Outcome of Meeting with Mayor Cook

This past Thursday, I had a meeting with Mayor Cook, at the Mayor's Office, with regard to the following:

1) MOU (Memo of Understanding) between City of WL & CRD
2) Renovations to current Firehall for Arts Community
3) Lack of Communications from City Hall

On Topic #1:

I informed Mayor Cook that the City and the CRD should have ensured that, with regard to the MOU, that both parties are "singing from the same songsheet". To draw an analogy, if "Company A" and "Company B" had an agreement and then 24 hours later, "Company B" decided to re-open the agreement, I can assure you that "Company A" would take "Company B" to court for breach of contract. Council, in my estimation, rushed to adopt the MOU for 2009-2013 before the CRD presented items for inclusion into the new MOU at the February 16th, 2009 Joint Town Hall Meeting including the City of WL joining the CRD Planning Function, the City of WL and the CRD joining forces with regard to Recycling

On Topic #2:

I informed Mayor Cook that notwithstanding the financial situation of the Community Arts Council, the City should not be playing the role of "Real Estate Developer". The Community Arts Council who had some $30,000 in a "Building Fund" should have been required to contribute funds towards the renovation of the current Firehall for the Arts Community. She and I disagreed on this point. I'm concerned about the implication that other non-profit groups will now ask for similar treatment.

The Budget for this project is as follows:

* $200,000 - Town for Tomorrow (provincial taxpayers' dollars)
* $50,000 - Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Function (local taxpayers' dollars)

This project is scheduled for completion for either late December of 2009-January 2010

On Topic #3:

Mayor Cook and I discussed the following:

* Notifying the Public when Council (either Committee of the Whole or following a Regular Council Meeting) will go into a "In-Camera Meeting" - I'll be blogging on this subject in another post

* Quarterly Newsletter - this is in the City's current Communications Policy. She has assured me that this will be done

I encourage everyone who wants to discuss anything of importance with Mayor Cook to take advantage of her "Coffee with the Mayor" meetings. I'm told that when you book your appt with Mayor Cook that you will be asked by City of WL Staff what topics you wish to raise with her