transit committee Report 41A
Comité du transport en commun - rapport 41A
To the council of the City of
Au conseil de la Ville
d’Ottawa
25 AUGUST 2010
le 25 AOÛT 2010
The
TRANSIT Committee met
on 12 JULY 2010 and
submits the items contained in this Report for the
information and/or approval of Council at its meeting of 25 AUGUST 2010.
Le Comité DU TRANSPORT EN COMMUN s’est réuni le 12 JUILLET 2010 et soumet les articles du présent rapport au Conseil
pour information et/ou approbation lors de sa réunion du 25 AOÛT 2010.
Present / Présences :
Chair / Président : A. Cullen
Vice Chair / Vice-présidente : M. Wilkinson
Members / Membres : G. Bédard
R. Bloess
C. Doucet
D. Thompson
SUBJECT: PUBLIC DELEGATIONS – AUDIT OF
THE PROCUREMENT PROCESS FOR THE SMARTBUS NEXT STOP ANNOUNCEMENT SYSTEM AND THE
SMARTCARD SYSTEM
ACS2010-CMR-TTC-0011
objet: DÉLÉGATIONS
PUBLIQUES – VÉRIFICATION DU PROCESSUS D’ACQUISITION DU SYSTÈME D’ANNONCE DES
ARRÊTS DANS LES AUTOBUS INTELLIGENTS ET DU SYSTÈME DE CARTES À PUCE
1.
PUBLIC DELEGATIONS – AUDIT OF THE PROCUREMENT PROCESS FOR THE SMARTBUS NEXT STOP ANNOUNCEMENT
SYSTEM AND THE SMARTCARD SYSTEM DÉLÉGATIONS PUBLIQUES – VÉRIFICATION DU PROCESSUS D’ACQUISITION DU
SYSTÈME D’ANNONCE DES ARRÊTS DANS LES AUTOBUS INTELLIGENTS ET DU SYSTÈME DE
CARTES À PUCE |
Committee Recommendation
That Council receive this report for information.
Recommandation DU Comité
Que le
Conseil prenne connaissance de ce rapport.
Documentation
1.
Committee
Co-ordinator's report, City Clerk’s Branch dated 5 July 2010
(ACS2010-CMR-TTC-0011).
2.
Extract
of Draft Minutes 47, Transit Committee meeting of 12 July 2010.
Report to /
Rapport au:
Transit
Committee
Comité du transport
en commun
and Council /
et au Conseil
5 July 2010 / le
5 juillet 2010
Submitted
by / Soumis par: City Council / Conseil municipal
Contact /
Personne-ressource : Diane Blais, Committee Coordinator /
Coordonnatrice de comité,
City Clerk’s Branch / Direction du greffe
580-2424, Ext. / poste : 28091,
Diane.Blais@ottawa.ca
City Wide / À
l'échelle de la Ville |
Ref N°: ACS2010-CMR-TTC-0011 |
SUBJECT: PUBLIC DELEGATIONS – AUDIT OF THE PROCUREMENT PROCESS FOR
THE SMARTBUS NEXT STOP ANNOUNCEMENT SYSTEM AND THE SMARTCARD SYSTEM
OBJET: DÉLÉGATIONS PUBLIQUES – VÉRIFICATION DU
PROCESSUS D’ACQUISITION DU SYSTÈME D’ANNONCE DES ARRÊTS DANS LES AUTOBUS
INTELLIGENTS ET DU SYSTÈME DE CARTES À PUCE
REPORT
RECOMMENDATION
That the Transit
Committee receive public comments with
respect to the Auditor General’s report (Audit of the Procurement Process for the SmartBus Next
Stop Announcement System and the SmartCard System), as referred by Council at its meeting of 23 June 2010.
RECOMMANDATION DU RAPPORT
Que le Comité du transport en commun reçoive les
commentaires publics en ce qui concerne le rapport du vérificateur général
(Vérification du processus d’acquisition du système d’annonce des arrêts dans
les autobus intelligents et du système de cartes à puce), tel que référé par le
Conseil à sa réunion du 23 juin 2010.
BACKGROUND
At the 23 June 2010 meeting of Ottawa
City Council, the Auditor General tabled his report titled “Audit of the Procurement Process for the SmartBus Next
Stop Announcement System and the SmartCard System”. In tabling this report, Council approved the
following referral motion:
That Council refer the Audit of
the Procurement Process for the SmartBus Next Stop Announcement System and the
SmartCard System to the Transit Committee for the purpose of
receiving public delegations and for subsequent consideration and approval of
the audit recommendations by Council at its meeting of August 25, 2010.
In accordance with the reporting
protocol approved by Council for the Office of the Auditor General, the
authority to “discuss and approve” the Auditor General’s reports rests with
City Council. Therefore, the sole
purpose of the referral to the Standing Committee is to provide an opportunity
for public delegations to comment on the referred report.
CONSULTATION
This item will be advertised in the local
dailies as part of the Public Meeting Advertisement on Friday preceding the
Transit Committee Meeting.
FINANCIAL
IMPLICATIONS
There are no financial implications since
this is to receive public comments.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
Document 1 - Audit of the Procurement
Process for the SmartBus Next Stop Announcement System and the SmartCard System (previously issued to all members of Council and held
on file) / Vérification du
processus d’acquisition du système d’annonce des arrêts dans les autobus intelligents
et du système de cartes à puce (distribué antérieurement aux membres du
Conseil municipal et retenue en dossier)
DISPOSITION
Council
to consider and approve the audit recommendations at its meeting of August 25,
2010.
PUBLIC DELEGATIONS – AUDIT
OF THE PROCUREMENT
PROCESS FOR THE SMARTBUS NEXT STOP ANNOUNCEMENT SYSTEM AND THE
SMARTCARD SYSTEM
DÉLÉGATIONS PUBLIQUES – VÉRIFICATION DU PROCESSUS D’ACQUISITION DU SYSTÈME D’ANNONCE DES ARRÊTS
DANS LES AUTOBUS INTELLIGENTS ET DU SYSTÈME DE CARTES À PUCE
(Referred
from City Council meeting of 23 June 2010/ Reporté de la réunion du Conseil
municipal du 23 juin 2010)
ACS2010-CMR-TTC-0011 city-wide / À l’Échelle de la ville
Chair Cullen
introduced this item by noting that the purpose of having it on the agenda was
to receive public delegations and that the Audit, Budget and Finance Committee
would deal with any aspects on which management and the Auditor General disagreed. He then referenced a request from the Chair
of the Accessibility Advisory Committee regarding the Smartcard. In its request,
the advisory committee asked that the Transit Committee defer any decision
until after a presentation could be made to the Accessibility Advisory
Committee. Further to his introductory
comments, he reminded Committee that no decisions would be made today, noting
that the Audit in question was not dealing with the Smartcard system but rather
with the procurement process. Therefore, he submitted that if the Accessibility
Advisory Committee had an issue with the Smartcard process, the current meeting
would not be the venue at which to discuss it.
Charles
Matthews remarked that the
objective was to hear public delegations on the Audit of the procurement
process for the Smartbus next stop announcement system and the smartcard
system. He maintained part of the requirements for this was to make it public
information and for advertisements to be placed on the Friday prior to the
meeting. He submitted that very few
people were aware of this opportunity because all the major organizations were
not sent the information nor was it sent out as a news release. He referenced the Accessibility Advisory
Committee’s request to defer the item and expressed his belief that they wanted
to give people a chance to see the report and take a look at the procedures that
were used during the procurement process. Therefore, on behalf of Access Now,
he asked that this be delayed until the next meeting and that proper procedures
be put in place so people could present on this.
Chair Cullen
indicated he was in the hands of Committee in terms of any motions to
delay. However, he pointed out that the
Audit was tabled at Council on June 23rd and had been in the public
domain since that date. He re-iterated
that this Committee was mandated to receive public delegations and that any
issues that required further discussion between management and the Auditor
General would be dealt with at Audit, Budget and Finance Committee. With respect to the matter following proper
procedures, he maintained that it had followed the standard process; the
Auditor General’s report was tabled and made public at the June 23 Council
meeting, at which time Council considered and approved a motion to defer this
Audit report to Transit Committee for the purpose of receiving public
delegations. He again referenced the
request from the Accessibility Advisory Committee and indicated his
understanding was that the AAC had larger, more generic issues relating to the
Smartcard.
Charles
Matthews re-iterated that the community only became aware of this item on
Friday and would have liked more time to review the report and make
recommendations on it. He submitted that
this was a very important step in terms of accessibility in
Responding to
questions from Councillor Wilkinson, Chair Cullen stated that he had two
problems with this: first, he maintained that this had followed proper process;
secondly, he believed the concerns being raised were not germane to Audit
report itself but had more to do with next stop announcement system and the
smartcard system. He acknowledged that these were legitimate
issues and that the Accessibility Advisory Committee could discuss them and make recommendations, but he re-iterated that it was not
germane to the Audit report. .
Charles Matthews felt he was being
misunderstood. Yes, he submitted the
underlying principle was that the system was not needed. However, with regards to the Audit and the
procurement process, he believed that in many instances, Council had not used
the procurement procedure properly. He
submitted that this was just the most recent example. He referenced the O-Train and the tunnel and
maintained that this needed to be discussed before the City got to an EA.
Speaking to the procurement process, Councillor
Wilkinson explained that the Auditor General had conducted this audit some time
ago and she advised the delegation that Council had since approved changes to
the Procurement Policy to deal with this particular issue. With respect to concerns related to the next stop announcement system and the smartcard
system, she suggested that Mr. Matthews work with the Accessibility Advisory
Committee, which she presumed would be bringing forward recommendations for the
Transit Committee’s and Council’s consideration.
In conclusion, Mr. Matthews stated he did not
like the way Committee and Council passed things through and put things in such
a way that it did not give a fair bidding process to the people who were
putting in the bids. Secondly, he referenced
the people being affected and questioned whether this was the system they were
looking for or whether this was the City spending unnecessary money in areas
where it should not be doing so.
That
the Transit Committee receive public comments
with respect to the Auditor General’s report (Audit of the Procurement
Process for the SmartBus Next Stop Announcement System and the SmartCard System), as referred by Council at its meeting of
23 June 2010.
RECEIVED