Ron Bolin:  March 1, 2012

This will be the first meeting of FPCOW (the OTHER Council Meeting) to be held at the Shaw Auditorium, the site where “regular” Council meetings are held.  As before, FPCOW (Financial and Policy Committee of the Whole) meetings are held at 4:30pm.  You can rest assured that there will be plenty of room, so come speak either as a registered delegation, without registering under the aegis of item 6 (a) on the Agenda which is for delegations  pertaining to the 2012-2016 Financial Plan aka the budget, or just to listen to how your money is spent.  Remember that items in the budget, including the recently hastily added position of Communication Manager, are still up for discussion and can be changed.

And it looks like Council was its own Delegation Pertaining to the 2012 -2016 Financial Plan at the last FPCOW meeting as the moving, seconding AND adoption of the Communication Manager Position is given under this agenda item in the minutes of that meeting.  Now that is efficiency in spending $140,000. Hats off to Ruttan, Brennan, Anderson, Johnstone and McKay for their alacrity!  Who even knew that budget items like this could be handled within a single unregistered delegation?  Keep this swift action in mind as you consider what to present.  There seems to be lots of money available. Read the rest of this entry »

By Ron Bolin:  Feb 24, 2012

The following items of general interest are on Monday’s Agenda:

• A presentation on the Bowen Road/ Quarterway Bridge Improvement project;
• A delegation on the newly minted Communication Officer position;
• Advisory Committee on Environmental Sustainability’s 2012 Work Plan;
• Grant’s Advisory Committees recommendation to provide $1,397.42 for an annual volunteer luncheon (I would not include this, but I wonder how many other volunteer luncheons might be forthcoming);
• 2012-2016 Financial Plan Bylaw Amendment;
• A report on the cost of acquiring the West Linley Valley land for a park;
• Staff’s recommendation that, for accessibility reasons, all FPCOW meetings be moved to the Shaw Auditorium until the new Annex Building is completed; Read the rest of this entry »

Ron Bolin: Feb. 10, 2012

The full agenda for this meeting can be found at:

http://www.nanaimo.ca/UploadedFilesPath/Site_Structure/Corporate_Services/Corporate_Administration/2012_Agendas/C120213A.pdf

At this meeting Council will be making a number of amendments to the Zoning Bylaw, some of which bring about substantial changes.  If unsure of how these changes might affect your neighbourhood, see the agenda.

It is also likely that Council will give the first three readings to “FINANCIAL PLAN BYLAW 2012 NO. 7144″.  This bylaw will set the following tax rate increases:

There is also an annual increase of 5% to water fees and 6.14% ($7.00) to garbage/recycling fees in 2012, but no increases for sewer are proposed. Read the rest of this entry »

Ron Bolin: Feb. 9, 2012

Statistics Canada began the public release of 2011 population data yesterday (Wed. ,Feb. 9, 2012).  The data for Nanaimo showed a population for the city of 83,810, up from 78,692 in 2006, giving a growth rate of 6.5% over the five year inter-census period or about 1.26% per year.  This contrasts with the growth rate of 11.1% for the five years which is shown in the City’s Community Profile-2010 document which projected our 2011 population to be 87,464.  See:

http://www.nanaimo.ca/assets/Departments/Economic~Development/Why~Nanaimo/CommunityProfile.pdf

Read the rest of this entry »

Ron Bolin: Feb. 3, 2012

Disguised as an innocuous committee meeting, the Finance and Policy Committee of the Whole (FPCOW) will meet on Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, in the Board Room at City Hall at 4:30 pm, as it does on most Mondays alternating with regular Council meetings.  This committee is made up of all members of Council and it differs from what is otherwise known as a Council meeting in two distinct areas:  first, no bylaws can be passed in a FPCOW meeting; second it is held in a small board room at City Hall, it is held at a time inconvenient to working  citizens and there are no intruding cameras to record the proceedings.  Read the rest of this entry »

Gord Fuller: January 28, 2012

There can be no doubt that this tax exemption bylaw only came forward as a result of our Mayor and some others strong beliefs that the only way to up usage at the convention centre would be to entice someone to build a hotel on land we would be willing to give them behind said centre. Initially in bringing forward the bylaw there was somewhat of an outcry from the Hospitality Association and this latest inception is designed to placate the association and bring them on board with the tax exemption. 

At council’s meeting on January 23^rd these points were approved to be added to the above bylaw:

To include renovations to existing hotels and motels that achieves any one or more of the following:

• adds services

• adds rooms

• improves the quality of the stay for the visiting public; Read the rest of this entry »

Ron Bolin: Jan. 25, 2012

During Monday’s (Jan.23, 2012) Council meeting a significant discussion almost took place regarding the expenditure of up to $560,000 for Preliminary Engineering on the South Fork II Dam.  The discussion which almost took place began when Councillor Bestwick asked whether we have examined the alternatives to a very costly dam project which is predicated on a population increase to 100,000 in the next ten years and a total expenditure of some $70 million dollars to meet the resultant water needs. Almost before the issue could be raised, Councillor Brennan called a point of order indicating, Read the rest of this entry »