Save Union Station

Bulletin

SAVE UNION STATION, Special Bulletin No. 11, January 28, 2003.

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In this issue:

Bid Evaluation Documents Destroyed by City Staff

There is important breaking news to report – hence our third Bulletin in just a few days.

City officials say that the evaluation documents from the six people who rated the Union Pearson bid higher than the LP Heritage + bid have been destroyed by city staff just when the city’s Freedom of Information officer said they had to be made publicly available.

One of the most contentious issues about the future of Union Station has been why the city has considered the bid of the Union Pearson group superior to the bid by LP Heritage +. As reported in several Bulletins (available on our web site) the publicly available information makes it clear that the LP Heritage + bid is better thought out and more attractive. Apparently it is also stronger financially. But city staff and politicians have hid behind the evaluation process to support giving a logn term lease to Union Pearson.

City staff say the decision was made by an independent Evaluation Committee consisting of six people – half of whom were senior city staff. Apparently the decision was made by each completing evaluation forms including scores that were then added up to arrive at the winner. Last summer Councillor Rob Ford had a chance to look quickly – before they were taken form his hands - at some of the evaluation forms, and he came to the conclusion, which he voiced publicly, that the evaluation was fatally flawed since some of the scores awarded the LP Heritage + bid were unrealistically low.

Other city councillors have asked to see the evaluation forms, but were told by city staff responsible for the Union Station bid that they could not be released under Freedom of Information legislation. When Rita Reynolds, Director of Corporate Access and Privacy for the city during the last twelve years, heard that staff had given this advice, she told them their advice was inaccurate, and that evaluation forms were indeed public documents.

On November 15, 2002, Lawrence David, a citizen who has been following Union Station closely, filed a Freedom of Information request for the evaluation forms. City procedure is that an FOI request is immediately sent to staff responsible for the issue at hand, so the city staff dealing with Union Station would have learned about the request within a few days.

What has been learned in the last 12 hours is that between the request being filed on November 15 and January 20 the evaluation forms have been destroyed.

Here is how Ms Reynolds replied to Lawrence David, in her letter dated January 27, 2003:

“You have requested access to the Toronto Union Station project evaluation records and which `specifically includes the precise and exact scores awarded by individual members of the Selection Committee and or Evaluation Committee according to each individual category of evaluation regarding the proposal submitted by both Union Pearson Group and LP Heritage.’ The committee members identified in your request were: John Anderton, Paula Dill, Joseph Pennachetti, Helena Borges, Rob Bergevin and Michael McClelland (the committee members).

“Access to the exact scores awarded by the committee members is denied as the records do not exist. On January 20, 2003 I was advised that the records created by the respective committee members during the course of evaluating the proposals had been destroyed.

“A single summary sheet containing total scores was produced. This record is not responsive to your request because the names of the respective committee members are not on the summary sheet. It is, therefore, not possible to associate any score with an individual committee member. The scores cannot be compared to the source documents as they have been destroyed as noted above.”

The person responsible for these documents, and their destruction, is Joan Anderton, Commissioner of Corporate Services, and a member of the Evaluation Committee.

The very documents that could have told the world how Union Pearson was selected have been destroyed. They appear to have been destroyed after it was clear to staff that they would have to be made public.

This is extraordinary news. It puts in serious doubt the way the city has processed the bids for Union Station. It raises the same questions as when it was revealed that important documents had been destroyed by senior Enron staff. It leaves the assumption that these evaluation forms contained information that someone didn’t want the public to see, that the evaluation was not fair, that the Union Pearson bid won for reasons other than merit.

No longer can one trust city hall on the Union Station matter.

This matter will certainly be raised at the Administration Committee when it meets to make decisions about Union Station tomorrow, Wednesday January 29. The Committee will meet at 9.30 am in Committee Room 2, second floor, City Hall. Please attend the meeting and use your opportunity to speak to the committee. Tell the politicians this bid process has been badly fouled and the proposed recommendation to give Union Pearson a 100 year contract on Union Station cannot proceed.

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