The NPA has been out of office for eight months now, almost an entire year. Yet we’ve seen the costs for the Salt House project, as just one example, double on Vision’s watch.

Now it’s true that the NPA was in control the previous three years when some of those decisions were set in motion, but it’s also true that the current team was in charge the term before that when the most consequential decisions affecting Olympic costs were set in stone. Geoff Meggs knows, because he was part of the administration that larded that project up with requirements that led to those overruns.

So, for Councillor Meggs and Dr. Ballem to turn around now and blame the previous council for cost overruns that have only appeared during Vision’s rule is risible. If they want to blame those who came before, they should be looking in the mirror …

I also wonder gow much of the overrun can be attributed to the loss of Jody Andrews – one of the best project managers in the city who was forced out by Ballem in a very ham-handed manner.

If, as Geoff Meggs says, it’s a lack of oversight that’s to blame for these outrageous overruns, it’s this council that’s to blame. Perhaps the good councillor should spend less time politicizing the Olympics and more time managing the city’s finances – the constant partisan sniping over the Olympics is starting to turn people off to the Games themselves.

I also take exception to allowing Meggs to slam the NPA without any balancing opinion or quote. It’s a disappointment from Frances Bula, who usually manages this balancing act a little better.

You are a sick, sick person Frances 😉 Filing stories on vacation! Whoever in the world would do that? Well, except for me on June 12, 2006.

I agree with Sean’s comments. Meggs has got to learn to stop politicizing this issue. Can someone pls send him to media school to learn how to speak in public! Another Vision crony putting down staff. Yes I read his comments as a slap in the face to project office staff, commenting about gross mismanagement. I have walked along the construction site and new waterfront…beautiful! If any of you haven’t been down there, go see for yourself. Kudos project office.

the constant partisan sniping over the Olympics is starting to turn people off to the Games themselves.

the constant partisan sniping over the [Iraq War] is starting to turn people off [to war itself].

Changed to make the point that mindless cheerleading of X does not guarantee the success of X or in fact the inherent soundness of X. Many people around the world are beginning to question the value of the Olympic Games as they are currently run.

What you call “partisan bickering” other people call “democracy”.

I hate to point out the obvious, but Sean’s whole post sounds an awful lot like, well, partisan sniping.

BTW, Dec to June equals just over six months in office for Vision, not “almost an entire year” (insert snipe about NPA math whizzes being in charge during the contract negotiations phase, and how it is no wonder there are big problems with overruns now…).

And in their first six months at the helm, Vision has had to deal with a shit storm of pressing issues, all with Vanoc holding a gun to their heads. In contrast, the NPA floated on a massive bubble of economic prosperity for 3 years and chose to do nothing to deal with any of our major social problems, which were hitting crisis points right around last December when Vision took over. And yet, Vision has somehow managed to take more direct action on homelessness and affordable housing in the past six months than the NPA has in the last 25 years. Reports of more overruns aren’t good news, but it does demonstrate some semblance of transparency is finally returning to the Hall, compared to the backroom cloak and dagger fiascos epitomized in the last days of the NPA and Rogers. The new Council is at least showing some political will to do the right thing and work hard on behalf of the citizens it represents, rather than the moneyed interests the NPA has always been beholden to.

So give the partisan sniping a rest, it’s turning me off the Games, yo!

Hmmmm….

The set of tender drawings should provide all the details of proposed works that are required by the contract , however this is always not practicable owing to many reasons . One of the main reasons is that when time is of an essence , the client may want to commence the project within short time such that the client’s engineer in fact does not have sufficient time to finish up the detailed design , and sometimes even working concurrently after the work is commenced .

Nevertheless the incomplete tender drawings will most likely influence the preparation , execution and cost of work which in turn will consequently affect the tendered price . Failure to provide sufficient and correct information in the tender drawings will unavoidably lead to follow up disputes and claims

gmgw … you are not alone in being ahead of the curve. I recall a conversation with three sharp business types and two architects, who 4 months BEFORE the Olympic village started ,said that it would come to a bad end. They all said “don’t buy there, it will be over-priced and the quality is going to be suspect. … too much, too fast”, with lots of downsides. And a majority of them said the spin-off from this short-lived “Party” was going to be minimal ( except for the “In” people and that the headaches for the taxpayers was going to be long-term at some pain to wallets.

looks like they were dead-on.

A quick anecdote from the other side of the Olympic fence. I had the opportunity to hang out with a couple of Olympians the other day and their perspective was illuminating. These two were part of the Canadian Men’s Eight rowing team that won Gold in Beijing last summer. It was after my “recreational” row at the Vancouver Rowing Club that I joined them at the bar. They’d been there a while already…

These “Olympic Champions” (their term, not mine) couldn’t say enough about their positive experience, and the possibilities that Vancouver will offer the winter athletes. That part I couldn’t contest, and I don’t think anyone really could. Yes the experience will be stelar for the athletes and the whole “Olympic Family”.

Where we diverged was on what societal values were more important. I see that as a microcosm of some of the discussions on here. So one person thinks amateur sport deserves to be higher on the priority ladder than the next person. What I found was that we had to agree to disagree – our values were different. Food for thought.

Penny Bellam may be a financial genius but I’d rather she stayed with her Hippocratic oath.

We cannot blame her, though, for the pending Olympic Village train wreck but it’s going to tax her wily talents.

Forget green shoots, we are in for one hell of a ride:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14005

Our neighbour and major trading partner to the south is about to tank and we wont far behind.

Doubtful the city will break even: more likely suffer a deep trough for years after the ridiculous two week of partying is over . . .

Only the VANOC crowd are going to come out of this . . .

So, forget the carping: we wont want to remember our canny Scot’s name after all this shakes out . . .

If you truly want to know who to blame. Call me.

LOL…you can’t leave us hanging like that.

Shepsil, the Captain and Officers of a ship are trained for many, many years before they take on the responsibilities of their positions. City Councillors are not.

They are not trained in the nuances of the cost differences of LEED SILVER and LEED GOLD , and the impact of requiring a minimum number of energy points. Similarly, they don’t understand the ramifications of not transferring title to a property before construction.

Yes, councillors should use their best judgement, not unlike jurors in a trial. But they have to rely on staff.

All councillors, including the COPE and VISION councillors voted in favour of many of the decisions that contributed to the mess we are in. I do not blame Louie, or Deal or Stevenson or Chow. They were all there too Shepsil. Don’t forget that.

I think it’s a comforting illusion to believe there’s anything anyone could have done to bring this party to town on budget. Esp. when all involved know the taxpayers’ wallets are essentially a blank cheque that will pay for any screw-ups.

The only winning strategy is not to play the game… to crib from the movie War Games.

No one can understand the game because the knowledge necessary to see the big picture is compartmentalized so as to make the truth impossible to decipher (to mix a few metaphors).

I’m not defending Mr Geller (or anyone for that matter) but suggesting an inability to find out the real cost of the 2010 Games makes one unfit to run for office doesn’t make sense. Just because I can’t see through brick walls doesn’t make me a candidate for a white cane.

Don Buchanan said:

So one person thinks amateur sport deserves to be higher on the priority ladder than the next person.

What they call Olympic sport officially ceased to be amateur a few decades back. Here are some details.

I looked at Meggs website quickly and all he’s doing is finger pointing at the NPA and targetting the project office. The SEFC project is one large project with a number of small projects under it’s umbrella. Having worked in that sector before, I can understand that they had to take on more work than anticipated in 2005 so had to hire more staff. I had a tour down in that office. There are only about 10 people in-house which is incredibly small considering the size of the project but I wonder if Meggs even knows that. I’m happy that he wasn’t in the committee meeting yesterday with his dour comments and pointing finger. I’m getting quite sick and tired of him already.

I used to be a Vision supporter. I have some experince with taking over projects. The first thing you do is ger the facts. You need to determine the true situation and then make your best evaluation about what course of action to take from that point on. It doesn’t take 6 months to determine the actual situation on any project. If it does then you are an incompent manager. We were treated to an anouncement by Vision, led by Gregor, shortly after he was placed into power, that we, the taxpayers of Vancouver were close to a billion dollars in the hole. At that point it became his problem. Not the problem of any preovious council. He should have taken the decisions needed to minimize our exposure from that point on. If he now says there are more problems, they are on his watch and it is only pointing out his own inadequacies to try and deflect this to past administrations. We were also told that KPMG was going to issue a report on the whole project at the earliest possible opportunity. We have not seen that report and it is over 6 months since Vision has been in power. If it was so important where is that report. I can only assume that we, the citizens of Vancouver have not paid KPMG anything for the work done. If it is the case that Vision cancelled the asignment then I stand corrected and count my blessings that we did not throw away any more money.

I went to Geoff Megg’s site where I found the Vancouver Sun Story by Jeff Lee on the SEFC Social Housing cost overuns. One excerpt was particularly troubling….

“However, Anton said she favours selling the units at market prices and putting the proceeds towards building more affordable housing elsewhere.

Her idea was roundly condemned by other councillors, including Woodsworth and Geoff Meggs, who said it would turn the village into a “gated neighborhood” where only the rich could live.”

What utter nonsense!

At this stage, given the pending losses on the sale of the land, and the losses and cost over-runs on the balance of the development, I believe the responsible thing is to sell these units to more modest income families with resale controls and other restrictions.

If you are interested, you can find more on this at http://www.gellersworldtravel.blogspot.com. And yes, if you scroll down you will also find the nude San Francisco bicycle riders…So be careful!