Emails show Ford team wavered on garbage contract

Mayor Rob Ford’s administration had concerns, at least briefly, about the company that won the contract to collect residential garbage west of Yonge St., internal emails show.

The emails, obtained through a freedom of information request, do not suggest that the city has had any problems with the company, GFL Environmental East Corp. They reveal, however, that the Ford administration was privately unsure about GFL even as it publicly expressed strong confidence.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, the Ford ally who chairs the public works committee, stood at a "Respect for Taxpayers" podium in Ford’s office on Oct. 19 and announced that GFL had beaten its competitors with an exceptionally low bid that would save the city $11 million per year, far more than expected. "The taxpayers are the big winners today," he said.

Some of Ford’s left-leaning council opponents and the union representing city garbage workers had already expressed skepticism about the company’s ability to do the job for the price it quoted. Minnan-Wong told reporters that such critics were engaging in “fear-mongering.”

"This is a good-news story," he said.

The next day, he sounded far less certain.

On Oct. 20, Minnan-Wong emailed deputy city manager John Livey from his BlackBerry. In a message he titled “GFL: gotta ask the question,” he raised the possibility of rejecting GFL in favour of another company.

“Are you still satisfied that GFL can do the job? It IS the 64 dollar question (sic) we need to answer. I need to know if you and Vince r still ok with this,” he wrote, referring to solid waste services department chief Vince Sferrazza. “If the answer is NO, we need to make that decision sooner rather than later.”

Ford’s aides also had questions about GFL. Less than three hours after Minnan-Wong’s news conference, Sunny Petrujkic, a Ford policy adviser and council liaison, sent Sferrazza a terse email.

The union and some left-leaning councillors had suggested that GFL had not performed well collecting garbage in the city of Kawartha Lakes, noting that the government there had decided not to renew the company's contract earlier this year even though it had made the lowest bid. Asked at his news conference about the Kawartha Lakes situation, Minnan-Wong had parried by pointing to GFL's "successful" work in Hamilton.

Petrujkic’s email indicates that Ford’s aides felt they did not know enough to be certain the critics were wrong about Kawartha Lakes or that Minnan-Wong was right about Hamilton. He told Sferrazza: “Need detailed information on GFL and why Kawartha Lakes decided not to renew their contract. You need to get on this now. What is the experience from other municipalities? What’s the story from Hamilton? Durham? Why did you not know about this before?”

He continued: “What are the results of the Corporate Search you have done on this company? What is the status of this inquiry? When will it be ready? You gotta be ready for this stuff." He demanded "some answers" within an hour.

In an interview last Thursday, Minnan-Wong said his email was simply intended to make sure city staff had done their due diligence in selecting GFL. The selection process was conducted without the involvement of politicians, he said, and people had raised questions he wanted answered.

“When someone casts aspersions on a contract that we’re awarding, I’ll investigate all criticism and information. That’s my job as the chair of the works committee,” he said.

“There were a number of aspersions cast from a number of places. So I went to staff and I asked them about GFL, and it was an honest question: are these criticisms valid or not? If they are valid, we have to make a decision. If they aren’t valid, let’s move forward.”

He defended his accusation of "fear-mongering." Upon investigation, he said, the critics’ concerns did indeed prove to be unfounded.

But Councillor Gord Perks, one of the critics Minnan-Wong dismissed, said Minnan-Wong should have investigated the concerns before he disparaged them.

“I’m glad to know that the chair of the works committee at least checked. I think he would have served Torontonians better if he had checked before he had gone to the press and said he was satisfied,” Perks said.

“I’m surprised that Denzil would tell the public that he was completely satisfied when, clearly, he wasn’t. It’s not a good way to govern. If you’re checking, tell the public, ‘Look, I’m looking into this,’ not ‘I’m satisfied.’”

By next summer, Pickering-based GFL will be collecting the household waste of the entire west half of the city. It announced last week that it had acquired Turtle Island Recycling, the company that handles Etobicoke’s residential waste. Under the new contract, approved by council on Oct. 24, it will also serve the 165,000 homes between Yonge St. and the Humber River from August 2012 until at least 2019.

There are no signs of trouble in the city's relationship with GFL. In a speedy reply to Minnan-Wong’s email, Sferrazza wrote, “Yes, we are satisfied and confident GFL can do the job.” He later told council that Kawartha Lakes, Hamilton and Durham had all given GFL positive references.

Sferrazza also told council that the city is protected against hypothetical future GFL problems. The company posted an $8.5 million performance bond and a $3.5 million letter of credit.

Preparations for the August handover are "going very well," waste services department spokesperson Pat Barrett said in an email last Friday.

“No change in our position that we are satisfied and confident that GFL can do the job,” Barrett said.

Original Article
Source: Star