Centennial Pool – is there a city bylaw against thinking?

Undoubtedly a portion of the blame for the damage that will be done to the Whalers Swim Club, their programs and their ability to be competitive does lie with the contractor. However, despite their finger pointing, senior city staff and council must bear the largest portion of the responsibility for this debacle.

I am tired, make that disgusted, with the fact that in making poor decision after poor decision senior staff and council insist on pointing their fingers everywhere and at everyone else, refusing to accept their responsibility for the decisions they make.

Worse, in the case of Centennial Pool they spent the past three to four months assuring the Whalers Swim Club the pool would be ready. This behaviour has clearly taken the matter of Centennial Pool past poor judgement into incompetence.

At the time the contract was awarded questions were raised by many, except for senior staff and council, concerning accepting the low bid from an inexperienced pool tank builder. Why did the experienced pool builders think building costs would be so much higher than the inexperienced builder, as reflected by their bids? With the incredibly tight deadline for completion and the devastating impact failure to open on time would have on the Whalers Swim Club, why take the extremely high risk involved in awarding the contract to a company that had never built a pool before? Exactly how is “highly recommended” preferable to a track record of actual pool construction?

I do not know the answers to these and similar questions that were raised, because senior staff and council refused to address any questions. Whether this was because the questions were from the public, arrogance, the projected $600,000 savings were desperately needed to feed the voracious appetite the capital plan has shown for consuming City cash flow or simply a lack of judgment and common sense is also unknown.

I do know it is time Abbotsford City Hall was held accountable for its actions. Mark Taylor and any other senior staff involved in this clear lack of judgment should be fired. Since Abbotsford has chosen to lack any adequate alternative facilities it is the responsibility of the city to find and secure alternative training facilities, bear any difference in costs of these facilities and provide transportation or reasonable compensation for transportation to these other facilities. Current council’s “firing” must await the next municipal election. In the meantime they owe a public apology to the Whalers.

It is past time that Abbotsford City Hall stopped blaming everyone and everything else and accepted responsibility for the consequences of the decisions they make and actions they take

In discussing the protracted delay in completing the Centennial Pool tank with people two items/questions kept arising. Since both are well within the demonstrated behaviour of Abbotsford City Hall I feel it is important to bring these points to the attention of all citizens. Only if the voices of many citizens demand an answer is there any possibility of getting a response from City Hall.

First is the disturbing suggestion that as part of this years budget City Manager Guthrie and Parks & Recreations Mark Taylor plan to slip the privatization of life-guarding at MRC wave pool by the public. Not as a means for saving money, since any money saved through lower wages is profit for the contractor not savings for the city, but as a continuation of their practice of attacking or annoying city unions.

I have been swimming at the city pools for over a decade and a half and over that time have seen and come to know just how well trained current staff is. In spite of any kidding I may give them I trust them with my life. I want the best trained, best qualified people guarding my life when I am at the pool. Just as an aside: the staff is young people from our area, many of who use the flexible work hours to permit them to be able to afford to attend UCFV or other educational institutions; some need the part-time employment to bolster the family income.

Not only should this change not be done, if true it is unconscionable that they would consider sneaking such a big change through as part of the budget process.

The more disturbing reports are that current city co0ntracts are being stretched out or delayed in starting because of very tight city cash flow as a result of plan A’s voracious appetite for city cash flow. Contractors are being paid on a stretched timeframe with the result that project completion is significantly delayed. The start of needed maintenance and projects are said to have been delayed or not scheduled in order to reduce cash outflow.

Raising the question if perhaps part of the reason Centennial Pool is three months behind is a direct result of actions taken by Abbotsford City Hall to stretch out contract payments, in direct contravention of their claim of not knowing why the pool is so far behind.

As I said, both of these fall within the city’s recent behaviour and it is important that the city provides a clear answer on these important questions.

I have a simple question, so simple even a local politician SHOULD be able to understand it. Although it is very clear they do not want to understand or answer. If the current cost of Plan A is 108.6 million and the taxpayers are only paying $85.0 who is it that is to pay the $23.6+ million in extra costs?

If the city has some mysterious benefactor donating this money this should be made clear so citizens can say a very big thank you. Even if anonymous we as a City need to acknowledge this great display of largess.

If on the other hand the money is being paid by the city and no one else then no matter what word games and accounting tricks the city is using, homeowners will be paying for all $108.6 million.

Citizens have the right to know exactly where the extra $23.6 million is coming from, because if it is coming out of city revenue it is coming out of citizens pockets. Particularly if the city is using any mislabeling tricks such as establishing a very large line of credit, say $23.6 million in order to say “we are not borrowing that money, we are just using the city’s line of credit”. Especially since these type of word games come with the extra interest costs of the high interest rates on “lines of credit.

What ever is going on the citizens of Abbotsford have the right to demand and receive a clear accounting of just were all the money for all parts of plan A are coming from.

Because should it prove that the claim of it only costing $85 million is merely word games and accounting misdirection, then clearly politicians and senior city staff are in effect lying to us.

Citizens have a need and a right to know how truthful senior city staff and our politicians are in speaking to us