Road repairs under fire at Stouffville council

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 17, 2015
By Sandra Bolan

Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville public works’ staff and a contractor took advantage of a low unit price bid for asphalt repairs, which ended up costing the municipality $50,576 more than anticipated, according to a staff report.

Last fall, IPAC Paving was awarded a contract to remove and replace 500 square metres of existing asphalt and remove and replace another 500 square metres of existing driveway aprons for $46,300.

IPAC had the lowest of seven bids, with D&A Road Services coming in with the highest bid - $125,091.

In reality, IPAC repaired 2,242 square metres of asphalt for $96,876.

“Part of the problem is that the contractor underwrote, accepted more jobs and changed the scope of the work without really talking to anybody,” said Marc Pourvahidi, the town’s treasurer and director of finance, during the Feb. 3 council meeting.

By the time the issue reached the CAO and treasurer’s departments, the spending was “well past” the $46,300 budget, according to Pourvahidi.

The public works department has a $75,000 annual budget for these types of repairs but since the tender came in at $46,300, that became the new budget, according to Andrew McNeely, the town’s CAO.

Traditionally, when the budget maximum has been reached, council approval is required for more money. That step was missed in this case, according to Pourvahidi.

Rob Flindall took over as director of public works for the town in September.

“The contract wasn’t well managed. I think that says it all,” Pourvahidi told councillors Feb. 3. “In my view, staff did not have the authority to spend the money.”

Mayor Justin Altmann called the procedures and protocols “very weak” and in future, to ensure the work is being done according to specs, he suggested town staff head out to the job sites and photograph all the work done and put them in a binder.

“For us to micro-manage them, well, now perhaps council needs to get into the trucks and we need to get out there and start measuring,” said Councillor Hugo Kroon.

An improved process has been created that includes staff identifying precise locations and provide a best estimate as to how many square metres of asphalt at each location will be required prior to putting the work out to tender, according to the report.

Kroon called the annual $75,000 budget for these repairs “ridiculously low” for 400 km of roadway and wanted it increased. He did not provide an alternative dollar amount.

Councillor Ken Ferdinands suggested the program be split equally among all wards, with each one receiving 500 square metres of asphalt repairs annually.

He added, filling usually starts in the urban wards and by the time workers are able to get to the rural areas, there is nothing left in the budget.