Toowoomba City Council: scare tactics until their dying breath ...

Another round of scare tactics from the Toowoomba City Council yesterday.

They used to try to scare the community by telling us we would run out of water unless we drank recycled water.

They don't seem to do that any more.

Now they try to scare the community about contracts.

They say that we must spend large sums of money because there's a contract and, if we don't, they'll be penalties.

Talk about a good old fashioned set-up.

This contract has been in the works for some time. It was signed in September. The Council knew the terms.

And now there's a mad rush to appoint the existing contractors without a tendering process because of such unforeseen events as Christmas, the council amalgamation and the election next year.

What a ridiculous bunch of nonsense.

All well planned by you know who.

Sign the contract with the commitment. Run out the clock so there's no time for a tender process. And then appoint you know who else to build it.

The ladies will approve it.

It smells.

But then again what doesn't down at city hall ...


Excerpt from the Chronicle (annotated):

Minister asked to rule on Wetalla tendering process

22 November 2007

The Local Government Minister will be asked to rule on whether Toowoomba City Council can bypass tendering procedures and employ existing contractors at its Wetalla treatment plant to meet the supply date to the New Acland coal mine.

Councillors yesterday discovered between $10 million and $15 million needed to be spent to upgrade the wastewater to the required Class A-plus standard.

And Director of Engineering Kevin Flanagan said, for the sceptics, the water could not be consumed by humans.

Council is committed to supply the mine with 3000 megalitres of wastewater, as the mine is paying $4 million a year over 43 years from March 1, 2009, for the water.

Failure to meet the commitment, Mr Flanagan warned, would carry unwanted penalties.

Further complications included the Christmas break, amalgamations and council elections.

Mr Flanagan secured majority council support to extend the current Wetalla Water Alliance, a joint venture with council, Barclay Mowlem Constructions (now Laing O'Rourke) and CH2M Hill Australia.

He explained council could be exempt from the Local Government Act based on timelines [because we just discovered our deadlines], the limited number of contractors available to do the job [should we ever look for any], and the alliance workers already being on site with their work contracts to run until next November [because of the stuff-ups and the need for further modifications to the work already completed].

The alliance has completed a concept design costing $70,000.

Cr Snow Manners is crying foul; CH2M [Hill], Cr Manners maintains, has a conflict of interest.

"There's no guarantee that we are getting value for money because there will be no testing of the market", he said.

Cr Sue Englart reminded him that, behind closed doors, he had been party to the unanimous support for the mine deal.

"I can't see it's proper for a $10 to $15 million contract to be rushed," he said.

[The outgoing Mayor] said she was bemused by councillors moaning about a $15 million investment that would net the city $200 million "and rising".

"I dare anyone sitting around this table that has been able to earn excessive amounts of money without putting any investment in," she said. [Certainly her post-Water Futures plans didn't work out for her.]

Her parting swipe [before running back to Tasmania] was recalling Cr Manners "signing off" on bypassing the tender process on the drilling of the bores.

"That was a real emergency," he retorted.

Local Government Minister Warren Pitt has sanctioned major council works in the lead-up to amalgamations.

"Let the Minister decide," cried a chorus of [soon to be unemployed] female councillors.