North Bay city councillor George Maroosis believes council’s decision not to accept an out-of-town bid to supply the city with pick-up trucks could come back to haunt it. As Moose News reported earlier, council rejected a Request For Proposal (5-4) from Highbury Ford of London to sell the city eight, half-ton trucks at a cost of just more than $269,000. The bid was the lowest of four including two from local dealerships that also supplied the city with an RFP. Maroosis supported the Highbury offer but was in the minority.
Despite the quarter-million dollar price tag, Maroosis says the search for the trucks is very small considering what council is pursuing in the near future. Maroosis says rejecting the Highbury bid has implications for the future if the city is seen “as being closed and not interested in receiving the best value, regardless of where the bid is coming from.” The councillor says where the city could hurt itself is its pursuit of a new arena which will easily cost $20-million. However he’s concerned that out-of-town bidders won’t submit their tenders after council turned down an outside offer because it wasn’t local. “They might say, gee North Bay has changed its mind and we probably shouldn’t even waste our time to put a bid together for a major project,” said Maroosis.
Maroosis identified another problem when the Highbury bid was rejected. He says council got a report from staff to replace the eight pick-up trucks because they needed replacing. Now the search for their replacements is on hold and Maroosis says City Hall may have unreliable vehicles that will need ongoing maintenance and he doubts this is in the best interest of the municipality. He says contrast that to news vehicles which are virtually maintenance free and under warranty. Maroosis wants his colleagues to consider another matter. He says if all municipalities in Ontario looking for tenders or RFPs rejected bids that aren’t local, then North Bay businesses would also face that roadblock just like Highbury ran into when dealing with city council.
