Some city councillors didn't know who would be responsible for paving Prince George roads this year until well after the ink was dry.
During Monday night's core service review deliberations, Coun. Dave Wilbur expressed frustration over the city's continued difficulty in lowering its road rehabilitation costs.
As indicated in the staff implementation plan, the city is in discussions with the province to tender jointly on obtaining asphalt. It also reinforced the idea that the city should look into getting its own gravel supply to make the paving contract more desirable and subsequently more competitive.
"This is not a new theme. It's been a theme that's been whittling it's way through several years and without any benefit coming our way," Wilbur said.
The city recognizes that it pays a premium on asphalt, which can be as much as 30 per cent more than other B.C. municipalities.
But what really ground the councillor's gears was the fact that despite having a larger contract - the 2013 paving budget was increased by nearly $1.5 million over 2012 - the project wasn't put out to tender.
Instead, last year's pavers Columbia Bitulithic exercised an option to extend their contract for an extra year, which was set out in the original bid documents.
Corporate services director Kathleen Soltis explained that when council gave their approval for last year's contract, they were also giving their approval over the option to extend the term, which the company did in February.
"It would have been certainly more transparent and more desirable if administration had come to council and advised it that the optional year was being exercised," Soltis said, noting council's re-approval was not required.
Coun. Brian Skakun said he thought the action was outside of administration's delegated authority, which requires council approval for tenders valued greater than $1 million.
"I raised this concern with administration some time ago about the procurement because when we voted on this in 2012, the direction was specifically to go with Columbia Bitulithic for the 2012 season," said Skakun.
An April 17, 2012 staff report to council recommending the $3 million contract to the company did not make any mention of an option to renew.
