Masters of Con-munication
Support Annex Covenant
The editorial department at the local daily, not surprisingly are supporting city staff and 5 councillors on the decision to attach a covenant to the sale of the old annex. Yet another example of the fact the city does not need a $140,000 spin doctor.
While scolding the councilors who were opposed to adding the covenant they seem to conveniently ignore the logic to not putting a covenant on the property, and also conveniently ignore the blatant hypocrisy of their entire premise. How many city buidlings at this very moment are in use by young and old, that would not meet the standard being imposed on the annex?
The first piece of totally questionable logic was the need to do anything with the existing annex based on the engineers report which says the building does not meet current seismic standards. That fact could be applied to a large number of other civic buildings as well as most older buildings in Nanaimo. The fact, that upgrading them seismically is not a requirement of the building code, speaks to the degree of concern that status brings to bear. In other words, the professionals responsible for insuring that buildings are not hazardous do not require the level of upgrade staff is imposing on the Annex.
The idea that this whole 'Annex Caper' was ever really about safety and not the desire to provide staff a shiny new playpen would only be believed by those still putting out milk and cookies, for the fat guy in the red suit in December.
The argument that the existing Annex 'may collapse with the least shake' is utter nonsense, that I can't accept even city staff actually believe. After all, if the building was in such a dangerous state, why in the world would they continue to use it ?? To hear the Mayor and others supporting the extravagant use of $16 million, you would think that working in the Annex is as dangerous as say, working in an unsafe coal mine. Pure nonsense!
This whole idea of attaching a covenant to the sale of the Annex is more likely about trying to get the public to forget the fact that city staff simply wanted a shiny new office, and rather than fixing up the old one for a price of $4 million, they railroaded council (not difficult to do) into the shiny new $16 million office on Dunsmuir Street. True to form, the local press have fallen into line to make sure the general public think it was a sound use of tax dollars.
That shiny new office costing $16 million is right beside the six story, 75,000 square foot Dunsmuir building which sold the other day for a mere $7.5 million. Do you think that city hall management and city council are really doing a good job managing YOUR tax dollars?
To this day, city councilors will not release the 'in camera' meeting minutes that led to this huge waste of money in the first place........ if it is such a sound idea...... why all the secrecy???? I seem to remember a whole lot of hot air about transparency during the last election..... whatever became of that?
I am unsure why there wasn't a bigger outcry over this new annex. Where are all the people who were against the Port Theatre, Convention Centre, Hotel, Cruise Ship Terminal? They did not need to build a new building. I would put a lot of issues ahead of this, for example . . . wait a minute, just about every other issue. Now I read they are getting new furniture. Why do they need new furniture? I'm sure what they have is just fine.
ReplyDeleteWith the water treatment costs coming up soon, why was there not another way found for the "Annex".?
ReplyDeleteNow there will be new furniture. Why?
If I am broke like the city is, I can not afford new furniture and have to make do. So stop spending our money on frills and get back to the basic job a city has to do. Water, sewer, streets, fire & police protection.