What is happening at City Hall?

(Ed. Note: We made the National news on April 13. The item caught the attention of former Dawson treasurer, Rob Bristow, who e-mailed with this comment.)

Dear Editor:

It is with absolute amazement that I read the article on the CBC website about the firing of Dawson’s city council

It was over 10 years ago when I was treasurer (1989 and 1990 to be exact) but I still have so many very special memories of my time up north. If I recall correctly, when I left, the City was in very solid financial shape. There was money in reserve, the debt situation was well under control and suppliers always were paid on time. We were recognized as having perhaps the best administration of any community in the Yukon (Allannah Tunnicliffe was the city manager, Harry DeWitt was the works Super, Holly Kushniryk was the Rec. Director and, of course, Dennis Montgomery was the fire chief and I was proud to have worked with them). We also had a tremendous support staff including Shirley Moi and others who really cared about the community and what Dawson was all about. We also had a (somewhat) functioning council that kept a close eye on those of us on the admin side to make sure things were running smoothly.

It is also interesting to note that one of the big issues today is a recreation centre, an issue we tackled when I was around. At that time, I had recommended against a proposed indoor pool project as I thought the costs were well beyond what the taxpayers could afford (my speaking out on this was, I suspect, one issue that led to my demise as certain politicians seemed to have an edifice complex). I guess, after all these years, someone, somewhere, still wasn’t listening.

(Ed. Note: To clarify, Mr. Bristow is referring to one of several rec. centre / pool proposals that were developed but not built during the tenure of former Mayor Peter Jenkins. He confirmed in a second e-mail that this was the proposal that would have seen a high end aquatic centre complex located on Fourth Avenue, just behind the Eldorado Hotel and adjacent to the Robert Service School.)

This is too bad about this mess as the people of Dawson, many of whom I still read about on the Klondike Sun website deserve a whole lot better than this disaster.

Here’s hoping that common sense kicks in and this whole mess can be sorted out.

Cheers!

Robin D. Bristow, CA CFE
WILLIS ASSOCIATES
Chartered Accountants, Insolvency Services,
Forensic Accounting, Trusts & Estates
#100, 2903 - 35th Avenue
Vernon, BC V1T 2S7

The PMT Should Be Accountable

By Rick Riemer

To the people of Yukon

re: Dawson City Project Management team (PMT)

The PMT of Dawson City is a team of people that was put together after two previous projects went over budget and encountered construction problems due to several reasons, some of which were pointed out in the 1999 BDO Dunwoody analysis of these capital projects.

The PMT came into existence late 2000, early 2001, long after the main contract had been let. Now this is the approximant time the Liberal government of the day was appointing a supervisor for Dawson and during the time when city manager Jim Kincaid was looking for work elsewhere. The only thing the city manager would say was Dawson City is seeking a new management style and that he was fired.(see Star archive Mar. 5, 6 2001)

I was also working at the rec. center in Dec. of 2000 when Mr. Kincaid came on site to ask how much it would cost to shut the project down, due to not having enough money. I think Mr. Kincaid saw the road the city was taking and did not agree with it .So he was punished.

So now we are in early 2001 and this project was in trouble financially, not to mention the improper installation of the thermosyphens and the ground work that was not done to spec. The ground prep and thermosyphens was a separate contract done by the city prior to the letting of the main contract. Dawson now has a PMT which has all access to the engineers’ reports ,the contract to TSL and every thing you would need to make the proper decisions to keep this project on course.

The make up of this PMT consisted of council members Potoroka, Shandler and Van Nostrand. A consultant that was sole sourced, Randy Shewen. City manager Scott Coulson and treasurer Dale Courtice. The main player from Community Services was Pat Moloy. So there you have it folks; with a team like that in place one would think we as citizens shouldn’t have to worry about the project running off it’s tracks.

Wrong.

One should try to touch on how much this PMT cost the people of Dawson and the Yukon. Well in 2002 tax payers paid just for the consultants $179,735.00. This does not include direct expenses or indirect expenses for the rest of the PMT. I believe one will never no the real cost unless a forensic audit is done.

One has to ask just what did people of Dawson gain from this PMT in relation to the rec. center and what did the rest of the taxpayers gain? Well we do have a facility.

We have a lot of legal fees that should have never happened, like trying to drag the contractor to the supreme court of Yukon when the contract was very specific about dispute resolutions, but who cares when you are spending tax payer’s money right?

The ground conditions at the facility are worse than they were 25 years ago. Why? Well, because the city went in and tore down the existing facility exposing permafrost that had not been exposed for the past 20 years, then to make matters worse excavated for thermosyphens, which never could have worked due to the installation, and to add to the problem never back filled them properly. This resulted in the City having to go in and dig out material and replace it with the proper material. They did this in July of 2001 normally the hottest month of the year. Maybe this will help answer how the ground got exposed to the summer weather (see Star archives Mar 15, 2002).

One of the biggest atrocities this PMT did was held the kids of our community hostage from using this facility by holding the contractor tied to the contract to pour the cement pad even though the ground work was flawed before the main contract was let. This caused no organized hockey and the result on our kids was very evident at the Haines Junction novice tournament. They could have installed the plastic liner or began excavating the permafrost once the engineers said not to pour the cement in August 2001, instead they tried to hold the contractor to pouring the slab even though the ground conditions were deteriorating. This in my opinion, no matter what the outcome of the arbitration, will cost Dawson and Yukon taxpayers money, just because this PMT could not come up with a common sense approach to the ground conditions they created.

The PMT is totally responsible for us being in arbitration with the contractor; that is the last place you want to be as an owner of a facility. Mediation could have been a better approach, but when you try to drag the contractor to the supreme court of Yukon to get the ruling the PMT would like to see ,you’ve just lost all respect and credibility for mediation.

One of the biggest flaws of the local members of the PMT was they never listened to the people. Some members were told of the ground problems in late 2000 but it never went any where. Why didn’t they ask some of the locals? Newt Webster knew what had to be done, Han construction has excavated the permafrost out many times from their buildings, Gary Gammie has, Harry Campbell has. They could have just asked the Nagano boys ,the Taylor family or just maybe our historian John Gould, what was in that area 30 to 40 years ago. That would have been too simple.

So folks, no matter what community you come from, demand accountability and common sense from your elected people. Even if it means not passing the city budget if you are on council. It is your right. The people are your strength and just because this is the Yukon it doesn’t mean we don’t have to be accountable. The PMT of Dawson City is going to cost all Yukoners money in the end. They have to be held accountable.

(Ed. Note; Rick tells us this is the original version of a letter which appeared in a much edited form in the Yukon News some weeks ago. Just for the record, this is the first time we had had it sent to us to print, or at least, the first time we have received it.)