That certainly explains the mismanagement of Abbotsford by Abbotsford City Hall and I certainly believe him. I am speaking of city manager Gary Guthrie’s statement about Abbotsford City Hall lacking expertise. Of course in this case he was speaking specifically to the contact with MHPM Project Managers on Plan A. Then there was the lack of “expertise” that led to the Spectrum contract and then there is… and then there is … . A little lack here and a little lack there and before long you are totally lacking in expertise.

The proposed construction projects and day-to-day operations of the proposed Arena are fairly simple operations to manage in comparison to the management required to meet the City of Abbotsford’s operational and business needs. Rather clearly explains why Abbotsford is so badly run, does it not?

Abbotsford City Hall will undoubtedly have an excuse, after all serving special interests, ignoring citizens, bad financial management and making excuses are demonstrated areas of major expertise. It is truly unfortunate that there is no demand in other municipalities for these skills, especially excuse making, otherwise Abbotsford would have a source of revenue that would render the casino/revenue debate moot once and for all.

Let us ignore, as did Mr. Guthrie, the fact that project delivery on time and within budget would, for most cities, be specified in and part of the project construction contract as Mr. Beck promised during the slick Plan A sales campaign. After all the process that led to the hiring of MHPM was so badly managed and executed that 3 of 4 contractors could not understand what it was Abbotsford City Hall wanted done. Defining the requirements of this type of management contract is small potatoes really, easy, simple and straight forward in comparison to the complexity of setting out what you want built when you refuse to be bothered drawing up architectural and engineering plans to present to the bidders. Leaving me shuddering at the potential for disaster inherent in the lack of competence just demonstrated by Abbotsford City Hall in clearly setting out – in even this relatively simple matter – what is required from the bidder.

More directly on this question of expertise, I know of at least two people in Abbotsford who are capable of managing these construction projects, available on a contract basis for considerably less that $524,250, who would be devoting full time to the project management. The idea of time devoted to actually managing the projects is important because, as anyone familiar with these types of management contracts would tell you, there are not likely a great number of hours available within this contract to be spent on actual management.

Of course hiring somebody locally to oversee project construction or running the proposed Arena would leave witnesses of what actually took place in Abbotsford and available to tell the citizens of Abbotsford what went or is going wrong. I tip my hat to Abbotsford City Hall’s brilliant posterior covering insurance policy with MHPM Inc which ensures them someone out of town to blame for the debacle Plan A holds promise to become. Leaving witnesses safely hidden away in Ottawa or the USA.

As I said, the City would have a fantastic source of revenue if only there was a need or demand in other municipalities for this kind of cover-you-posterior activity. Instead we are left with the $524,250 cost of posterior insurance for Abbotsford City Hall. But then what is another paltry $524,250 added into the $97,000, 000+ nightmare that is Plan A? After all, it is only taxpayer’s money, a few additional percentage points on the old tax bill.