Contract may have breached city policy
Vision supporter awarded $95,000 contract for ‘support’ during transit referendum campaign
The City of Vancouver appears to have breached its procurement policy after Vision Mayor Gregor Robertson reportedly approved a contract worth almost $95,000 for a prominent supporter of his party, according to a legal expert.
Documents obtained by the Sunday Province through freedom of information show the “sole source” contract for consultant, developer and Vision Vancouver political funder Bob Ransford — with payments of $94,838 over four months — was awarded “to provide support to Vancouver’s referendum staff team” in the 2015 transit referendum vote.
Ransford, an experienced political campaigner and media-savvy lobbyist for developers, made headlines in the 2011 city election by publicly endorsing Vision and Robertson after campaigning against him for the NPA in the 2008 election.
Internal emails about Ransford’s transit referendum contract show Vancouver bureaucrats scrambling to get his invoices approved and paid out, months after the contract was actually signed, on Jan. 16, 2015.
City staffers eventually got TransLink to pay back city hall for Ransford’s fees. But the reimbursement was not a sure thing. And Ransford contacted city staff in apparent efforts to get his payments approved and moving.
On Feb. 23, Ransford emailed transportation head Jerry Dobrovolny saying he had submitted his first invoice after working “for a month and a half.”
“Paul Bruce in your procurement says he has it and is trying to figure out who approves it and I told him I thought it might be you,” Ransford wrote. “I’m sure something will get set up to get this paid.”
“Yes I’ll approve it … it’s not a problem if we end up keeping these costs,” Dobrovolny responded, also asking if Ransford knew if the city would be reimbursed by the regional Mayor’s Council, which oversees TransLink.
As the campaign wound down and after many emails between referendum staff and Vancouver procurement officials, Dobrovolny still seemed to be nervous.
“Can you please check to make sure we’ve transferred all of the costs we were holding to TransLink,” Dobrovolny emailed on May 25. “The door will close very quickly and we don’t want to be caught.”
On May 26, a city transportation engineer asked if Ransford’s invoices should be paid. Marnie McGregor, a city staffer seconded to the referendum team, replied, “these two invoices should be approved,” and said Ransford wanted to pick up the cheque at city hall rather than receive it by mail.
Municipal lawyer Nathalie Baker said that after reviewing internal documents obtained by the Sunday Province she could not find any indication of how Ransford’s contract came about — but she perceived a number of policy breaches made by city officials.
“I looked at the FOI documents and the procurement policy posted on the city’s website, and it really does appear that the procurement policy wasn’t followed with respect to this contract between the City of Vancouver and Bob Ransford,” Baker said.
In an interview, Ransford said Robertson — who reportedly took over the Mayor’s Council “Yes” campaign in January 2015 — approved the sole source contract signed on Jan. 16.
Ransford said Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner was also involved in the decision as campaign vice-chair. However, Hepner’s office told the Sunday Province that the contract was paid out in Vancouver city hall and Hepner did not approve any individual contracts for the campaign.
Despite spending about $6 million in public funds to sway support for a $7.5 billion transportation project tax, the “Yes” campaign was defeated 62 to 38 per cent by a “No” campaign that reportedly cost about $40,000.
In Vancouver’s procurement policy, any contract more than $75,000 is supposed to be awarded through competitive bidding. There are exceptions that allow “sole source” contracts to be awarded in some circumstances.
Robertson and his chief of staff Kevin Quinlan did not respond to questions about Robertson’s role in approving the contract, and whether the city followed its procurement policy.
“Mr. Ransford’s contract followed the city’s procurement process,” city spokeswoman Sarah Zaharia wrote in an email. “He had a specialized skill set required to prepare the referendum staff team, and the city was reimbursed by TransLink.”
Based on the city’s responses and procurement documents, Baker said the city appears to be relying on “single supplier” and “emergency” exemptions to bypass public tender in Ransford’s contract.
In the first exemption, the procurement official believes “only one supplier is available and capable of performing the contract.” The city must post notice of its intention to enter the contract for at least 14 days before the contract is signed in case there are public objections, Baker said.
In this case, the city posted notice of the contract on June 5, five months after services were delivered, which defeats “the purpose of the notice” Baker said. Also, the notice lists the contract’s value at $80,000.
The second exemption is for city emergencies where goods or services “are urgently required and delay would be injurious to the public interest.”
“I think it’s hard to see, at the time the contract was signed in January, how the June referendum constituted an emergency,” Baker said.
Ransford was asked if he believed he was the only supplier who could have completed his contract.
“No, I don’t think of myself that way. But maybe they thought I was,” he said. When asked if he believed the city followed procurement policy, he said: “I’m not an expert in city procurement policies. I did what they asked me to do.”
Ransford was asked if there could be a perception that he was awarded a sole source contract as a Vision insider and Robertson supporter.
“If you want to create that perception,” Ransford said. (The “Yes” campaign) was chaired by two different mayors. It was a bipartisan campaign with 20 some mayors.”