Who is kidding who?
Ron Bolin — July 4, 2010
In “Our $3M hotel money may be lost”, July 3, Derek Spalding easily gives in to our all too prevalent tendency to self victimization by putting forward the idea that our City representatives were so negligent that they signed a deal with, and gave over $3 million in taxpayer dollars to, shell companies which have no assets and thus we should have no expectations. If this is found to be the case, then heads should roll from Council, Senior Staff and the City’s Solicitors.
Another example of Nanaimo defeatism is found in our Mayor’s statement that we need to come up “with a fair and equitable settlement…” Fair and equitable is compensation in full. To begin to waffle before the matter is engaged is extremely disconcerting. What kind of a game have we been playing and who has been played? What kind of a game is City Hall continuing to play? Did Mr. Berry not wish to be around for the end game?
I don’t know about my fellow citizens, but I am tired of being a patsy.
Posts and Comments on Nanaimo Governance 
I voted for Mr Ruttan because I hoped that not only would we be rid of Gary Korpan’s (I won’t quote the bumper sticker …..) but we’d also have a strong voice in city hall to stand up for the taxpayers instead of business interests. It seems I was wrong and might as well have voted with my conscience for a more radical candidate. Once more I feel like a cartoon character under the Millenium steam roller while we all lie there and ask them to do it again. Who are we giving another hunk of our city to for the redevelopment of Port Place?
I agree–I, too, am tired of being a patsy. My gut reaction is that there was a perception that Nanaimo is populated and represented by a bunch of hicks from the sticks. If this continues, it could be called a “self-fulfilling perception.”
Nor am I pleased with Ruttan’s statements which infer, hint, or come very close to outright saying “We’re still willing to talk about this.” Has he been instructed by the city’s lawyers to make these statements? If so, why? It might have been wiser to tell Ruttan to say nothing, which, in my experience, is usually what a lawyer will tell a client in circumstances like this. In effect, with his references to “fair and equitable settlement”, Ruttan is either negotiating himself, rather than letting the City’s lawyers do it, or he’s making a statement more appropriately made by the City’s lawyers. Negotiation is not a good idea in these circumstances, particularly negotiation in the media. If Ruttan is going to make statements like this, we are going to end up paying the City’s legal bill unnecessarily, because he’s cutting the ground out from underneath City’s legal counsel. What any city needs, if caught in these circumstances, is a group of leaders who are willing to stand up and say “This is the hill upon which I’m willing to die.” Not many, if any, in the environs of city hall, either salaried or elected, seem to realize that there would be tremendous support if that was the attitude we saw and heard.
Do Ruttan’s statements reflect the attitude of council and City staff? In that case, note to self: “Order two dozen T-shirts with silk-screened ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’ for council and staff.”
As I see it, there’s no point in pursuing Berry. He’ll be spending our money defending himself against a suit for *what*? I’m not sure what it could be called. Or if there even is a concrete, provable reason to pursue him.
As I recall, the conference centre matter went from Cantelon to Krall to Manhas (or vice versa, with regard to the last two), so would it be correct to say that the matter of the hotel went through the same hands? I believe that Manhas departed to pursue a political nomination. Is that the case? And Krall departed for “personal reasons”. Readers of “The Nanaimo Daily News” may remember its announcement of Krall’s departure as being one of the most embarrassing journalistic errors ever made in this city. Or did Krall see the light in the tunnel and realize that it was, indeed, an oncoming train?
The only heads that could, with justification, roll on Council would be those who were incumbent when the original deal was made and who supported it, and those who’ve since been elected who could be proven to have led us farther along this “highway to hotel hell”. I think the only recourse would be simply not to re-elect them, if they were to run in the next election.
If someone has the materials available, I’m willing to try to drive some steel down the spines of the mayor, members of council who can be proven to have been responsible in some way, and I’ll end with City staff who can also be proven responsible.
Port Place is not getting any property from the City. Yes, Ruttan should learn to shut his mouth and not blab on things he shall not be saying. This is not the first time he has done this. Nor shall it be his last, but it could easily be his last term as Mayor. Another Graham Roberts, whose major change lasts today.
Four of the current council were in office during this whole deal, I believe. Sherry, Unger, Holdom and McNabb.
Berry, Kenning and the city solicitors are equally responsible for how the interests of the Nanaimo taxpayer were or were not looked after.
So, if it turns out that incompetence ruled the day, how did we reward those responsible? We re-elected four of them, gave one a half million dollar handshake and promoted the other to city manager without having to face an open competition for the job.
We do get the kind of governance we deserve, and that is just the way it is.
When I asked Ruttan about this lawsuit as could be expected he said nothing. He also did the ‘I can’t say anything as it is now before the courts’ line. I pointed out this fact on my blog and via a letter in the Bulletin.
I sometimes wonder just how many people in Nanaimo actually have any idea what is going on, outside their own little lives?
I would like to draw the attention to the fact that Mr. Sherry often was the only one that consistently voted against the deal with Millenium ( Or whatever it changed the name to for convenience) and was often ridiculed for that, sometimes very rudely.
So don’t throw him in with the other longterm council members.He knows a lot about city matters and would be a valuable mentor for a young group to run at the next election.
Young professionals where are you.
It remains to be seen how the companies involved over the history of this project changed over time. It may be that in the final analysis only our current Council is ultimately responsible as the players may have changed again. I cannot tell at this time as much of the historical record of the project which was available on the city’s web site has disappeared, purportedly as an exercise in removing “old” information. At this time it is not known where these electronic records are to end up, or the definition of the policy under which it has been removed. My request for all this information sits with our City Manager and I await his response.
During the election, prior to the last one. There was no one elected to office who said they would not spend the extra money to complete the conference center. That includes councilor Sherry.