Orka Management enters only bid in Invest Medicine Hat RFP process

By COLLIN GALLANT on July 21, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

The company formed by managers of a city department has submitted the only offer to handle a private operation of that department with top city officials now set to speak about the Invest Medicine Hat contract on Wednesday.

The request for proposals to provide economic development services for the City of Medicine Hat, as well as market its real estate portfolio and distribute grants for new construction, closed on Monday afternoon.

An update to the publicly accessible city bidding website shows that despite management’s prediction of several strong bids, only one company, Orka Management, submitted a final package.

It was registered as a corporation in Alberta in February, almost four months before the request for proposals process began in June, with directors listed as Jason Melhoff, Chris Perret and Eric Van Enk – the three managers of the Invest MH office within City Hall.

City communications staff told the media on Tuesday that a press availability with senior officials would occur Wednesday morning.

The head of a consulting company that advises Alberta municipalities on governance told the News that transparency should be the paramount concern for municipalities when contracting out services, or risk losing the public’s trust.

George Cuff, of George B. Cuff and Associates, said he has little specific knowledge about the Invest MH issue, but if the process was well-advertised but garnered few finalized submissions, the immediate question should be “why?”.

“The audience interested in bidding on these services might be significant providing that they see this as an open, transparent process with no one having the upper hand in the bid process,” wrote Cuff in response to the News’ questions. “Permitting current employees to bid would generally be viewed as a very real advantage, at least in knowing historically what has been done and therefore likely to be expected.”

The process should start with several key points in focus, he said, namely what is to be accomplished, and how results are benchmarked and evaluated, for example, land sale totals.

“The functions in question are central to what your City does,” he said. “Ensuring that these services are delivered effectively, efficiently and openly will be a challenge.”

As well, the 10-year length of the contract could be seen as problematic, as it will be valid through the next two elections, making it difficult future councils to change direction.

City Manager Bob Nicolay told the News last week that negotiations, benchmarks and specific clauses would be developed with the successful applicant once an outside firm, national business advisory company MNP, completed its analysis and ranked candidates.

“For a group to put the time and resources together and a group of people, a 10-year term allows them to recover that investment,” he told the News.

The issue has also become political ahead of the October municipal elections.

Several candidates for councillor lambasted the city and Invest on social media.

Mayoral candidate Linnsie Clark announced her campaign with a letter to council and the News that called the whole process “problematic” and said it should be halted.

She said it would be doubtful that Invest managers had no knowledge of the RFP before hand.

But, she added, if the current employees didn’t know about the bid process “the city drafted an RFP to privatize a city department for 10 years without any (input) from the department … at the very least it’s imprudent, if not outright reckless,” she said.

Another mayoral candidate, Alan Rose, also said the timing and handling of the issue looks bad for the city, especially the issue moving so quickly with little public notice or official debate.

“The entire State of the city (address in January) was about Invest and the Waterfront District,” said Rose. “Three weeks ago council was oozing praise for all the great things they’ve done, and they forgot to mention they were getting rid of it? C’mon.”

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