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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »