Downtown Hotel Delegation/ Mayor Misses Point

My Presentation To City Council

Opposing Downtown Hotel 'Deal'

To view the video of the presentation, click on the above image and then scroll down the left hand side under the 'Time' heading to 5:10 PM, 13.(c) and you can listen to the whole presentation.

Clearly Mayor Ruttan is upset with the public information which was leaked about this pending deal and while he blames the messengers and does not deal with the message, he seems to miss the point of my presentation.

The point? There are a great many residents in Nanaimo who do not trust this council or city hall administration to broker a business deal for a hotel that would be good for the Nanaimo taxpayer.

There is yet to be produced any credible business plan that supports giving away anything to coax a hotel developer to build an upscale hotel adjacent the conference centre.

When Mr. Kenning makes statements in the press to the effect that this deal does not require voter consent he is behaving like a king rather than the highest paid civil servant at city hall. The idea that Nanaimo residents could be faced with guaranteeing a $1.25 million profit to the operator of the conference centre for more than 5 years and not require voter accent is absolutely infuriating.

This is exactly the attitude that exudes from city hall that has led to the high level of distrust felt by many citizens.

In recent memory, they decided they didn't need to inform the public before spending $16,000,000 on a shiny new office, or deciding to rip out the dams in Colliery Park without any public consultation.

It is long past due for Nanaimo residents to start paying attention to some of the arrogant, high-handed methods which city hall has become accustomed to employing as they take care of YOUR business.

Perhaps the most offensive conduct at city hall is the often abused 'in-camera' process which is used to hide the decision making process from the public, and even allow councilors to hide how they stand on contentious issues using the in-camera cloak. Nothing to hide? Then why so much secrecy?

It is still unknown which councilors approved the $16,000,000 new office, the only thing known for sure is that the first time they voted on it, it was defeated!

Just what kind of misinformation did staff provide councillors to scare them into supporting the dams in Colliery Park without talking to the public? The risk and cost to build new, were both grossly overstated when the city made their first press announcement, so how badly did staff misinform council in an effort to coerce them into making another secretive decision?

This is yet another example of how council takes the brunt of the public outcry, and city staff can hide behind their desks and repeat 'council told us to', when in fact it was city staff that coerced council into making the decision. I am sure there were exaggerated stories of casualties, costs etc. not to mention the degree to which councillors would be liable should we do nothing.

If it is that dire, why has staff been dragging their feet for years??

Staff has some serious questions to answer one of these days, to exactly how they have handled the Colliery Dams issue for the past number of years and why after years of studies etc. it was finally necessary to make a closed door decision in thirty days? If the situation is so dire, why have they done nothing to mitigate the risk, even now?

It is not unlike saying how dangerous the old annex is, and then moving the Mayor and his office into this 'high hazard' building while they renovate city hall?

Many times their logic does not even pass the smirk test. They wonder why the level of distrust keeps growing by the day!

Insisting there is NO DEAL

Does not mean they aren't negotiating a DEAL!

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Online Petitions To Provide Public Approval Of Hotel Deal