Time For A Complete Change At City Hall?

Would Nanaimo Benefit From A Completely New Council?

With a total of 22 candidates seeking election to city council and 4 candidates seeking election as Mayor, Nanaimo taxpayers have some serious decisions to make on November 19th.

A sound argument could be made for needing the voice of experience on council for the next three years, however, that only makes sense if past performance warrants putting the same people back in for another three years.

I think a valid argument could be made supporting the notion, that this council has not earned the support of Nanaimo for another term. It is not that members of council have not put in a great many hours for which they likely are paid below minimum wage. But rather the argument supporting putting in a completely new council is best made by looking at how they have handled some really big issues.

One of the mistakes this council and others have made and will make is putting far too much confidence in the ability of city staff to make sound business decisions. I realize that, this single comment will stir up a hornet's nest at city hall, but it is a nest that indeed needs stirring. This city manager and senior staff have bamboozled city council into deciding to spend $16 million on a shiny new office which you could argue is as much about stroking egos as it has to do with staff safety. That single expenditure, could have meant a tax increase holiday for every Nanaimo taxpayer for the next three years.

This gross example of the arrogance of council and staff and their attitude to how they dispose of taxpayers dollars is clearly demonstrated in the process they employed in dipping their hands into our pockets to the tune of $16 million. The whole process was conducted in secret, and to this day they will not bring the information out of 'in camera' even though there is no longer any legitimate reason for hiding it from the public. The only reason for not wishing to let the public see how they came to this decision is because they are afraid it won't pass public scrutiny.

This is just one example of their attitude toward transparency, the Jerry Berry golden handshake is another, not to mention the way they handled the low barrier housing strategy.

They are now hell bent on bringing in some poorly thought out tax exemption bylaw which will only have the effect of hurting existing hotels and motels in the city by giving unfair advantage to the new operator. It is based on the stubborn notion that throwing more money at the convention centre, is somehow going to make a difference when in fact the conference business is in general decline, and has been for ages.

These are just two glaring examples of what I would call ineptness on the part of city hall staff and the current city council. Whether we would wish to elect members to council who originally sat on the council responsible for the VICC is yet another hornet's nest that needs stirring.