Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 ::: "Street Furniture"

We have discovered that Bob Millward was working in his private consulting practice on a video screen variance application for Astral Media’s designer, Kramer Design, while he was under contract to the City as Project Director of the “street furniture” program.

We expect this untenable conflict of interest to end the RFP.

On May 20, 2005, Bob Millward, the CEO of a private planning consultancy, signed this contract and in so doing became the Project Director of Toronto’s Coordinated “Street Furniture” Program.

Rather than chose a City of Toronto employee to direct the RFP, the City of Toronto privatized that role, and hired Mr. Millward.

It turns out that Mr. Millward worked in his private practice to develop video screens for Astral Media’s designer both before he was retained by the City to manage the RFP and afterwards. Let’s take a look at the facts.

Before Millward was Retained - He worked on Variance Application for Kramer Video Screen

In April 2004, Kramer Design, Astral Media’s “street furniture” designer applied for this signs variance to erect a video screen at 5000 Yonge Street:

North York Community Council rejected the variance but not before hearing deputations. Here are the people who made deputations according to the page 5 of the Clerk’s decision document:

That’s right. Bob Millward appeared before the North York Community Council on July 6, 2004, alongside Jerry Kramer, less than 10 months before he signed on as Director of “street furniture,” and made a deputation on behalf of a variance application made by Kramer Design.

This, despite the fact that the Planning Department noted that due to the “the proximity of the video sign to the right of way, a driver’s perception of the traffic control signals may be affected.”

So that was before he signed on, what about afterwards?

After Millward was Retained - He worked on Variance Application for Kramer Video Screen

And what did Mr. Millward do after he signed on as director of “street furniture” on May 20, 2005?

E-mails that we have uncovered indicate that Mr. Millward was representing Astral Media’s designer in another video screen variance application while he was under contract as the project director of “street furniture.”

In November 2005, six months after Mr. Millward signed on as “street furniture” director, Adam Kelly of Kramer Design applied for this variance to erect a video screen at Bay and Dundas (1 Dundas West).

On January 23, 2006, Les Kelman of Transportation Services wrote this memo advising that Transportation Services had no objection to the screen so long as the applicant provided a letter of credit for $2,500. (Video Screens require both Transportation Services approval for safety and signs by-law for sign code.)

The next day, January 24, 2006, nine months after Mr. Millward signed on as director, Mr. Millward wrote this e-mail regarding the variance application to Planner Corwin Cambray (read from the bottom to the top):

We think it’s pretty clear that Mr. Millward wrote this e-mail in a professional capacity. In fact, it appears that Mr. Millward called Mr. Kelman, going as far as reminding Mr. Kelman of a deadline. Mr. Kelman appears to have sprung into action, as he finished off his report on the same day Mr. Millward wrote that e-mail, January 23, 2006. Kelman was Acting General Manager of TS when Millward was retained as project director.

We also learn that Millward eagerly awaits the finalization of Planner Cambray’s report on the sign.

And here is Planner Cambray, providing a copy of the final report to Mr. Millward, six days before the meeting, in response to another e-mail from Mr. Millward:

It is worthy of note that Transportation Services is the department handling the “street furniture” RFP; note, too, that TS is the department responsible for approving video screen applications for traffic safety impacts - no video screen gets approved without TS saying it’s OK. So, as the Project Director of Transportation Services’ largest RFP in history, Mr. Millward’s consulting services for this sign would be invaluable to Kramer Design. And from the looks of things, Mr. Millward’s consulting services appear to be focused on the Transportation Services approval, rather than the signs-by law approval.

You don’t have to look long to see how Mr. Millward’s business dealings here engender an indefensible conflict of interest.

For some reason, people keep on hiring Mr. Millward to work on variance applications for Kramer Design video screens. We note that the property owners of 5000 Yonge Street (Ageon) and Bay/Dundas (Cadillac Fairview) are different - the two things these variance applications have in common are Bob Millward and Kramer Design.

We think the evidence is pretty clear: Bob Millward is in a conflict of interest with Astral Media because he worked for Astral’s designer in February 2006, while he was Program Director of “street furniture,” at a time well within the RFP process.

The Fairness Commissioner

The City has hired Justice Coulter Osborne as a fairness commissioner for this RFP. He will adjudicate if the process was fair. Justice Osborne is the Ontario Integrity Commissioner. We have confidence that he will adjudicate the conflict of interest matter justly.

We are in the process of filing a formal complaint with Justice Osborne regarding the conflict matter; we expect bidders to file similar complaints.

We will suggest that allowing the director of a public RFP to simultaneously provide consulting services to one of the bidders in his private practice would set a very bad precedent for the fairness of future RFPs.

We will also point out that Mr. Millward and City staff have showed favoritism to Astral during the RFP process and that they filed false information to cover up that favoritism.

Now read our report from last week on how Staff lied to “street furniture” bidders to cover up favoritism towards Kramer/Astral in the purchasing process.