At last night's WL Council meeting, a couple of news-worthy items came up that I'd like to provide my own commentary on:
1) Remedial Action Resolution - 675 Pigeon Ave
WL Council, at the request of the Senior Bylaw Officer, approved a Remedial Action Resolution for 675 Pigeon Ave requiring that the owner, Wayne/Marlene Kidd, to remove 11 derelict vehicles by Feb 28th or the City will do the required work and bill the Kidds' on their property taxes. According to the Senior Bylaw Officer - the Kidds are already in violation of 3 different City Bylaws. If this matter had come before the City's Advisory Planning Commission - I would have recommended Council proceed with the Resolution
Moreover - there is no real reason for Mr. Kidd to be belligerent (swearing) towards City Staff who were only trying to do their job. 99% of the time, if there is an issue - City Staff will always endeavour to work with you to resolve your issue(s). City Council did do the right thing here and hopefully the Kidds will proceed with complying with the Remedial Action Resolution. If not, they'll (Kidds) pay for it one way or the other. When you're deep in a residential area on Pigeon Avenue (all R-1 Homes), you can't have a junkyard inside a 100% residential neighbourhood. Their fellow residents' have rights as well
2) Fire Hall Budget Overrun
During consideration of a Committee of the Whole Recommendation on the $528,000 Budget Overage for the City's new Fire Hall - the City's CAO (Brian Carruthers) read from a prepared statement reviewing the timeline from start to finish for the construction of the new Fire Hall. If you are interested in Mr. Carruthers' statement - watch the WL Council meeting on our local Shaw Cable Channel 10 - the show will start at 8pm tonight (Wednesday, Jan 26th) with re-runs on Thursday & Sunday at 7am
During a subsequent "Question and Answer" period - Mr. Carruthers' stated that he could not and would not guarantee to Council and the people of Williams Lake that no capital project would never go over budget.
It should be appreciated that the voters' of Williams Lake should take Mr. Carruthers' completely at his word, given both he was wearing two hats - one as Administrator of Williams Lake and one as a taxpayer of Williams Lake. Also - senior City Councillor Surinder Rathor called for an external inquiry of the $528,000 budget overrun for the new Fire Hall. See the Rush's story here. However, Councillor Natalie Hébert objected on the grounds that she didn't see any value in an external audit
My take on this is two fold:
1) In the last 7 years - two major projects, Tourism Discovery Center & Fire Hall, have gone over budget by a combined $728,000 and this should concern residents, given two different models were used and after TDC was done, another construction management model was used to prevent what occured at TDC for our new Fire Hall. While I agree 100% with Brian Carruthers that you can never guarantee that a project will never go over budget - most people I talk with are deeply concerned that the $528,000 could have been used for different purposes like: improved roads, less property taxes in 2011, add the money to the City's General Surplus (Rainy Day) Account, etc. Also - we, as a community, should expect Council to spend money just like all households do in the community. You set a budget and stick to it. Councillor Barr will have to answer some tough questions on the Fire Hall Budget Overrun but ultimately I don't see it as an impediment to allowing him to seek and get another term on Council - if Councillor Barr chooses to do so later this year
2) As to Councillor Rathor's proposal for an external audit - I believe Council should and must allow it to go forward. If Council/Staff feel confident about the internal review on the $528,000 Fire Hall Budget Overrun then they won't hesitate about the need for an external review. If this Council refuses to do so then many of the Council incumbents could be rejected in favour of others who will ask experts in our own community to review the entire Fire Hall Project and ask: Is this a case of just bad luck or does City Hall need to tighten its' policies/procedures? Many in the community should thank Councillor Rathor for his innovative thought on the Fire Hall Budget Overrun and I further believe Councillor Rathor will be rewarded by the community for continuously thinking "outside the box" by giving him a 7th Consecutive Term on WL Council on Saturday, November 19th
SBF
8 comments:
the pidgeon property is totally ridiculous! Every inch of their property is taken up with derelict vehicles that could be leaking toxins into the ground which then could be getting into the ground water. As well these people have no available space for their vehicles that they drive so they are then parked on the road thus creating a hazard to drivers and pedestrians and an interference for snow plowing as well as a bloody eyesore! And to boot their two dogs are let out and bark continuously also causing disturbances to the neighbourhood!
Let's spend more money and use up a bunch more city staff time doing an "inquiry"!! I'm sure we'll find something worth all that!
That's the biggest crock I've ever heard.....Do you really think it will have any real benefit?
In reading this blog it is clear the expectation is there'd be public meetings before any single decision was made and an inquiry every time something didn't go right...that'd be effective government!!
Thanks for your comments:
As to the inquiry for the Fire Hall Budget Over-run, as proposed by City Councillor SPS Rathor - the intent would be to engage individuals outside of City Hall, after all - that's the intent of an external audit.
As far as this blog goes - I've never called for an external audit when bad decisions occur at WL City Hall, but like Public Consultation Meetings, the decision to having a Inquiry on a Council decision or Public Consultation on Regulatory Bylaw(s) must be considered in the context of how the public is feeling on the matter and again - I agree with Councillor Rathor, but he still needs to convince either this Council or the next one that this idea has merit and should move forward
SBF
Hey Steve, 675 Pigeon is still a dump, and getting worse. Isnt the City gonna do something about it?
At this point - City Staff will serve Mr and Mrs KIDD with the remedial action resolution which requires them to remove the 11 vehicles by "Monday, February 28th"
If the KIDD's choose not to comply, the City has the right to remove the vehicles at their cost and the bill will be placed on their municipal tax bill as "taxes in arrears". If Mr. Kidd attempts to block the removal of the 11 vehicles - the City could go to court to get an injunction order compelling Mr. Kidd to allow the removal of the vehicles. If he doesn't agree to receive/respect the court injunction order, then the City could return to court to ask for an enforcement order which would allow the RCMP to restrain the Kidd's, if necessary, to allow the removal of the 11 vehicles, as per the Remedial Action Resolution
This series of acts could take as long as the summer to play out
Stay tuned as they say!!
SBF
Thats just ridiculous......how can it be that much political BS when they are in clear violation of several bylaws.?
Unfortunately - a lot of this comes from provincial law and City Staff, like it or not, have to follow provincial law/common law, when it comes to these sorts of matters.
Be patient - one way or the other, 675 Pigeon Ave will look beautiful once again
SBF
i used to live on pigeon ave 25 years ago and this property has always been like this. mind you it has gotton a little worse in recent years. Some of the blam does lay with city staff who have let this property get to this point. Something should have been done years ago.
Rather then beat done fellow residents who have over the years contributed to williams lake and the community, I think the real problem is Wayne is now almost 70 years old and life has caught up with him personally and health wise.
Yes somthing does need to be done but leave the be-littling comments to yourself and remember Wayne and Marlene are human as well, and we don't know the full story behind the conversations Wayne and the city inspector have had. It will hopefully be solved sooner then later and hopefully in a respectfull and legal manner.
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