Blake McGuffie Agrees With New Annex

Blake McGuffie Supports

$16,000,000.00 Annex

Follows is the reply received from long time Nanaimo resident and former city councillor, Blake McGuffie:


I am totally supportive of the plan. The current annex started life as a Kelly Douglas warehouse, and has had very bad air quality since the City first occupied part of it as a tenant. I was on the Council that finally pushed Management to purchase it, after spending several times the purchase price in rent. We got it at a price which should be fully recoverable from the sale of the land, even with the cost of demolition. That Council looked at concepts similar to what is now being proposed at that time, and opted for saving the moving costs by purchasing the current. We also did considerable due diligence on the former Credit Union building on the other side of City Hall

The City continues to grow, and so will City services. A new building on land the City has owned for decades make sense, and will allow some growth room. I do not think staff need a deluxe building but theydo need decent and modern space.

I do not agree with the need to put some of the cost onto taxes. The City has more than adequate reserves to cover this entire cost out of the "savings accounts".

 

Incidentally, I also agree strongly with Fred Taylor's position that the annual surplus should not be fully allocated to reserves each year. A policy of 1/2 of the surplus to buy down tax rates, with 1/2 in reserve would continue to supplement the "savings" and give back what amounts to over-taxation. An examination of the individual City reserves and their "purpose" would easily reinforce my argument. One such reserve, by memory, is over $ 3. million for "unpaid property taxes". If taxes are not paid, City takes the property which in virtually every case could be sold for more than the taxes. This is only one example of "slush" that City staff have created with the support and the ignorance of Council to all matters financial.