120 Days til Your Vote Can be Counted
Ron Bolin: July 22, 2011
There is something for everyone at the Special Open Meeting of Council on Monday, July 25, at 4:30pm in the Board Room at City Hall. It is worth looking at the Agenda and it may be worth your time to attend, despite the strange hour and the cramped board room. The agenda can be seen at:
Among the more interesting items are:
Grants Advisory Committee – Permissive Tax Exemption Policy Review : This will replace the old Grants Policy with a new one though questions remain to be answered, one of which is whether the public has a right to input before a new policy is established. This is your money that is being given away. Is it worth it? Not an easy question. Read the report.
Island Corridor Foundation Grant Request for Unpaid Taxes: Report to be distributed separately.
LEED Status- New City Annex- 411 Dunsmuir Street: Recommendation that the annex be built to LEED gold standard equivalency but that it not be certified. Done, but not done?
South Fork Water Treatment Plant Membrane Procurement: Recommendation to issue a Request for Proposals for the supply of a membrane filtration package for the new Water Treatment Plant. Pretty confident…
Report from Mr. B. Sims, Manager, Water Resources, re: South Fork Water Treatment Plant Alternative Approval Process Communications Plan. A 10 page report informing the public about the plant, its authority and its cost. Read it and see if your questions have been answered. See also the Letter from the Inspector of Municipalities in this regard at:
Click to access ministry-letter1.pdf
Report from Ms. L. deVries, Engineering Support Services, re: Speed Reader Board Program: These are the movable signs that show the speed of cars along out streets.
Report from Mr. K. Felker, Manager, Purchasing and Stores, re: Quarterly Direct Award Purchases: This report lists all direct award (no bid) expenditures between $25,000 and $250,000 during the quarter from April 1 to June 30, 2011, which were authorized by Staff. Direct awards greater than $250,000 must be approved by Council.
The full agenda and accompanying reports can be seen at:
Posts and Comments on Nanaimo Governance 
Speaking of citys, Eric Ricker recently sent a note calling attention to Margaret Wendte’s column in yesterday’s Globe and Mail entitled: “The Alarming Truth about waste at City Hall”. You can read it and commiserate at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/the-alarming-truth-about-waste-at-city-hall/article2104136/
We are not alone.
This Globe article could just as easily been written about Nanaimo. I saw two, fully staffed ambulance and one firetruck with four firemen responding to a medical distress call, when clearly one ambulance and two attendants would have been more than adequate.
????? When did everyone quit paying attention to what was going on???? The inmates are in charge of the asylum……….