Albury councillor Henk van de Ven has accepted an opportunity to compile a list of decisions made on contracts which he claims has cost ratepayers "millions of dollars" during a fiery debate to accept a tender to build a car park as part of the Lavington Sportsground redevelopment.
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On a 5-4 vote, the council this week accepted the recommended tender from Hurst Earthmoving to build 21 on-street and 102 off-street car parks in Centaur Road for $679,843.
Cr van de Ven made his offer to list the instances where council had made decisions which ended up costing "millions of dollars" in response to Cr John Stuchbery's criticism of the staff preferred contractor initially supported by Cr Alice Glachan.
A rival bid from Excell Gray Bruni was $11,000 cheaper and scored the highest qualitative assessment among the four tenderers in contention.
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But the staff view was Hurst was better placed from a "capacity perspective" to do the job given the volume of work presently at hand for Excell Gray Bruni including the Wagga Road upgrade.
"We've got two tenderers who are about $11,000 apart, which in the context of a construction of this cost, is virtually nothing," Cr Stuchbery said.
"But what we have is a very good company, Excell Gray Bruni, which is busy at present, and the reason they are busy is because they are good.
"If Excel Gray Bruni was too busy they wouldn't have bothered tendering for it.
"Maybe Cr Glachan can tell us how the more expensive, but less quality tender is the one we are going to vote for."
In response, Cr van de Ven said the council had made a series of calls on contracts which went against staff recommendations and ended up costing it dearly.
"I will be happy to go right back to square one and document each one of the council decisions which have ended up costing us millions of dollars," he said.
"Obviously I don't have the information directly at hand, but rest assured I will provide the information."
Cr van de Ven confirmed he would also publicly release the findings of his investigations into contract decisions.
Cr Glachan said the staff were "correct" in putting forward Hurst as the recommended tenderer.
"They have a greater capacity to undertake this work at this present time," she said..
"It is a three-month period and I believe, in contrast to a previous councillor speaking against this motion, Hurst will do a very capable and competent job."
Mayor Kevin Mack, Cr David Thurley and Cr Graham Docksey also voted in favour of Hurst being awarded the contract with Cr Stuchbery, Cr Murray King, deputy mayor Amanda Cohn and Cr Darren Cameron voting against.
The Centaur Road car park will be built behind the multi-purpose playing field which has already been completed as part of the redevelopment which has a target date for completion of August.
The project began in mid-2016 and attracted federal and state funding.