Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls....

AllTheMeetingsNotQuite
RememberedVille

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Update, lunchtime Wednesday, at bottom of post...
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Yesterday, we noted that CKNW's Sean Leslie had elicited a comment from Jobs Minister Pat Bell that he couldn't remember meeting the fine fellows who are now claiming that he, Mr. Bell, promised them that he would get them on the shortlist for a bit of BC Liberal government largesse in Prince George where Bell is one of the local MLAs.

Of course, given that at least one of those fine fellows had donated a good chunk of money to Mr. Bell and his BC Liberal Party, we immediately wondered how long it would be before that comment of not remembering would come back to haunt the good Mr. Bell.

Well...

It only took a few hours, because last night the VSun's Jonathan Fowlie had a very good follow-up piece up with all kinds of interesting investigatory stuff in it including the following tidbits:

...(Premier Christy) Clark’s defence (of Mr. Bell) came after a businessman who has donated more than $120,000 to the (BC Liberal) party (since 2006) accused Bell of bad faith. Brian Fehr also said that Bell subsequently adjusted the terms of a bid document to favour Fehr’s proposal.

Fehr, whose company was among the unsuccessful bidders for the $25-million Wood Innovation and Design Centre, said Bell promised to ensure that his company would make the shortlist of three companies if Fehr could build a project that was more substantial than what was called for in the bidding...

{snippety doo-dah}

...Fehr said that in a meeting with Bell, he offered to help out by involving private-sector money, and to build a more impressive building than what was contemplated in the bid.

“He committed to me that if I would do that — purchase the land off (Prince George businessman) Dan McLaren — that he would make sure we got shortlisted and then you could have what they call an alternative method in the bid,” he said.

“He absolutely promised me that he would get me shortlisted.”...

{snippety doodle-dandy}

...Documents show that Fehr’s company, The Bid Group, paid McLaren’s company a $150,0000 deposit for the land during the bid process, but was not shortlisted.

On Tuesday, Fehr said Bell was apologetic after the final three companies were announced at the end of last year, and offered to rework the final process of the bid in a way that would allow disqualified companies to vie for a part of the project.

“He tried to amend Partnerships B.C. proposal structure, for sure,” said Fehr. “He had his fingers way too close into it.”

The project’s request for proposals — issued after Fehr’s company was excluded — added a requirement that the winning bidder work with the private sector to develop and build another project on adjacent land.

The government suspended the bidding process at the end of last year after receiving complaints about the added requirement. The controversial element was removed before the bid was allowed to continue...

{snippety doodle-dandier}

...In a written statement, deputy minister Dave Byng said the private sector criteria “was added in an effort to realize an increased overall potential benefit of this project for downtown Prince George. A project that incorporates additional land or buildings would have increased the iconic status of the development.

“On Dec. 14, 2012, the private sector component of the RFP was removed as a result of concern from the three (short-listed) proponents that expansion to the scope of the project would make it unlikely to continue to meet set project timelines,” he added.

Bell has denied the allegations of misconduct, saying he never made any promises to anyone about the bidding process...



Hmmmm....

Don't know about you, but I sure am looking forward to hearing the latest from the Kruegernator on this one, especially more about that sudden insertion of the additional 'private sector criteria' after the short list had been announced.

Please help us out Mr Krueger, because, of course, we are all unmitigated morons now.

And if you could do it before pink shirt day ends, that would be most appreciated.

After all, it would be downright mean, not to mention churlish, if you were to keep us waiting.

OK?


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There's an interesting extra tidbit here that might give those with a penchant for crazy conspiracy theories a teeny-tiny adrenal squeeze....Mr. Fowlie also tells us that one of those fine BC Liberal faithful folks who are upset with the Minister, Mr McLaren, actually ran against Mr. Bell for the party nomination in the watershed year of 2001....Mr. McLaren also publicly supported the Birdman in the latest party leadership campaign...
As noted in the original CBC report from yesterday morning, Mr. Fowlie also elicits quotes from the so-called fairness advisor indicating that, in the end, she found the bidding process to be on the up-and-up...However, she also made it clear that Mr. Fehr and friends complaints were outside her mandate...Thus, when you hear the Wizards crank up the wurlitzer on this aspect of the story be sure to recognize it for the red herring that it is...
Update: Gordon Hogg decides to step of the Kruegernator's Crazy Train...

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3 comments:

Grant G said...

Mr. K..

Opinion250..The Prince George online newspaper run by Ben Meisner has the story too, it was posted very early this morning...And like most online newspapers viewer comments are posted, and wanted, similar to the Tyee, Terrace Daily etc etc...

http://www.250news.com/blog/view/27641/1/widc++deal+close?

Opinion250 did their story today, the second half of the story mentions the Pat Bell issue..

Now here`s the deal, during the BC Liberal leadership campaign a couple of years Ben Meisner cut comments, no comments were allowed about politics, no comments about the leaders, no one could say anything at Opinion250 about Christy Clark..

That led me to write an article called..

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2010/12/ben-meisner-turns-into-information-and.html

Ross K..Here is my lede on that article.

"Well folks, as of late Gentle Ben of Prince George has become the information Nazi, not only are comments being deleted that he doesn`t agree with Ben Meisner has now stopped all comments on political stories.

We all know that Ben is a true blue BC Liberal and Gordon Campbell fan, he is also a Christy Clark fan, so when Christy cluck cluck Clark made a visit to Prince George he of course reported it...

Under the story in the comment section people were talking about Christy Clark, talking about her and her brother`s, her Ex- husband`s involvement with BC Rail, contributors were leaving links to Alex G Tsakumis`s site, links to my stories on BC Rail involving Christy Cluck Clark....Ben Meisner then started deleting legitimate comments, and or a Elaine MacDonald(co-editor) at Opinion250 did, and considering I commented there, under that story, I read each and every comment and there was NO LIBEL, no name calling, all that was there was opinion and links to stories about the Christy Clark family involvement in BC Rail...Shame on you Ben Meisner, it`s bad enough when you shamelessly promote Pat Bell and Shirley Bond, it`s poor journalism the way you spin a dying forest industry as a success story, how you gloss over Pat Bell and Shirley Bond`s spin but to now dictate to readers what facts they can present....For Shame Ben Meisner, in my opinion you are a sell-out!"
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Prince George is a relatively small town, people talk, people know of each other, so certainly I was expecting some informative comments under that story today..

If you go to that story, there are no comments, comments disabled, comments were not allowed from the get-go, but on the home page, the article before, and after have comments, comments are allowed..

Ross K...Sometimes I even amaze myself with my gut feelings.


Grant G said...

One more thing I forgot to mention..When Pat Bell announced his resignation, Ben Meisner wrote this glowing story about Pat Bell.


http://www.250news.com/blog/view/27535/1/pat+bell+will+be+missed?id=143&st=105


And yes, comments were indeed allowed, and many disagreed.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Version 1 - "...Fehr said that in a meeting with Bell, he offered to help out by involving private-sector money, and to build a more impressive building than what was contemplated in the bid.

“He committed to me that if I would do that — purchase the land off (Prince George businessman) Dan McLaren — that he would make sure we got shortlisted..."

Version 2 - "

He [Developer Dan McLaren, a BC Liberal financial backer] said his firm was approached by the province to assemble lands for the centre, which it did."

"...approached by the province..." - question: Who was representing the "province" here? Pat, does that ring a Bell with you?