
But Coun. Keith Egli said the decision to award the sole-sourced contract was “a no-brainer.
“We have an efficient company that knows the territory, knows the project, has the expertise, will have a minimal ramp-up to work on phase two (and) can actually save us money,” Egli said.
dbutler@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/ButlerDon
Related
查看原文...
