City releases legal opinion on sandbag removal contract
In an effort to dispel any lingering concerns about a decision to award a contract to a company owned in part by a city councilor, the City of Penticton has now released a legal opinion obtained from a Vancouver lawyer it hired to review the purchasing process.
Don Lidstone was asked to assess whether Sun-Oak Construction, in which Coun. Max Picton owns a 25-per-cent stake, was properly awarded a contract worth up to $213,000 to dispose of sandbags from along the Okanagan Lake waterfront.
Sun-Oak was the lowest of two bidders and its proposal received the highest overall score from three separate city staffers assigned to evaluate them.
“In my view, Sun-Oak offered a more refined, comprehensive and responsive submission, and the price was lower,” Lidstone wrote in his review.
“I did not note any variances from the fairness principles, which individually or collectively would constitute a violation of the fairness principles. As such, I am satisfied that the evaluation process and contract award was fair to all proponents,” he concluded.
Picton’s financial interest in the city contract was declared publicly at Tuesday’s council meeting.
City manager Peter Weeber told council Lidstone’s review, which cost $650 and followed a separate probe by city finance manager Jim Bauer, was ordered out of an abundance of caution because the matter involved an elected official.
“We felt in this instance that we would get an independent review just to further strengthen the position that the process was fair. It’s very important to representatives of the corporation that any process we have is meaningful and trusted, and we wanted to reaffirm that through an external party,” said Weeber.
He noted a similar process has been initiated to review the recent award of a contract for residential waste collection, plus “a few other contracts just to dispel any concerns anybody might have.”
Council came under fire in March 2016 when The Herald revealed former city manager Chuck Loewen violated the city’s purchasing policy when he approved a $233,000 solesource contract for new lights at three local arenas.
Weeber indicated he’s heard the concerns that arose from that episode.
“We’ve been reviewing a number of city purchasing practices,” he said, “and when questions arise, a point was made that policing ourselves sometimes — well, I would argue policing yourself at any time — is not the best practice in matters that reflect on council and the corporation.”