CAO statement regarding Urbacon

Statement from Chief Administrative Officer of City of Guelph.

I wish to provide you with clarity on the decision to terminate the contract with Urbacon.

Council received verbal updates from the then CAO on the status of the City Hall construction project. The CAO was advised by legal, professional external consultants and project management staff. After consideration of their advice, the CAO made the decision to terminate Urbacon’s contract.

On Sept 19, 2008 the Administration terminated Urbacon’s right to work to completion and ordered them off the site.

A complete legal search of Council files has resulted in the following: there was no report to Council seeking Council approval of this decision. There is no resolution of Council directing staff to terminate the contract. Rather, on October 17, 2008 the Administration formally terminated the contract with Urbacon. After that, on October 27, 2008 Administration brought the matter to a closed session report to Council seeking direction on litigation.

These are the facts of the matter.

The matter continues to be an active legal matter for the current City Council and Administration of the Corporation of the City of Guelph.

I must reiterate that in the absence of the Judge’s rationale for his dismissal of our position, further dialogue is subjective at best and places our reputation at risk.

These facts / chronology were provided to the current term of Council in reports from staff related to Urbacon.   AP