Council defeats Gale’s biosolids motion
Councillor wanted to continue review of controversial contract
Niagara Regional council has heard enough — for now.
A motion by Niagara Falls Coun. Bob Gale to breathe life into his year-long crusade against the way a regional biosolids contract was awarded was decisively defeated 19-9 by a council vote Thursday night.
Gale’s motion would have had council receive an interim report on a whistleblower report’s status and issue a public report on the actual scores and results from the procurement process.
Gale rested much of his argument on the money he said the Region could save by going with the lowest price bid. However, the company that offered the lowest price was not the leader on the technical part of the contract proposals.
The four-year, multimilliondollar contract involves transporting about 35-tanker loads a day of organic waste from Regional wastewater lagoons and dewatering the residue.
Council voted in September to follow the recommendations from the RFP process and award the contract to Thomas Nutrient Solutions.
In making his claims, including at a recent presentation to Niagara Falls city council, Gale has misrepresented how the contract was awarded, has at times left out key facts, and openly discussed whistleblower complaints which, under the terms of the Region’s whistleblower policy, are supposed to be entirely confidential.
“My facts are correct and not misleading,” Gale said. “I challenge that, and I’ll leave it at that. We didn’t get enough information to make an accurate decision.”
Gale began the meeting talking about how much information was available about the previous procurement process in 2013, in contrast to what he considers a dearth of information this time around. The inference was staff was hiding parts of the process.
Gale, however, was informed the 2013 process took place under an old set of procurement regulations. Gale was on council in 2016 when the new procurement rules were approved, which delineate what information is available to councillors and the public.
Gale also withdrew a demand to hire an external legal firm that would advise council after he was reminded about the cost.
Council has already received legal advice from both its inhouse legal staff and an outside lawyer. The RFP process had saved council about $300,000 by extending the current deal. Council had also spent $200,000 on a fairness adviser and third-party expert, said Pelham Coun. Diana Huson.
Gale’s call for yet more legal advice threatened to add much more to the bill.
“Nothing we have seen so far indicates there has been any impropriety,” said Huson.
Huson also reminded fellow councillors it is not always best to go with the lowest bidder.
“We learned that in our garbage contract the previous term,” she said. “That contract was the lowest bidder, and that was not the best decision, and it led to a lot of problems, some of which were very expensive to solve.”
Gale’s claims at Niagara Falls council also prompted acting Region chief administrative officer Ron Tripp to take the highly unusual step of issuing a memo to refute the councillor’s claims.
Gale also continued to talk about whistleblower complaints and ask staff questions about them, despite a premeeting public memo from Regional Chair Jim Bradley reminding councillors they can’t talk about a complaint before the investigation is complete.
“We should not be commenting on this,” Tripp said. “It’s regrettable I had to issue a memo just to clarify the misstatements. All information will be shared with council at the appropriate time, likely in closed session.”
Niagara-on-the-Lake Coun. Gary Zalepa also voted against the motion. “I am really concerned about erroneous and misleading information. I went through my notes, and they pretty much line up with the CAO’s report.
“I’m concerned that councillors would take this information to a local municipality when it is inaccurate or wrong. It is pretty disturbing, and I am not happy with it. We want to do things right. I really feel that if you have been following the process thoroughly, the process was done properly.
“I am looking forward to putting this to rest.”
Niagara Falls Coun. Peter Nicholson voted for Gale’s motion. He accompanied Gale on his visit to Niagara Falls council.
“I view this motion as asking for transparency and openness,” Nicholson said. “Many of us ran on a platform of transparency and openness. This is an example of transparency. We talked about that back in January.
“We had a vendor that wasn’t happy with the process that came to public works. Certainly, by being open and supporting this motion, I would hope would give assurance to any vendor that’s out there and greater confidence for other vendors.”
Welland Mayor Frank Campion voted for the amendment, adding, “We need to drill down into this.”