“The foundation of a good procurement practice is open, fair, and transparent bidding processes,” explains City Manager Walter Babicz. ” And we’ve been making improvements to have the process go online. Thankfully that was done prior to COVID. We’ve been improving that. We’ve been building on those practices.”
Babicz says the City is really opening its doors to working with industry when making significant changes to its process and that’s important to industry when it opts to bid on a City project. Or not. And the procurement process has become increasingly complex.
“It is becoming more and more complex. There are various trade agreements that are in play, that we always need to be in tune too,” says Babicz. “And, in the last few years, supply chain logistics have very much complicated process. It’s not uncommon for contractors to hold prices for a few days as opposed to several weeks or months in the past.”
The City passes its capital plan alongside its operating budget. And that five-year capital plan is divided into funded projects, meaning they will be completed within the five years, and the unfunded projects which are the ones the City would like to get, but can’t afford to. The library entrance is a classic example of a project that sat on the unfunded list for years before Council sought to build it. The original budget was way off. And that is one of the strong recommendations from the Construction Association to the City’s ongoing Capital Project Management reviews.
“They’ll put together a budget for a major in October and then go out to public tender in March,” says Bone. “And during that period of time, the prices go up significantly. So, no longer is the budget applicable.”
