Four members of Belleville city council wanted to send a message to an architectural firm after it raised its price on a project over the past few months by $400,000.
City of Belleville staff recommended the firm Shoalts and Zaback Architects get the job of designing and supervising construction of the new Belleville Police Headquarters, even though their bid was the second highest among 4 at around $1.5 million.
However, what really bothered some on council was the fact that the same company had quoted around $1 million for the same job just last May.
Councillor Mitch Panciuk called Shoalts and Zaback greedy and said council needed to send a message to other companies that council won’t accept such price swings in such a short time period.
He demanded that staff provide more information to council on reasons behind the price difference.
Councillor Kelly McCaw wondered why anyone would want to reward a company that upped its price so much.
Councillor Miller wondered if the project had changed much in the past few months.
Councillor Boyce didn’t see any significant difference between Shoalts and Zabacks tender and one
by Rebanks Pepper Littlewood Architects. That company’s bid was $84,000 lower.
Belleville CAO Rick Kester faced a lot of questions on the price increase. He offered some explanation, saying a $150,000 contingency fund had to be included in the latest tender offering and that that was not included the request for proposal made early in the year.
He also said an acoustical study was demanded in this request and that that also was not part of the initial project description.
He admitted those two factors would not make up for the $400,000 increase from Shoalts and Zaback.
The CAO said Shoalts and Zabacks tender included 108 site visits while the new police station was being built, more than any other and that that impressed the
evaluation committee.
Councillors Boyce and Denyes came to Kester’s defence after he was asked by councillor Panciuk about why he wouldn’t ask the company for detailed reasons for an increase and relate the answers to council.
Both Boyce and Denyes read from the city’s tender policy which they say states staff or councillors cannot question firms about their submissions after they are received.
After a lot of discussion, the staff recommendation, to accept the tender from Zaback and Shoalts, came to a vote.
It passed 5 to 4. Voting in a losing cause against the recommendation were McCaw, Miller, Panciuk and Boyce.
Mayor Taso Christopher spoke for the winning side in the vote, saying he trusted the judgement of staff and the evaluation committee, and that it was time to
move on with a project that’s been talked about for years.