First: Please come down and say hi at Char’s Landing! I will be at all of her open houses Thursdays and Sundays until the election. I will be there around 5:30 tonight as soon as I get back from work. Come say hi!
Second: As I have for many months, and indeed many years, I attended Council this past Tuesday. You likely did not see it because Shaw had chosen not to broadcast it during the election period. This was ostensibly to not give any of the incumbent councillors an advantage of free airtime. But really all it does is make it impossible for people to see Council do their business. The vast majority of people in the audience were city staff, delegations, or council or mayor candidates. This meeting was basically invisible to the public, and it should not have been. The City needs to provide its own online broadcasting of all meetings. It would not be expensive, in fact, I did it for free on Tuesday, in audio only, using only my iPad.
As to the issues addressed. The biggest issue exposed the great failure of this councils decision making process.
#1: The 10th avenue bridge question. A hardworking group of citizens presented an interesting proposal to Council about a “dip” style bridge that could be built cheaper than a traditional straight bridge. There was really nothing wrong with the proposal itself. It was well thought out and well presented. The problem is that there was already a ballot question that had been agreed many months ago and that the public are well aware of.
Well, Council, at 11:05PM at the end of the council meeting and at quite literally the last possible scheduled moment they could change the ballot before it was printed, decided to change the question.
I wish I could tell you what exactly the question now is, but I have not seen it in written form. All I know is it will have a smaller number for the cost. Considering the public wasn’t even able to view the meeting if they wanted to, I believe the public will have even less idea what it is they are actually voting for.
It is these kinds of last minute, poorly thought out decisions that demonstrate so clearly why we need a big change of council.
P.S. Council also revealed they have been in closed-door discussions with WFP on concerns about the beach and sprung a possible swimming ban at Canal Beach
P.P.S. Council also refused to even second a motion by Councillor Kerr to provide and share data with the public on water turbidity in our water source over the past 10 years. This would be how they would see whether any changes in turbidity levels have happened in that time due to logging in the watershed.
All I can say is WOW! Only one incumbent will be getting our vote in the upcoming election! Thanks so much for posting this, Chris – we appreciate all your time and commitment.
Lots of talk about this at AVTTS Meeting. Guy and Charles were both at the Council Meeting, I believe, and were at Char’s last evening. I suspect that the council is dysfunctional partly because of personalities (one person suggested to me at the end of the screening that the current proposal was advocated particularly by one current member of council who owns property in the Tenth and Roger area and that this would be a boon to business–just like provincial politics), but also because the processes of city governance aren’t conducive to citizen participation and no one seems to be responsible for the workings, or not workings, of the city. Thank you for doing what you do. If you were Richard Nixon, you would take your kids and your dog to all the meet-and-greet sessions (Checkers).
Thanks Chris! Council has been dysfunctional for their entire mandate. I for one will not vote for any incumbent nor will I vote for anybody on the Alberni First slate.
When I vote for a mayor or a councillor I expect them to do the best for the tax payer.
The council of today needed to put aside their differences and do their best for the tax payers, not their ego’s, after all they are all adults.