Discussions

The last week has had some pretty interesting letters to the editor in the Brandon Sun with regards to the Police Station Tender.  
 
The first one was with regards to the City extending the Police Station Closing date 4 times. There was some pretty interesting points to it. It opens the public up to what goes on in the process.  
 
Letter to Editor - Time to hold city responsible  
Chris Griffin  
As the City of Brandon police station tenders are set to close next week, I wanted to inform the taxpayers of Brandon the problems we have encountered with this process.  
 
This project’s tender documents and plans were drawn up and put to tender on Aug. 21. On Sept. 1, the city suspended the project due to incomplete drawings put forward by the engineering firm that was hired. It was then readvertised on Sept. 11.  
 
The city’s engineering department should have done its due diligence, by reading the plans and ensuring all information was there before the tender documents were released to the contractors for bids.  
 
After going back to the drawing board, the plans and documents were once again ready, or so we thought. The contractors now started to look at the new drawings and began to prepare their bid for this project.

(Admin note: The remainder of this letter has been removed as copying and pasting the entire contents from a copyrighted source would be against the law. Please feel more than free to post a summary that isn't word-for-word)  
 
CHRIS GRIFFIN  
 
President Of the Construction Association of Rural Manitoba (CARM )  
 
 
 
 
 
The second letter was the response, to holding the City accountable for the actions.  
 
 
Letter to Editor - City manager responds to CARM boss  
Brian MacRae  
I am compelled to respond to Chris Griffin’s Letter to the Editor (Brandon Sun, Oct. 29) relative to the Brandon police station tender.  
 
Mr. Griffin is well aware that the city contracted an architectural firm to, among other things, complete the specifications and drawings necessary for a tender call for this project. For this work, together with earlier design work and work throughout the construction period, the architects will be paid well in excess of $500,000.  
 
While the city has highly qualified and dedicated engineering staff, their areas of expertise do not include development of drawings and specifications for major and complex buildings. That is why the work was contracted in the first place. I find it appalling that the work of the city’s dedicated engineering staff would be called into question when Mr. Griffin was well aware that the city had contracted to have these services provided and had every right to rely upon the expertise of our architects with respect to this work.  
 

(Admin note: The remainder of this letter has been removed as copying and pasting the entire contents from a copyrighted source would be against the law. Please feel more than free to post a summary that isn't word-for-word)  
 
BRIAN MACRAE  
 
Brandon city manager  
 
 
 
What are some peoples thoughts on this since the Police Station came in 3 Million Dollors OVER budget.