Sunday, December 11, 2011

Nanaimo City Council Transparency

Will This Council Be Any More Open?
Will Nanaimo Taxpayers Care?


Given the fact that the new city council is made up of 5 incumbents and three out of four Nanaimo taxpayers couldn't be bothered voting, I am not too hopeful this new council will be any more open than they have been previously. Nor am I hopeful that any more than a handful of Nanaimo taxpayers will involve themselves with the business of the city and demonstrate a care for how our city is governed.

When it comes to issues of major importance and usually major expenditures, city council and city staff much prefer to conduct our business in secret away from public scrutiny. The tool they use to accomplish this end is a little device called 'in camera' which means that basically anything they decide to do, and why they decided to do it, can be kept from public scrutiny for a period of 15 years. Did you know that? It came as a surprise to me also.

Recent examples of how city council and city staff have kept the taxpayers of Nanaimo in the dark as to why they have chosen to spend our tax dollars was the half million dollar golden handshake given ex-city manager Mr. Berry, the Bestwick conflict of interest case and finally the decision to spend $16 million on a shiny new office for city staff. There are legitimate reasons why at certain stages the 'in camera' process should be engaged, however that does not mean a time does not come when the 'in camera' proceedings should be open to the public. How else can an engaged and involved taxpayer know how to assess the decision making process of our elected and non-elected officials?

One reason I would presume city staff and city council would wish to avoid the scrutiny of the tax paying public, is if their decisions are questionable and as is the case of the new annex, self serving as well.

On the matter of the new city hall annex, I have had to make a freedom of information request which has now progressed to the assigning of an investigator which will take several more months to resolve. All this, just to find out why this city hall management and the 24th city council felt it was a good idea to spend $16 million on a fancy new office for city staff at a time when our infrastructure is being seriously underfunded and taxes are constantly rising.

The biggest question the secrecy behind the annex decision raises is "why are city councillors so afraid of telling us why they thought this was a good idea". The mayor is quoted as saying "if they had the luxury of time they might have done it differently", does that mean city staff was threatening an insurrection if they didn't get a new office or does he know when this massive earthquake is going to hit?

It will be interesting to see just how open and transparent the 25th city council of Nanaimo will prove to be. I for one am looking forward to a much greater degree of openness, but then again I am also looking forward to Santa coming down my chimney in a few more weeks.

allvoices

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