To the Editor,
For the first time in living memory, of present and past councillors, Nanaimo council has actually approved a budget greater than that initially recommended by city staff.
Starting with a pay raise of 26 per cent over three years, then moving on to tax incentives for hotel development and increasing the already top-heavy bureaucracy of the city by creating the position of communication manager, it is no wonder taxpayers feel frustrated and unheard.
These decisions and other wondrous ways of increasing the budget and taxes were all initiated at the little known, other regular meeting of city council – the finance/policy committee of the whole. Council has also chosen far more often, it seems, to meet ‘in camera’.
An opportunity exists, though council seems reticent to implement it, to video and make available to the public proceedings of committee of the whole meetings.
This, and a distinct time period when ‘in camera’ meeting information will be made available to the public, could go a long way toward the oft promised – by all candidates during the election – but seldom implemented openness and transparency of council.
Will council learn from its mistakes or will it continue to, as it has in the past, be an example to other cities of how not to govern?
Gordon W. Fuller
Nanaimo