The Township of Langley has rules for how it’s supposed to purchase things. If a purchase is over $100,000, staff are to explain why it can’t go through a competitive process. They are to report to Council, complete a Sole Source Justification Form, and prove that only one vendor can supply or that there’s an emergency that makes tendering implausible. Even for smaller contracts under $100,000, they still need to get approvals and give reasons for bypassing the competitive process. In other words, competitive bidding is the rule, not the exception.

The commonly accepted and standard procurement practice is to have a competitive bidding process for acquisitions valued over $100,000. That allows for a fair and transparent competition, guaranteeing tax payers the most efficient use of their dollars. Given the Township’s track record under Mayor Woodward, residents would need to keep their eyes open for a continuation of no-bid procurements.

The recent $11.5 million firetruck purchase, for example, left many questions unanswered. That deal was handed off to a single supplier with no bidding process, no chance for any other vendors to compete, and no clear explanation for why the Township couldn’t follow common practices. It certainly was not a banner moment for fiscal transparency. Councillor Kim Richter has been raising and continuing to voice concerns about that sole-source arrangement, her objections were largely waved off.

At the April 28 Council meeting, Richter was once again asking questions about opaque financial practices spearheaded by the Mayor. She pressed for details on how much debt the Township is taking on and asked staff for year-over-year breakdowns of rising taxes. “Why are we doing this?” she asked at one point. “What’s the urgency?”

She followed up with, “I need to know why you want to do this now. If I could get a straight answer, we wouldn’t have to go in circles all day.”

None of this is new for Councillor Richter, who has been on the record for months warning about the Mayor’s increasingly questionable approach to Township finances.

Mayor Woodward, despite global and national financial uncertainty seems to be spending without consideration for where the dollars come from. From rec centres to redevelopment schemes, he seems to think there’s no problem too big that it can’t be paved over or purchased out of a shiny catalogue. And while shiny catalogues are nice, taxpayers tend to prefer competitive quotes. They work hard for those dollars entrusted to him.

The tractor purchase is yet another example of this. It isn’t even funded yet. It could have been a chance for the Township to prove that the firetruck fiasco was the exception, not the new rule. When the time comes to make that purchase, residents deserve to see a competitive process that delivers value for money and sticks to the principles and practices of municipal governments.

Because if Woodward and his cast of councillors can’t follow best practices for a ditch-cutting tractor, how can anyone trust it to be above board on the next multi-million dollar expenditure?