Library civic centre architectural EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Agenda Agenda Pkg 1
LIBRARY AND CIVIC COMPLEX DESIGN (P. 7) $300,000 or 10% of 3,000,000 required for professional fees is to be authorized by council in 2007 financed by short term borrowing.

Vernon City Purchasing
Selection Process Expressions of Interest, as collected for in this document, will be reviewed by the Evaluation Committee. From the review process, the Committee will make a selection of five firms. The five firms will then be required to provide a list of their team members including all consultants and their qualifications. The Evaluation Committee will carry out a detailed review of the qualification of the five firms including a presentation / interview with each firm. Short listed firms will also be given the opportunity to each make a short presentation to the Technical Steering Committee. Three firms will be selected by the Evaluation committee and asked to proceed to the Request for Proposal – Architectural phase of the project.
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Don Quixote Note: It appears that on Monday morning that council will be asked for the authority to short term borrow $300,000 in 2007 to provide for the start of money needed for 'professional fees, ($2,988,337 in all?). Hopefully the Council will not authorize that these monies be borrowed or used until after the Alternate Approval Process deadline of Aug 15 and the certification of that vote.

Use of this money before these results will confirm that City Hall is committed to building the Library/Civic Complex with no regard to the will of the taxpayers of Vernon. The City will built it and it is only a matter of which method of financing they will use.

At the Bottom of the public handout are the words:

' Council may consider other ways in which to finance the Library Civic Complex project should the "Library and Civic Complex Loan Authorization Bylaw #5086, 2007" not proceed.'Translated this simply means: We are committed to building the complex and if you defeat this bylaw we will find another way of financing it.

The methods available to the City if long term financing is defeated by counter petitioned and the City declines to go to a referendum are:

• Short Term Borrowing capability of about $1,797,200 based on 2006 census of 35944 used in formula to calculate voting totals.
• Revenue anticipation borrowing which is taxing for the complex over 4 years with the city having the ability to borrow money at start of the year against anticipated tax revenues in July and using the proceeds to fund the ongoing construction costs. (has time line problems etc. but it is possible.)
• Reserves: Only possible reserve would be the B.C. Gas legacy reserve due to mature in 2017 at $12 million. (present value in $4 to 6 Million range est.)
• Selling off Assets: The only major assets that could be sold are the lands owned by the City.
• Selling the council into slavery ! ($5,000 to $10,000 tops)

Other random Items of interest: (from Council documents available in agenda packages for Monday's afternoon meeting) and other posted sources)

• 'A Technical Steering Committee comprised of representatives of the Okanagan Regional Library and City Staff will evaluate the submissions (16 in all) and submit a recommendation to council.' (The Architects that are listed on the January 2007 report in support of the MRIF grant submission have submitted a proposal but have not yet been selected.)
• http://www.wd.gc.ca/mediacentre/facts/bc/bc9_e.asp The Canada - British Columbia Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund (CBCMRIF) was officially launched on October 12, 2006. B.C. communities can apply for funding at the CBCMRIF website: http://www.canadabcmrif.ca/ . The deadline for all applications will be on January 31, 2007. It is anticipated all funding from the current agreement will be allocated by summer 2007.
• A new capital standard that will require all provincially-funded capital projects with a value of over $20 million to be considered first by Partnerships BC to be built as public-private partnerships unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise. . Oct. 27, 2006 http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2005-2009/2006OTP0152-001301-Attachment1.htm and http://www.partnershipsbc.ca/index.html
• http://www.vernon.ca/news/docs/051123_election_results.pdf Total number of Ballots cast for the City of Vernon 2005 Municipal Elections was 9,641, which represents about 41% of the voter population. (23,514 x 41 = 9641) This would make the 10% requirement only 2351 as compared to the 2777 in bylaw on Monday??