When it comes to risk, city council decided in a tight vote Monday night it would rather face a potential injury lawsuit instead of a more likely lost profit recovery lawsuit.
By a vote of 4-3, council voted to rescind a previous motion that requested administration to pursue installation of an underground irrigation system at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club (SARFC) and the St. Albert Soccer Association (SASA). That vote allows the city to award the winning bid to supply the new irrigation system. Both the SARFC and SASA fields in Riel will be dug up in order to cap and grade the landfill located underneath, as required by Environment Canada. That process will destroy the existing irrigation system for both fields.
The winning bid, which fell within the $540,000 budget, as established by criteria set by administration, SASA and SARFC, proposes an aboveground irrigation system, similar to what was in place before, but with two-inch sprinkler heads instead of the one-inch sprinkler heads the old system used. Both clubs also believe an underground system would lower water and fertilizing costs but only two of the eight bids received were for underground systems.
Gareth Jones, representing SARFC at Monday night’s council meeting, said the larger sprinkler heads raise safety issues that were not contemplated when the request for proposal (RFP) process was first assembled, opening the city to a potential lawsuit if someone is injured.
“I believe our legal implications with the system were realistic situations,” Jones said later. “The issue of safety only came up afterwards after the bids had been received and we saw what was being proposed.
“If the irrigation system had only one-inch heads, we could live with that.” He also noted he’s never seen a rugby field anywhere in the world with two-inch sprinkler heads.
The concern, sounded by Jones and echoed by three members on council, was that rugby’s very nature as a game that takes place close to or directly on the ground could lead to inadvertent injury with the larger sprinkler head holes on the fields.
“It’s the safety factor that gets me,” said Coun. Roger Lemieux. “I think we should go back to tendering.”
Both planning and engineering general manager Guy Boston and city solicitor Gene Klenke said the city would take on even more legal risk if it chose to re-tender the project. It could be sued for lost profit, accused of bid shopping and harm the city’s reputation.
“Provided you have a compliant bid within budget, you have obligated yourselves to enter into a contract, so to go out and re-tender a project would be to negate that process and attract liability,” said Klenke.
Asked about the rugby club’s safety concerns, he replied simply, “That is why we have insurance.”
“It’s a matter of ethics,” Coun. Wes Broadhead argued. “The city put out the tender and they responded in good faith. For us to move away from that calls our ethics into question.”
When the time came to vote, Mayor Nolan Crouse was forced to relinquish the chair to Deputy Mayor Cathy Heron because no member of council would bring the recommended motion forward.
