By Madeline Baker, Times Chronicle
An amendment to the Town of Osoyoos’s Delegation of Authority bylaw that seeks to reduce the administrative red tape involved in awarding development contracts had its first three readings approved by council at their February 14 meeting.
The change would allow the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), along with either the Director of Operational Services, Financial Services, or Community Services, to award contracts that meet certain criteria and proceed with development projects without first having to present the contract to council.
Only contracts that fall within pre-existing budget limits, have already been approved in the Five Year Financial Plan, represent the lowest bidder for a Request for Quote (RFQ) or the highest ranked applicant in a Request for Proposal (RFP), and total under $30,000 will fall under the new amendment’s purview. Any contract over that amount requires a report to council before the project can proceed.
In the Town’s report to council, Director of Financial Services Jim Zakall pointed out that the Community Charter does give council the authority to delegate some powers, and he argued that delegating this particular power would benefit both council and town administration to streamline their processes when it comes to development projects.
In fact, under the amended bylaw, projects could be sped up by a minimum of two weeks that would usually be spent awaiting the next scheduled council meeting. This would also free up time in council meetings to discuss matters that did not require their stamp of approval as nothing more than a formality.
Councillor Jim King voiced some concern about the loss of final authority on contracts that still represented a large sum of money changing hands, but Zakall expressed his confidence that the number of restrictions in their amendment would help council avoid any ugly surprises.
“There are a couple of factors built into this,” said Zakall. “It has to be within the approved budget or under, and has to be the lowest bidder or the highest ranking [applicant]. If there are any other changes, if it’s over budget or if staff is recommending the second lowest bidder because they think they’ll do a much better job, all of that has to come before council.”
Another concern, raised by Councillor Johnny Cheong, was that a single bidder could too easily be granted a contract if they submitted the only quote, to which Zakall said that the town “very, very rarely” receives only one bid.
Chief Administrative Officer Rod Risling also pointed out that the bidder in that situation would be granted the contract regardless of council’s input, and any attempt to stop them would likely end in litigation.
“As we enter into that process of awarding the contract, we have to have all those “I’s” dotted and those “T’s” crossed before we go out for an RFP, and once we do that, we’ve entered into a legal contract,” explained Risling. “If that bid comes in at that price or lower, we can’t stop it.”
“That’s one of the reasons for this change. It’s seen as a way to expedite a process that can’t be stopped anyway.”
Indeed, the report to council suggests that their time spent on formalizing the acceptance of such contracts would be better spent on “broader and longer-term needs” of the municipality instead of an “inefficient and unnecessary” contract awarding process.
Ultimately, a unanimous vote pushed the amendment forward for its first, second, and third readings, with the final vote on whether to adopt its changes coming at the March council meeting.
