All In The Family
Wow, this sort of thing should be illegal, but it seems with TransLink, nepotism is standard operating practice.
The further reporter Bob Mackin investigates TransLink, the more interesting and questionable items surface.
Is it a surprise that the majority of the public hold TransLink in high odor?
From Business In Vancouver.
TransLink should report supplier payments, says political watchdog
Business in Vancouver investigation reveals inventory of contractors and suppliers that includes brother of former TransLink boss
Bob Mackin
A company owned by the brother of Ian Jarvis was paid more than the ex-TransLink CEO was in 2014, but you wonai??i??t find that in TransLinkai??i??s list of suppliers obtained by Business in Vancouver.
The Financial Information Act Return shows TransLink paid Ian Jarvis $483,625 in 2014. The report does not show the $676,000 in payments to Trevor Jarvis Contracting Ltd. from the subsidiary that operates SkyTrain.
TransLink media adviser Chris Bryan said thatai??i??s because subsidiaries like BC Rapid Transit Corp. (BCRTC) are not subject to the act, which requires public organizations to annually list suppliers of goods and services worth $25,000 and up.
Bryan said Trevor Jarvis Contracting performs landscaping and maintenance at 90 sites, including SkyTrain stations, transit centres, bus loops, park and rides, rectifier stations and HandyDart locations. It is also contracted for snow and ice removal.
ai???Trevor Jarvisai??i?? firmai??i??s relationship with TransLink subsidiary BCRTC pre-dates Ian Jarvisai??i??,ai??? Bryan said. ai???It has been contracted by BCRTC to do landscaping and other maintenance work for 30 years.ai???
In 2012, three companies filed bids for the landscaping and grounds maintenance services contract. Rocksolid Enterprises was hired for West Coast Express and Coast Mountain Bus Company, while Trevor Jarvis got the BCRTC gig.
Trevor Jarvis and G. Trasolini Contractors were the only bidders in 2013 for the snow clearing and ice/frost mitigation job and both were contracted.
Trevor Jarvis declined comment and referred questions to TransLink.
Dermod Travis, executive director of IntegrityBC, said TransLink is ai???skirting the lawai??? and should publish suppliers to subsidiaries, like BC Hydroai??i??s Powerex Corp., Powertech Labs Inc. and Columbia Hydro Constructors Ltd. did last year.
ai???Itai??i??s entirely inappropriate,ai??? Travis said. ai???Theyai??i??ve tried to find a way to justify hiding these expenses so they do not create additional controversy for TransLink.ai???
Documents obtained by BIV via Freedom of Information show that when Ian Jarvis, who was TransLinkai??i??s original CFO in 1999, stepped down as CEO to become board adviser and was replaced by Doug Allen on February 11, a Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure official suddenly became curious about Trevor Jarvisai??i?? work for TransLink.
ai???Hi Folks: Urgent issue. Just had a call from MOTI asking if Ianai??i??s brother has or had a contract with TransLink,ai??? wrote vice-president Bob Paddon to others on the senior management team. ai???I recall that his brother may have had a contract with BCRTC at one time. Please advise asap.ai???
CFO Cathy McLay, the acting CEO since August, wrote in an email to assistant deputy minister Jacquie Dawes that Trevor Jarvisai??i?? landscaping contract was based on a three-year, plus two option years term and valued at $386,000 in 2013, $394,000 in 2014 and $402,000 in 2015.
The snow and ice removal contract was weather-dependent, and its value was not available, according to McLay. ai???We have a signed code of conduct from Ian disclosing the relationship and that he has no involvement in the procurement,ai??? McLay wrote.
Ian Jarvis was the highest paid of the 524 TransLink employees earning $100,000 or more in 2014. There were 90 more employees earning six-figures than in 2013 and 107 more than in 2012. TransLink blamed the increase, in part, on overtime from SkyTrain service outages in 2014.
Cubic Transportation Systems, the company behind the overdue and over-budget Compass card and fare gates system, was paid $9,047,765, bringing its total since 2009 to $75.63 million.
Cubic hardware and software fare collection equipment was part of the Canada Line launch in 2009. The San Diego-based company was awarded the Compass project in late 2010, a year after the federal and B.C. governments announced the $100 million project. The budget has since ballooned to $194 million and system wide public rollout is finally expected this fall.
IBM Canada was removed as the principal subcontractor. Since 2011, TransLink paid it $9.5 million.
The first name on the list of suppliers of goods and services $25,000 and up is 1034 Resources Inc., the holding company owned by Allen, which was paid $31,884. Allen was paid $35,000-a-month between February and August.
TransLink reported spending $526.5 million on suppliers. It did list salaries over $75,000 for its subsidiaries, of which Coast Mountain Bus Company accounted for $327.9 million.
TransLinkai??i??s 2014 fiscal year end was last December 31, and its list of salaries ($75,000 and up) and suppliers ($25,000 and up) was due to the Ministry of Finance six months later, according to the Financial Information Act. It took until September 15 for TransLink to post the report on its website, but BIV obtained a copy on September 11 after making requests to board chairman Barry Forbes and general counsel Gigi Chen-Kuo.
Fantastic story by Bob, his exposure of the non-arm’s length crooked business dealings of Ian Jarvis at TransLink epitomizes the shady culture of cronyism and corruption of everyone who is being paid directly or indirectly by TransLink. I was careful not to say everyone “working” at TransLink because none of the roughly 600 paid minions at TransLink does any useful work.
“PLO”
At TransLink, CEO is the euphemism for PLO (permanent latrine orderly). Being the PLO of TransLink requires no special skills other than to stick his or her head into “things” and to do as he or she is told by the one (sergeant) who appoints the PLO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1MEiWMEFso
Mickey Mouse accountant, Ian Jarvis, lacks any technical expertise and experience related to operations and design. Ian Jarvis is making 10 times what accountants of his calibre make and has no engineering qualifications. He has no clue what is or is not technically prudent to rationalize transit operations. How did inept Ian Jarvis become CEO of TransLink? Maybe Peter Fassbender can explain.
Really, Ian Jarvis who is merely an opportunistic schmoe is not the root problem with transit here. Our problem here is the acting “sergeant” of TransLink bilking taxpayers of billions of dollars (gas taxes, parking taxes, hydro taxes… property taxes) for expensive, inferior and unnecessary transit infrastructure (subway and s-train) making non-arm’s length firms and individuals fistfuls of money.
Who is the sergeant lurking in the shadows and pulling the strings of the PLO at TransLink? Is the acting sergeant of TransLink, Peter Fassbender? Peter Fassbender who has demonstrated that he is a sycophant willing to do whatever it takes to get promoted is hardly someone who wants to tip the canoe and create waves (to report trouble to the Captain having the integrity to reform TransLink).
Peter Fassbender knows how to keep his canoe from tipping and is not going to go up against corrupt and nasty people counting on more s-train lines. Peter Fassbender replaced Todd Stone who wasn’t playing along with the PLO at TransLink. Premier Christy Clark needed someone who could roll with the bottom feeders at TransLink and she found him in Peter Fassbender who is looking for more taxes (mobility pricing) to fund the PLO at TransLink – to keep things smooth and not upset the criminal and political elements liking the way things are at TransLink – no waves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c8eOP3h7RM
Ian Jarvis renewing lucrative landscaping contracts to his non-arm’s length brother (Trevor) is analogous to the father paying his 10 year old daughter $1,000 monthly in allowance for the father to charge the daughter $1,000 monthly in rent and then to claim the rental income as a deduction on his income tax return. What makes Trevor Jarvis such a great landscaper? Are there no other landscapers to bid against Trevor? Can Ian Jarvis show us the fair competitive bidding for the landscaping contract to Trevor Jarvis? Did Ian Jarvis approve pricey s-train stations requiring millions of dollars of “landscaping” to hire his non-arm’s-length brother to cash-in on it?
Let’s extend this to SNCL and Bombardier. Did Ian Jarvis hire SNC Lavalin to build and operate s-train lines (Cambie Street subway and Millennium Line extension) at an inflated cost to taxpayers for friends of Ian Jarvis to make money? Are there no other reputable engineering firms that could have built these transit lines for less money at grade?
Were the bids for the Cambie Street subway and Millennium Line extension rigged and fraudulent? I mean, there is a conflict of interest in asking SNC Lavalin to propose the “best” transit mode to build and operate. Obviously, for SNC Lavalin, the best transit mode is the one costing the most to build and operate – Cambie Street subway for s-train costing about $2 billion to build (typically 20% commission to build or $400 million) and approximately $100 million annually to “operate”, for example.
Cathy McLay, former CFO of TransLink, and acting temporary latrine orderly of TransLink, might know whether the bids for the Cambie Street subway and Millennium Line extension were rigged and fraudulent. She must have reviewed them.
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Compass+Card+headed+cheaper+direction+Metro+Vancouver+riders/11271070/story.html
Cathy McLay will be gone soon. Peter Fassbender will be gone soon, too.