It cost Vancouver taxpayers the equivalent of nearly 25,000 shiny new loonies to retrofit parking meters to accept the Royal Canadian Mint’s new 2012 coins.
San Diego-headquartered IPS Group was paid $24,903.90 for services to upgrade its IPS Meters after drivers who inserted new loonies and toonies found the coins were not registering with the devices. City of Vancouver began installing the next-generation parking meters, which also accept credit cards, in 2010.
The mint said it gave meter and vending machine operators nationwide ample notice, but city hall claimed it didn’t get the coins until they were released to the public.
The cost was in the city’s annual procurement report, prepared for city council’s Wednesday committee meeting.
In total, 695 contracts worth almost $129.1 million were let. There were 81 sole-source contracts worth $4.1 million, of which 46 were notices of intent and 35 deemed urgent or highly specialized. The city’s senior staff bid committee approved 51 contracts worth nearly $95 million, 16 of which were a combined $67 million that required city council approval. The remaining $28 million of deals were under the $2 million threshold and awarded by the bid committee.
Securiguard Services’ $14 million integrated security services contract was the biggest awarded in 2012, followed by King Hoe Excavating’s $13,686,469.78 contract for closure and gas works construction at the Vancouver landfill. Acklands-Grainger ($6 million), First Truck Centre Vancouver ($5,637,938) and Graham Infrastructure ($5,633,200) were the other contracts worth more than $5 million.
The report shows $318,532.56 in contracts for Vancouver’s hosting of the upcoming May 31-June 3, 2013, Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention and trade show.
The city also spent $53,100 on hiring Margaret Eberle of Eberle Planning and Research to coordinate the 2012 homeless count.
Meanwhile, the city shaved almost $152 million off the Olympic Village debt, which now stands at $310.2 million, according to the report. The $1.1 billion complex, in receivership under Ernst and Young since November 2010, sold 116 market condominium units, down from 177 in 2011, leaving 181 to go at year-end. The complex was built with 1,108 units, of which 737 were for market sale.
“Net proceeds from the sale of the condominiums were, with court approval, paid to the City and used to reduce external financing,” said the report.
Overall, the city spent $964.1 million and took in $1.163 billion, leaving a $198.6 million surplus.
“After debt charges and transfers to other funds and reserves, the net change in the revenue fund balance was $1.2 million,” the report said. “The total fund balance of the revenue fund currently stands at $18.6 million, compared to $17.4 million in 2011.”
The civic capital fund contains $5.113 billion of assets and the Property Endowment Fund contains $1.045 billion of non-market housing, residential and commercial rental properties and parking garages.
The city added $178.4 million of new assets and sold $11.2 million. The outstanding civic debt rose from $620.1 million to $703.8 million.
