Steve Rant - Outcome of January 12th, 2010 WL Council Meeting

1) Use of Emergency Powers at 238 Crosina Crescent

Last night, Council agreed in a 6-1 Vote to invoke using emergency powers, as provided by Section 20(2) of the Community Charter with respect to actions taken for a failed retaining wall at 238 Crosina Crescent

The debate was quite lively when Councillor Rathor spoke on the issue and he spoke 3 times on the issue. His concerns are the same as mine:

i) How does declaring an emergency 3 months after the fact constitute an emergency?

I believe Mayor Cook should have used her authority to declare an emergency later that morning (retaining wall failed at 2:00am). Council, I'm sure, would have agreed to ratify the order, had it been presented to Council

Also - Staff should have notified the homeowners' at 238 Crosina Crescent about this motion of emergency powers, just like they did when Council was presented with a "Remedial Action Resolution". Again, it's about Customer Service

At this time, a report about division of costs pertaining to the failed retaining wall will be presented to Council at a future meeting, at which point, Council could decide to:

i) assign no costs to the homeowners'
ii) seek the homeowners to pay for a portion of costs
iii) seek the homeowners to pay for all costs

In this case, I believe that because the wall was certified by City Staff, after receiving a certified engineering stamp from a Certified Civil Engineer with regard to the Retaining Wall, all costs should be borne by the City

2) Mayor Cook's Council Appointments in 2010

Mayor Cook released her Council appointments for 2010 and they are, as follows:

Mayor Cook - Administration & Policing
Councillor Rathor - Recreation Services
Councillor Montoya - Social Services and Environment
Councillor Barr - Financial Services and Emergency Ops & Planning
Councillor Walters - Community Services
Councillor Bourdon - Economic Development
Councillor Zacharias - Public Works and Development Services

I was disappointed on various fronts, including:

1) No Councillor was doing a bad job at their Portfolio and all Portfolios in 2009 should have remained the same for 2010

2) Several Conflicts of Interest now arise, due to the changes Mayor Cook has imposed:

Councillor Zacharias - given her role at United Concrete and concrete is used in Public Works projects, the Portfolio should have remained with Councillor Rathor, who quite frankly was doing an excellent job at Public Works and Development Services

Councillor Walters - given her historical association with the Studio Theatre Society (a member of the Community Arts Council and the Arts Council was a major proponent of the local Arts and Culture Function), I question her objectivity on this file in the Community Services Portfolio

Bottom Line - I would suggest that Mayor Cook was more interested in protecting her friends on Council, rather than putting Councillors in the right Portfolios and with the exception of Councillors Zacharias and Walters, all other Councillors are in the right Portfolios