BIDDING PROCESS DOMINATES MEETING
By Kirk Winter
At the February 18, 2020 City of Kawartha Lakes Council meeting, the purchase of six new snowplows for the city fleet dominated the bulk of the 90-minute meeting.
The City proposal called for the purchase of two single-axle and four tandem-axle International trucks from Winslow-Gerolamy Ltd. in Peterborough. The six trucks are to cost the city $1.667 million.
Scrutiny of this proposal began almost immediately with a deputation from Dennis and Blake Clarke representing Freightliner Trucks. They had bid on the tender, but were unsuccessful in obtaining the bid.
Dennis Clarke posed a series of questions to Council that would eventually spark considerable debate on this issue, including:
Why was Clarke and Freightliner not awarded the bid for the six vehicles when their bid was almost $8,500 per vehicle cheaper than the Winslow-Gerolamy bid to supply International vehicles?
Why were the bid specifics tailored almost exclusively to vehicles manufactured by either Mack or International, potentially excluding all other potential bidders?
Why were the specifications, particularly for the single-axle trucks, “so over the top” regarding electronics and axle capacity to appear to be frivolous and wasteful?
Why would any company. like his own, be punished for refusing to sign off on a late delivery fine of $100 per day per truck, when the Coronavirus has thoroughly disrupted international trade with China, where many truck components are currently manufactured?
The discussions that followed involved almost all the Councillors, bringing many salient points to the forefront, including:
The current City fleet is ¼ Mack and ¾ International.
95% of all truck maintenance is done in-house and a vehicle from a different manufacturer “would complicate this.”
Many of the City specifications, like a bigger gas tank and the battery box being on the passenger side of the truck, are reflective of the realities of the size of the City and an overriding concern for operator safety.
From 2013 to 2018, only Mack and International had bid on CKL fleet contracts.
In 2019, only International bid on this six-vehicle tender.
Councillor Elmslie was very concerned about the City receiving only a single bid on a contract of this size. He wanted to know what could be done to at least get Mack bidding on CKL fleet tenders again. Councillor Dunn continued on this train of thought, citing restrictive City specifications on a fire truck tender that left the City with only one bid from a Quebec based company the last time they purchased fire suppression equipment. He wanted to see the City get the best vehicle possible price, and believed that a more competitive tendering process would do that. Elmslie went as far as to suggest that “the tender was simply not a competitive one.”
When the tender was brought up for a vote, Councillor Elmslie asked for a recorded vote and only he and Councillor Ashmore opposed the purchase in a 5-2 decision. Mayor Letham, Deputy Mayor O’Reilly, Councillor Veale, Richardson and Dunn all voted in favour of the purchase of International snowplows. Neither Councillor Seymour-Fagan nor Councillor Yeo were in attendance.
Councillor Elmslie did not let the issue go, winning a unanimous decision from Council for staff to bring back a report on what can be done to make City fleet tendering more competitive.