ACS Property Services has been awarded the Shire\u2019s public toilet and barbecue cleaning tender for the next three years, but not after some push back from one councillor.<\/p>\n
The move came during last week\u2019s council meeting and after municipal director of infrastructure and development Phil Josipovic said the Shire has the responsibility of cleaning and maintaining 28 public toilets and 23 public barbecue facilities.<\/p>\n
Fifteen tender submissions were made, with one ineligible and while Mr Josipovic recommended ACS Property Services, but Cr Les Rowe spoke against the recommendation and suggested an alternative.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a councillor, I think we can get better value with another tenderer, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings over a five-year period,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have thoroughly read over a copy of the confidential tender evaluation report, provided to councillors at the briefing meeting and are happy with my findings. The previous tenderer… did a fantastic job with very few complaints.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing this information as a benchmark, alongside the scoring methodology in relation to capacity, capability, local content, price and best value… I would be failing my ratepayers and residents in supporting the recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cr Rowe said the funds saved could be spent on other projects within the Shire, where money is \u201chard to get, easy to spend.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of his push Cr Rowe called out fellow councillors Clayton Whitfield, Brett Cunningham and Ian Getsom, who in 2020 campaigned on fascial municipal responsibility.<\/p>\n
One of their slogans during the election period was \u201ctime to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope the new councillors who campaigned on \u2018time for change\u2019 give this [alternative] credit,\u201d Cr Rowe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI quote one councillor in his campaign material; \u2018providing value for the ratepayers\u2019 dollar.\u2019 Another councillor saying…\u2019 a united group that will work towards accountability.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cFellow councillors, the time for change has come. Put your thinking caps on and think hard on this topic, and put your money where your mouth is. Save this council a considerable amount of money with your actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cr Whitfield said the \u201chigh-profile\u201d work is worth a lot less money than most tenders council sees, with $223,300 budgeted.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the works involved are some of the more high-profile. To choose another tender, other than the recommendation, comes with risk. There is a push by this councillor group to find savings where we can, and this tender does come in under budget,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many factors that need to be accounted for… and we need to ensure a quality level of service and that is vital for the cleaning of public toilets and barbecues, particularly in a time of pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to find savings and budget efficiency is important, but I think there will be many, many chances for us to do that going forward. I wouldn\u2019t be inclined to think this is one of them. The panel do the hard yards… that\u2019s why I find it hard to separate from the recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cr Owen Sharkey congratulated Cr Rowe on his assessment of this tender process, but still supported the recommendation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to steal two words from Cr Whitfield. One is \u2018risk.\u2019 Whilst I personally debated looking at other tenderers, that exposes us… to risk as individuals. The risk is too much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe organisation has supplied us ample material about how they\u2019ve made the decision. If we as councillors decide to go with another tenderer, it exposes us to significant risk, and ratepayers, residents and other tenderers who miss out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ACS Property Services has been awarded the Shire\u2019s public toilet and barbecue cleaning tender for the next three years, but not after some push back from one councillor. The move came during last week\u2019s council meeting and after municipal director of infrastructure and development Phil Josipovic said the Shire has the responsibility of cleaning and […]<\/p>\n