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Nanaimo-Info-blog: Nanaimo City Council Meeting 9/29/14

Editorial Board

Nanaimo City Council Meeting 9/29/14

  Nanaimo City Council Meeting

Monday Sept. 29, 20147:00 PM Shaw AuditoriumVancouver Island Conference Centre

  • RECESS TO e-TOWN HALL MEETING (Up to 1 1/2 hrs.)
  • Two property tax exemption presentations
  • Property Tax Exemption Bylaw
  • DVP 1680 – 1690 Townsite Rd.
  • DVP 3000 Keighly Road
  • DVP 178 Westwood Road
  • DVP 680 Trans Canada Highway (BC Ferries)
  • DVP 770 Franklyn Street
  • DVP 3462 Budehaven Drive
  • DVP 370 Westwood Road
  • Liquor Licence Application 223 Commercial Street
  • Covenant Amendment Application – 4989 Wills Rd.
  • Update Linley Valley Parkland Acquisition Program
  • Amendment to Bylaw – Land Title Cost Recovery
  • Unresolved Building Deficiencies
  • Nuisance Properties 25 Haliburton Street
  • Structure Removal 215 Newcastle Avenue
  • Unauthorized suite 960 Brechin Road
  • Property Maintenance Bylaw 727 O’Brien Place, 5 Needham, 543 Nova, 755 Albert
  • Nanaimo Advisory Planning Committee appointments
  • Motion Hilton Hotel project by referendum rather than alternative approval process
  • Motion – smart phone app for city tasks reporting potholes, graffiti etc.
  • Motion Nanaimo Transportation Master Plan Considerations to be included in all development related staff reports

      Democracy Is Too Important To Leave To The PoliticiansDo Your Civic Duty By Getting Informed and Getting Involved
      If you say: ” I’m too busy just trying to keep it together to get involved, consider that perhaps, if you were more involved you might not be having so much trouble keeping it together “!

      You can view this Council Meeting Agenda here – – –  Agenda .

      If you can’t attend council meetings in person (preferred) you can watch regular council meetings on Shaw cable channel #4. You can also watch the meetings live on the city website using this link. 
      The regular city council meetings are the only ones broadcast live on either Shaw Cable or streaming video from the city website. The Committee of the Whole meetings, while not broadcast live are recorded and can be viewed on the city website HERE.

       Some Council Decisions You Might Want To Think About
      The city just agreed to pay an outside firm nearly $25,000 to review the city website’s content and set up a navigation structure. Our IT head gets paid about $150,000 a year and IT staff are paid at least $37.00/hr. and yet they can’t properly set up the city website?

      The city paid a consulting firm $75,000 for the purpose of reviewing and developing governance-related policy, structures and processes. (In other words to tell the city manager and mayor how to do their jobs). A recommendation that came out of this report was the hiring of Alison Habkirk (an associate of Jerry Berry) at a cost of $8500, again to tell city management and council how to do their jobs.
       
      Council decided to spend $120,000 to install a public toilet at Diana Krall Plaza.

      Council decided to spend at least $200,000 on the old theatre on Victoria Rd. when a $20,000 solution would have done, until it is decided what is to be done with the building long term. Two engineers have raised questions about the seismic standard of the building, but staff seem content to ignore the concern.  

      By deciding to bring downtown parking enforcement ‘in-house’ which was supposed to save tax dollars, we are now going to lose $140,000 in the first year.

      We are paying over $60,000/yr. for downtown parking attendants (meter maids).

      We gave a $300,000 tax exemption to the bar operating in the old train station. This exemption was originally thought to apply to the area of the train station used as a train station and not the area operating as a pub.   

      Council decided to spend $170,000 on an electric Zamboni, when a propane fueled one costs $80,000 and does the same job.

      Council decided to spend thousands of dollars to implement a policy of banning the sale of bottled water at civic facilities.

      Council decided to add another $700,000 to the $844,000,000 financial plan to pay for a communications person (spin doctor), do you think that is a good use of YOUR tax dollar??
      Two years ago they decided to spend $16,000,000.00 on a new staff office, an amount equal to YOUR tax increase for 5 years! 


      #citycouncilmeeting