NANAIMO CITY HALL BLOG

Archive for 2012|Yearly archive page

More In Camera Meetings than Council Meetings

In CITY FINANCE, CITY GOVERNMENT, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT on May 8, 2012 at 12:50 pm

How Council’s time is allotted

The Council Key Date Calendar shows the following information regarding Council’s primary meeting schedule for 2012; i.e. Council Meetings, Committee of the Whole Meetings and Public Hearings.  The breakdown looks like this:

  1. Council Meetings:   21 scheduled
  2. Committee of the Whole Meetings:   16 scheduled (to date one cancelled and two specials added)
  3. Public Hearings:  12 (to date one has been cancelled)

And then there are the secret In Camera meetings increasingly used by Council:  Read the rest of this entry »

Back to Blogging

In CITY GOVERNMENT, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT on May 7, 2012 at 2:44 pm

Ron Bolin: May 7, 2012

On Friday I was notified that my Daily News column for May 18 will be my last.  It seems that they will be making some changes to their op-ed and that I am to be one of them.  The job lasted a half a year and we will part, as we started, on good terms.  I have never, well maybe once, had cause for complaint about the treatment of the material submitted, and that was on some minor points of form in which it seems that I deviated from the DN standard practice and not on content.  It has been an enjoyable adventure and I have been invited to submit guest editorials in the future at my leisure.  In the meantime I will miss the comments which appeared in the on-line version of the paper, especially those which either expanded on the thoughts I was trying to convey or poured vitriol on me or my ideas.  Either way, the commenters were engaged.  Of course I will also miss the munificent remuneration.  ;-)  But I will have more time to devote to this blog which has seen scant effort from me lately.

In my penultimate column on May 4, I discussed an occurrence in my dealings with City Hall which, left uninvestigated or uncontested, would have led to a loss in the amenity value of my property and that of my neighbours for no offsetting compensation.  Read the rest of this entry »

Transparency

In CITY FINANCE, CITY GOVERNMENT, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT on April 25, 2012 at 12:26 am

Ron Bolin: April 25, 2012

In a column for the Daily News on Friday, April 20, I wrote about the covenants that were to be placed on the possible sale of the old City Hall Annex and their implications:

http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=6bf2c79d-e8d7-4f32-ac53-aa8eaa96706f

In a subsequent comment on it I wrote that,” I understand that the office building next to the New Annex on Dunsmuir which has some 70,000 square feet has just been sold for $5.3 million, has about twice the space and sold for 1/3 the price of our new City Hall Annex. It should also be noted that the demolition of the civic Arena with fewer square feet than the old annex cost tax payers some $567,678 dollars to demolish. This is about the same as the land assessment of the old annex. Those tales about selling it for $1 may well be true. And at that it would be much more than the nothing we got for demolishing the civic arena except, of course, one less ice sheet.”

In response someone with the nom de plume  KNOW IT ALL responded that, “Get your facts straight Ron Bolin. Property next door sold for $6.75 million and it also requires seismic upgrades. The City did look at it. These covenants are yet another example of how some councillors are out of touch with how real estate transacts. Ulimately a great condo site, but it won’t happen in 2 years…more like 10 when multi family market dynamics recover. The highest value of that site today is as a parking lot” Read the rest of this entry »

Council has done its part: Now it’s up to us

In CITY GOVERNMENT, FINANCE POLICY COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE on April 23, 2012 at 11:23 pm

Ron Bolin: April 23, 2012

In a motion at tonight’s FPCOW meeting (Finance and Policy meeting of the Whole, i.e. Council in the guise in which they can do anything they wish except pass bylaws), Council moved to have future FPCOW meetings recorded and placed for viewing on the City’s web site along those of “regular” Council meetings until they are moved to the New City Hall Annex when that building is completed.  Ignoring Staff advice,  Council voted six to nine to find their duty to inform the public over that of their own comfort with the Mayor and Councillors Johnston and Brennan voting against.

It is ironic that the actions taken in this meeting and the discussion that led to them will not be seen by the public in an official capacity until the minutes of this FPCOW meeting are approved at the next FPCOW meeting on May 7.  (They will be available in an unadopted form in the Agenda for the May 7th meeting released on the afternoon of May 3.)  This kind of document, coming to us as minutes via 18th century technology, provides only a late, abridged, incomplete, un-nuanced and often flavoured record of what took place.  Read the rest of this entry »

Is it a record?

In CITY FINANCE, CITY GOVERNMENT, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT on April 13, 2012 at 8:12 pm

Ron Bolin: April 13, 2012

The agenda for Monday’s Regular Meeting of City Council is some 412 pages in length and more may come in the final amended version which will be out on Monday prior to the 7pm meeting in the Shaw auditorium.  If I were a Councillor I would certainly let it be known that the time between the release of the Agenda, usually on the Thursday afternoon preceding the Monday meeting, does not provide adequate time for the reasonable consideration of the business of the City of Nanaimo: and most especially not when the agenda is overweight with the lengthy, significant and detailed reports which form part of this one.

In addition to the usual 1 to 5 page reports usually to be found in an agenda we have the following:

  • a 48 page report on the Westwood Tennis Club Land Use Contract;
  • a 79 page report on the Public Hearing of Thursday, April 5, 2012;
  • a 50 page report on Expressions of Interest for the Sale of the City Hall Annex;
  • a 42 page report on RCMP Contract Renewal;
  • a 68 page report on the 2011 Annual Financial Statements and KPMG Audit Findings  (pp 285-353. Does not match the agenda index.) Read the rest of this entry »

Rhetoric and Ideas?

In CITY FINANCE, CITY GOVERNMENT, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT on April 1, 2012 at 12:32 am

Ron Bolin:  April 1, 2012

In a March 31 article in the Nanaimo Daily News by Tamara Cunningham, Mayor Ruttan is quoted as saying that: “Most of the committee of the whole meetings are about rhetoric and ideas…” and appears to be, at best, lukewarm to these “other” Council meetings being held in the broader public eye of a recorded and easily available on-line and/or broadcast format.

These meetings have traditionally been held at 4:30 pm in the afternoon on alternate Mondays from “regular” Council meetings in the City Hall boardroom where there is barely enough space for Council and Staff, and little space for citizens.  They have not been televised or live recorded in any way so that their only record comes via Minutes of the meeting after several weeks, giving the public a very select and dated record.  These FPCOW, i.e. Finance and Policy Committee of the Whole, meetings can and do deal with virtually all matters excepting the passage of bylaws.  Financial and Policy decisions, among others, can and do get made at them.

For example at the FPCOW meeting next Monday, April 2, the meeting will deal with over $2,300,000 in estimates, allocations or reallocations and at least two significant proposals for changes in Council or Committee structure or procedures will be discussed and dealt with.  There will be a presentation regarding the City’s reserve funds which are in the tens of millions of dollars.  It also gives one of the last chances for the public to comment and or question the Budget/Financial Plan for 2012-2016.  Hardly, I would suggest, insignificant rhetoric and ideas.  Read the rest of this entry »

Economic Development(s)

In CITY FINANCE, CITY GOVERNMENT, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, LETTERS TO THE LOCAL PRESS, SOCIAL ISSUES on March 30, 2012 at 1:02 pm

Gord Fuller: March 30, 2012

I don’t know what others think but we, the taxpayer, have shelled out more than $1.4 million for the new Economic Development Corporation and with the latest stories coming out from the D/N I am not impressed.  Ms. Cudahy is being paid quite well for the job she is supposed to do and in some ways she fits right in with the reasons why many choose not get involved.  Its almost like she has spent years here instead of about 6 months.  As I mention in one of my comments on a story; how many strikes before she is out?

March 30 Work on tourism Nanaimo website goes to Toronto

March 29 Philip Wolf: Cynicism has legitimate roots for Nanaimo residents

March 28 Economic development CEO wants to end negativity about the city

Editorial: Nanaimo could use return of civic pride

The last two stories prompted me to send the following letter to the D/N on the 28th, though if I had known what was to come on the 28th & 29th I might have held off.  If you haven’t already checked out the comments on the D/N stories please do, some are quite amusing:)

Read the rest of this entry »

Save Linley Valley West will host first public forum

In PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT, SOCIAL ISSUES on March 29, 2012 at 9:23 pm

Edna Chadwick: March 29, 2010

Save Linley Valley West, a group of Nanaimo residents concerned about the potential destruction of a unique environment and habitat in the west side of Linley Valley, is hosting its first-ever public forum on Wed. April 4 at the Kin Hut, 2730 Departure bay Rd., starting at 7 p.m.

So far, many followers of this initiative have met informally on Facebook, and have shared ideas, photographs and their own enthusiasm for the cliffs, woodlands and wetlands and the wildlife that lives there. People of all ages walk through the area on a daily basis and many have photographed Linley West in every season.  Over 2400 have signed petitions in support of this campaign.

The core group of organizers has met with Nanaimo City Council on several occasions. Despite initial concern about the potential damage from development and then passing, almost unanimously, a motion on Feb. 27, 2012, to learn more about how to protect Linley Valley, Council then reversed this motion just two weeks later.

Organizers are developing a plan of action to fundraise and build more community support for protecting this fragile environment. The April 4 meeting is an opportunity for those interested in Linley West’s future to share ideas and contribute to this plan.

For more information contact:

Joanne (driftwoodart2003@yahoo.ca)

Facebook: Save the Linley Valley Westside

Training a Communication Manager

In CITY FINANCE, CITY GOVERNMENT on March 24, 2012 at 2:41 pm

Ron Bolin: March 24, 2012

First let me apologize for letting things go for a couple of weeks.  We all have a funk now and again, and I had mine.  I trust it may not come again til the weather turns crappy again.

While trying to find out about the training required to be a Communications Manager, I ran across the following program from the Centre for Strategy and Communication in London.  Take a look at the curriculum and see if this is what we want to pay $140,000+/year in perpetuity:

Training for a Communications Manager

© 2012 The Centre for Strategy and Communication, 140 Old Street, London EC1V 9BJ

http://www.the-centre.co.uk/

Most popular Communication courses

Another Monday Night Favorite?

In CITY FINANCE, CITY GOVERNMENT, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT on March 8, 2012 at 10:24 am

Ron Bolin: March 8, 2012

Nanaimo’s Finance Policy Committee of the Whole (FPCOW), the OTHER Council meeting, met for the first time on March 5 in the Shaw Auditorium.  This was a result of their recent decision to meet there for reasons of accessibility at least until the Board Room in the New City Hall Annex is ready.  This move makes possible the video recording of FPCOW meetings just as is done for the “regular” Council meetings which we can now follow on Shaw Cable, direct on-line through the City’s web site, or by the recorded video that is maintained at the City’s web site.

In thinking about the programs associated with these two different Council meetings it is worthwhile to consider the somewhat different functions which they perform.  Bylaws can only be passed in a “regular” Council meeting.  For this reason they are heavy on the land development component of the City’s activities. For this reason, many of the items found on a regular Council agenda are of interest primarily to a neighbourhood or a relatively restricted area around an application for a rezoning or a development permit.  Read the rest of this entry »

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