Re: Terminal Trench study backed by city council, Oct. 9.
I watched a Nanaimo city council meeting at the beginning of the month with disgust.
It proved senior bureaucrats are the ones running our town. On Sept. 5, the Downtown Nanaimo Business Improvement Association wrote council asking for an advance of $225,000 – next year’s matching city funding.
The matter was not placed on the Oct. 4 council agenda until the last minute so there was no chance for scrutiny, debate or opposition from anyone.
This is underhanded, undemocratic politics at its worst. City staff, along with the mayor and seven councilors, should bow their heads in disgrace.
Only one councillor, Jim Kipp, spokeup, frustrated against the motion of injustice. This while councilor Diane Brennan rudely talked over him, calling for a vote.
Council approved giving the DNBIA next year’s allotment even though commercial property owners have not yet voted on whether the DNBIA should even exist beyond June.
City manager Al Kenning even had the audacity to dictate to council that he believed they were “committed to funding the BIA through 2013.”
This is far from democracy.
R.C. Stearman
Nanaimo