Category Archives: CITY FINANCE

The Dog that Didn’t Bark…

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Ron Bolin: July 6, 2014 One of the most popular Sherlock Holmes short stories, “Silver Blaze” focuses on the disappearance of the titular race horse (a famous winner) on the eve of an important race and on the apparent murder of its trainer. The tale is distinguished by its atmospheric Dartmoor setting and late-Victorian sporting […]

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The June 16 COW

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The following was just sent to Mayor and Council.  This process achieves the end of forcing me to think about what is on the agenda, what I think about it (if I do) and it gets it off my chest. I do not comment on items about which I do not have an opinion and […]

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Conscience and Contracts: Whose Conscience, Whose Contracts?

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Ron Bolin: May 6, 2014 On Monday, May 5, in a last minute addition to the agenda of Nanaimo’s Committee of the Whole (Council-COW) meeting, Councillor Pattje put forward a motion which instructed the Management of the VICC (Atlific) not to take, or presumably at this late date to revoke, a booking for the “Beyond […]

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Council tasted the Frosting and mostly liked it. When do they discuss the Cake?

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Ron Bolin: March 8, 2014 On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, Council spent some six hours each day trying out the taste of some 400+ varieties of frosting with which the cake of the 2014 budget is to be covered.  These items represent the additions of tasks above and beyond those of the cake, […]

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Letters to the Editor, Council and the Public: Demand better Reports at Council

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Ron Bolin: Feb. 21, 2014 The following two letters were written and sent today to the Editors of both the Daily News and the News Bulletin as well as to the Mayor and Council after looking through the Agenda for Monday’s (Feb. 24) Council meeting.  In my opinion the reports for both these agenda items […]

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Nanaimo Needs Performance Auditing

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Tracy Samra:  Nov. 27, 2013 Having personally lead two government reorganizations, one for a relatively small branch and the other of federal regional office with 250+ staff, a $25M operating budget, multiple unions and whose actions were closely scrutinized by the public, I can speak with some authority on this issue.  Ted Swabey has missed […]

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We’re #3!!

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Ron Bolin: Nov. 24, 2013 In 2013, Nanaimo was the third highest in the Province, climbing up from fifth place in 2008.  What a struggle to climb to this heady height beating out such competitors as Vancouver, Victoria and Surrey!  Council and Staff at City Hall have worked hard to beat those rivals and, no […]

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The Oct. 28 Council Meeting: the Case of the Dog that didn’t Bark and other Tractions

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Ron Bolin: Pct. 29, 2013 There was a lot on Monday’s Council agenda, unfortunately it mostly turned out to be much ado about nothing.  See: https://www.nanaimo.ca/UploadedFilesPath/Site_Structure/Corporate_Services/Corporate_Administration/2013_Council_Agendas/C131028A.pdf Dr. Witty’s presentation regarding the South Downtown Waterfront Initiative provided little or no new info, but was a very appropriate call to the public to take part in Initiative […]

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Nanaimo’s 2014 Budget: PR&C Dept., Round 2 – POOLS

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Ron Bolin: Oct. 17, 2013 The second round of Nanaimo’s attempt at a new approach to budgeting using the Parks, Recreation and Culture Department as an example began at 9am in the Board Room of the City’s new SARK (City Hall Annex) building.  Councillor Anderson was again a no-show, and Councillor Brennan came late and […]

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The opening salvo of City Hall’s 2014 budget process

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Ron Bolin:  Oct. 9, 2013 This morning at 8am in the SARK building (the new City Hall Annex) Board Room, Council began their new budgeting process with an examination of the “Arena” portion of the Parks, Recreation and Culture budget proposal for 2014.  The City is experimenting with a new format for examining budgets which […]

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