By Justine Kelsie

Mayor Given explains Request for Proposal process

Mar 7, 2018 | 9:02 AM

If the Grande Prairie Mayor could go back in time, he isn’t sure if the Request for Proposal process would be the right fit for the sale of the old fire hall located downtown.

City council voted to cancel the sale after deciding it wasn’t in the “city’s best interest”. Bill Given said Councillors considered the cost to accommodate city staff and change of location for those in the building when making their decision as well as the appraisal value versus the price Equity Rentals Ltd. was willing to pay.

Grain Bin Brewing Company was the other candidate vying for the space situated near the Farmer’s Market.

“Either we could have or might want to have looked at the criteria we were scoring on and done something different there. Or, maybe an RFP wasn’t the right process and we needed something more flexible again,” said Given.

When the building was put up for sale, there were a few people in the process of retiring in the purchasing department at the city. Given admits that using the RFP process to sell city assets is new to him as they usually use it for buying services, not selling. The last time they used the process was for the York Hotel/Germaine Park site downtown.

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“The key part of an RFP is that we have to list all of the factors that we are considering, and we have to show any and all of the applicants the same information on how we will score the submission,” said Given, explaining how the process works.

In retrospect, Given says they may have asked what a proponent’s vision was for the old fire hall site.

“Once you’ve put out an RFP, in terms of being transparent and fair to everybody that participates, you can’t go and change how you are going to award points after you’ve put it out.”

Given says price in RFP’s account for 40 per cent of the points and there is a reason they didn’t sell the building in a real estate setting. A contract is included to guide the buyer to stay in line with what the city wants.

“Putting some requirements on the purchaser to do something is an integral part. That is why the city didn’t just offer the [buildings] in a normal real estate process with the ‘the highest price gets it’. Somebody could have offered the highest price and do nothing with it. That doesn’t really help our aims for downtown.”

Given says the spirit of the old fire hall, as well as the York Hotel/Germaine Park, was to stimulate the downtown.

In the case of the old fire hall, the mayor admits that any prospective buyers might have a sour taste in their mouth when looking at purchasing from them.

“I have no doubt that this experience would lead, particularly the two proponents that were involved in this (the old fire hall RFP), to question or look very closely at any future things that might come forward from the city. The truth is it is actually very infrequent that the city offers something for purchase. Most often, when we are dealing with RFP’s, we are looking to purchase something from someone else.”

After some retirement in the purchasing area, Given says there are some fresh eyes in the department.

“We are approaching the purchasing area, city-wide and not just because of this issue, with a new lens and seeing if we can refine our processes.”