Thursday, November 17, 2011

Nanaimo City Council Record


Highlights Of Current Nanaimo City Council

$500,000.00 because Jerry Berry wants to take an early retirement. According to the 'official' line which can only be talked about by Mayor Ruttan, Mr. Berry just wanted to take early retirement and because he was such a nice guy the citizens should have no problem paying him half a million to go away. The Mayor said it was a precedent setting decision, he never explained why he wanted to set that precedent.

$68,000,000.00 because someone at VIHA said we needed to treat our perfectly good water. Once again, this council simply said, "OK, NO PROBLEM, I GUESS WE HAVE TO DO WHAT THE BUREAUCRATS TELL US", then just roll over and play dead and assume that city hall staff has the competence to over see such a massive project. Given their stellar record with the VICC, I have often wondered why council seems to put so much faith in their judgement.

$22,500,000.00 loan to pay for the water treatment plant on the direction of city staff. Again, "OK NO PROBLEM SINCE THAT IS WHAT THE BUREAUCRATS TELL US". They don't seem troubled at all that we should have had other options if we hadn't emptied the cookie jar for a shiny new office for city staff. They also never seemed to question how city staff know how much we need to borrow since the project is neither designed nor gone to tender yet. I remember being told we needed to borrow $30,000,000.00 to build a $52,000,000.00 convention centre, and a short time later being told we really needed to spend at least $75,000,000.00. This was during the time we paid a management fee of $3,000,000.00 with the understanding we would get our money back if they didn't build us a hotel.

$10,000,000.00 to build an emergency water line to Harmac. Again, "OK NO PROBLEM SINCE THAT IS WHAT THE BUREAUCRATS TELL US". Never really explaining the reason for doing this nor the study that showed it's usefulness in the event of a real event rendering our regular water supply incapacitated. If our regular supply is damaged, how likely is it, that the emergency line can actually be used? 

$16,000,000.00 for a shiny new office for city hall staff because a report commissioned by the staff found the building not up to current seismic standards. It was never explained how many buildings in Nanaimo would meet that standard and what the REAL level of hazard would be. If you can find an engineer that will sign off that most buildings in town meet that standard, I would be amazed. So why do we think staff manipulated this report?? So, they could get this council to once again say: "NO PROBLEM SINCE THAT IS WHAT THE BUREAUCRATS TELL US". There never was a study made public showing the necessity for even upgrading the existing staff office, and there certainly has been no study made public showing the cost benefit of spending $16,000,000 on a new office instead of $4,000,000.00 to upgrade the existing. In fact the rationale behind this whole decision is something that this council did not want in the public eye until after the election, fearful they might be held accountable.

$1,500,000.00 to fund a new economic development corporation since the economic development commission being funded by city hall is unproductive. Again "OK NO PROBLEM, LOOKS LIKE A GOOD IDEA".

$1,000,000.00 per year to fund the catering company running the convention centre. "OK, NO PROBLEM, THAT IS WHAT THE BUREAUCRATS TELL US".

$?,???,???.?? in tax breaks to get a company to build a hotel so the convention centre will become a roaring success. "NO PROBLEM SINCE THAT IS WHAT THE BUREAUCRATS TELL US". This stubborn notion that the convention business will be the saviour of downtown and the only thing stopping it is a new hotel, simply demonstrates the level of business ineptness flowing from city hall which has been endorsed by this council.

$70,000,000.00 for a new dam because we are running out of water. "OH WELL, I GUESS WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO, SINCE THAT IS WHAT THE BUREAUCRATS TELL US".

OH WELL, NO PROBLEM, I GUESS WE HAVE TO SPEND THESE AMOUNTS OF MONEY ON THESE ITEMS, AFTER ALL, THAT IS WHAT THE BUREAUCRATS TELL US.

Wait a minute........... has it ever occurred to anyone that we have been burning through money at a completely unsustainable rate this past ten years and it is all because THAT IS WHAT THE BUREAUCRATS SAY??

I sincerely hope the next council elected in the city of Nanaimo this weekend will be able to demonstrate a great deal more foresight and understanding of economic realities in this lovely city before we have turned it into one huge ghetto.

allvoices

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