Tuesday night the City of Vancouver held a Public Hearing on a controversial rezoning application for a Cressey development at East 18th and Commercial Drive in the Cedar Cottage area. Many citizens took time out of their busy schedules to attend the Public Hearing, which was chaired by Raymond Louie, one of Vision Vancouver’s councillors….
Category: Vision Vancouver
City Hall’s secret cash machine
Did you know that our Vision-Vancouver-dominated City Council has a Bid Committee that operates in secret? Council gave it authority to award contracts of any size without going out to tender whenever Council is on summer break. The Bid Committee — composed of City Hall bureaucrats (namely the city manager, director of finance, and voting department heads) — can also award contracts of up to $2 million in value at any time. That added up to 39 contracts…
City council: rewarding inefficiency
City council’s pay was in the news recently — city councillors will receive a whopping $9,000 annual raise, moving their salaries to roughly $80,000 a year. Allowing people to give themselves a raise for taking longer to do the same job doesn’t make much sense. Remember, this raise was approved by the councillors themselves. When…
Growing quality, not quantity
With the Globe 2016 conference happening in Vancouver, politicians and leaders from some of the world’s biggest businesses are coming together to try and address “sustainable business” — in other words, how to continue to grow their businesses and the economy while doing so in an environmentally sustainable way. The implied goal — indefinite, continued…
Making gold dust out of viaducts
No. 1 issue on City Council’s agenda over the past few months has been the removal of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts. Last week this issue was finally put to a vote. With 5 in favour and 4 against, Council decided to remove them. At first blush, Council’s decision would appear to be the right…
Penny Ballem: Vision Vancouver’s “Fall gal”
Once again, this time at cost to you and I of over half million dollars, Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver majority have missed the point. Let me explain. There is no disputing the fact that Dr. Penny Ballem is an incredibly capable city manager, perhaps one of the most competent in the city’s…
Letter to the Editor – Ballem: the “fall gal” for Vision Vancouver
My Letter to the Editor was published in September 21st’s Vancouver Sun. Ballem a scapegoat Re: Ousted city manager a ‘force of nature,’ Sept. 16 Once again, this time at cost to you and I of more than $500,000, Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver majority have missed the point. There’s no disputing that…