Is Mayor Ruttan's Council Trusted?

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It is not about hotels,
It is not about concessions,
It is certainly not about Asians being welcome

IT IS ABOUT NOT HAVING TRUST IN THIS ADMINISTRATION

Mayor Ruttan and members of council seem to be missing the main point at the centre of the current 'hotel deal' blow up. This Mayor and his council have concluded enough contentious issues behind closed doors, there is no basis for trust.

Trust is one of the casualties of conducting so much business in-camera and then even after the need for secrecy is passed, they refuse to bring the details into the light of day. How can the electorate build trust in an administration that is so secretive?

Glaring Examples

• Mr. Berry's famous $500,000 golden handshake set the tone for a lack of trust in Mayor Ruttan's administration.
• The $16,000,000 annex, and the completely secretive way in which that deal was handled.
• The 'safety' issues surrounding the old city hall annex. The building was safe, then it wasn't safe, then it was safe enough to use. Then it is given away for $1.00. 
• Giving $300,000 tax exemptions to the pub at the train station.
• The Colliery Dam decision. The most recent example of misusing the in-camera process and their reluctance to bring this meeting out of in-camera simply fuels the suspicion that they don't won't the public to know how they made their decision.

Having nothing to do with Mayor Ruttan, but everything to do with city hall management was the inept way the convention centers downtown were mismanaged by city hall staff.

First there was  a deal to build an $8 million hotel/convention centre on the site of the Old Malaspina Hotel which they were unable to bring in through their bungling.

Then they were supposed to build a convention centre and upscale hotel for the price of $52 million. They wound up having to come up with $72 million to finish the convention centre and paid $3 million in management fees to see the hotel built. It never was built and we never did get our $3 million back either.

More recently amid the Colliery Dam flub up, it has been revealed that while both the NDP and the Liberal MLAs for Nanaimo say provincial funding should be available to fund whatever happens with the dam, city hall had never approached the province for funding until it was suggested to them.

They signed a management deal with a company to run the convention centre which did not allow us to seek a competitive tender from anyone else after the first five year contract expired.

And they wonder why we don't trust them to cut a deal for another hotel??