Best Western saga continues

Two things when you read the story below keep in mind that to balance the books this year council had to increase franchise fees by $200,000+ and cancel a $100,000 contribution to the seniors reserves.

Courtesy of the Pass Herald:

 Lisa Sygutek

Pass Herald staff
At the July 16th council meeting, a presentation was provided by Mr. Chris Vachon of the Vachon Group stating Medican’s failure to complete the Sale and Construction Agreement for a hotel. At the Special Meeting of Council held on July 22nd further information was provided relative to the application submitted and approved to the Vachon Group by Best Western International. A resolution from council at this meeting included the municipality reimbursing the Vachon group the value of the application fee and to work with the Vachon Group in moving forward with the hotel development. Having the application remain in place would mean that the franchise approval for the development of the Best Western Plus would be formalized with a two-year window to construct the hotel. There was a resolution at the meeting to re-tender the former Crowsnest Centre site demolition so as to put the municipality in a more favourable position to initiate development on the site.
Although council approved the reimbursement to Vachon it was not identified from where the funding would be sourced.
Councillor Lonsbury then made the following motion: “That the $50,000 application fee to be paid to the Vachon Group as reimbursement for the Best Western Plus application fee be taken from the Municipal Land Reserve account. 
Councillor Gallant wanted it clarified that, “we are just voting on the funding source. Is there interest in someone who wants to buy some of the land?”. CAO Myron Thompson responded, “yes, there is a buyer for a portion who wants to move ahead”.
Concillor Saindon asked, “ is there a copy of the memorandum of understanding and has it been signed by the Vachon Group and will council see the memorandum of understanding”. An answer was not provided.
Councillor Saje questioned, “I’m not going to be voting in favour of this”. He noted that he was able to get additional information from Jeff Carlson CAO of Clay Cup Developers who were working with Medican prior to Group Vachon coming on board. He stated that Mr. Carlson told him that in the development industry, the Municipality does not typically put up the funding to secure a hotel franchise. He noted, “according to Mr. Carlson, these funds are put up by the developer”. Saje also noted that in securing the Best Western franchise name could have also been done by Clay Cup Developments or other Best Western approved developers. Saje said this was contrary to what Thompson had informed council at the special meeting on July 22nd. “I was under the impression at our special council meeting that if we did not decide that day to go with Best Western that the Best Western trade name will not be on the table for Crowsnest Pass”. Saje explained, “two parts stood out to me during my conversation with Carlson. In the Development Industry communities usually do not put up the development fee. It should flash a red flag”.
Gallant agreed that it was not normal for municipalities to put up the funding, but, "It was made clear that, when the applicant submitted his proposal that, it would not continue with every developer, ahh, yes any developer could have applied for that, however Clay Cup was fired from the project, let's remember that as well. They were fired from the project, because they did nothing. They did absolutely nothing. It was my understanding. They came on board, they led them along for several months, that was one of the long delays we had on this project. So I appreciate the comments from Mr Carlson but I don't hold them in very high regard."
Saje informed council that he did not know Clay Cup was fired in November, but rather pulled out of the agreement and that Vachon Group did not come on board until spring.
Mayor Decoux stated that the rest of council was aware that Clay Cup was released by Medican.
Gallant noted, “we are not determining whether we should do it, but rather the funding requirement”. We made that decision. “I don’t hold Mr. Carlson with very high regard. He was fired.” 
Saje felt that there is a huge conflict of information when talking to Carlson and the information he has received from administration and for that reason he would vote against the motion.
In an interview with Jeff Carlson he noted that, “Medican wanted me to partner with them, but after looking in to the feasibility study I decided not to join. I looked at the feasibility study and did not think it was done well at all. “I check out feasibility reports all the time, I’m not an amateur and the report was amateurish, a waste of money”. He further stated, “Council is part of the reason I decided to not work with this community. I wasn’t too impressed with council. The fact that they are spending $50,000 to get a Best Western flag is ridiculous”.

Saindon asked for a recorded vote with the motion passed 6-4 with Saidon and Saje opposed, Councillor Gail was not present at the meeting. 

Note: Cost of administration $4325 per day

They just don’t get it……… or are they?

Now both Councilors that blog have spoken plus the Mayor’s press release from last week, it appears to me that they and the rest of council are not getting the message about the petition. (See links below)

They are all welcoming Municipal Affairs, they all have nothing to hide, and the people have been misled or intimidated. I have this vision in my mind of the Mayor and Council waving their arms and telling the Minister to “bring it on”.

Personally, I do not and I think most people would agree expect Municipal Affairs to send somebody in here that is going to find massive incidents of fraud or other criminal activity.

We all know that we have had petitions in the Crowsnest Pass before; they failed for one reason or another. From the research, I have done other communities that have been involved in petitions some succeeded some failed. I cannot find one other community where such a high percentage of the population signed a petition so fast. In less than twenty days, every second voter in this community signed the petition.

Does that not say something? The message Council and administration should be getting, is that the taxpayers are not happy. Rome was not built in a day and yes people will accept “change” it always a matter of how much and how fast.

Some people say to me that this Council due to some of their member’s arrogance, naivety, or just plain state of denial will never get the taxpayers message. We should not lose sight of the fact that since the petition was presented to Municipal Affairs, the municipality has changed course on a number of issues, removing the Swimming Pool Authority, The Quint Ladder truck, Franchise Fees. What is next? May be we will all be seduced with the ultimate in vote buying a smaller tax increase.   

Weather they are getting the message or not one thing they will not be able to beat is time. All politicians find out that the same people that put them in power can remove them just has fast. Come October 22, 2013 people will analysis the results, some people will be very happy and some will claim the voters were misled, intimidated or any other excuse that makes the speaker feel better.    

http://emilesaindon.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/its-been-awhile-2/#comments

http://briangallant.ca/wordpress/2012/11/03/the-other-side-of-the-petition/

Rum Runner Days (The real numbers)

Well it seems only like yesterday that the Thunder in the Valley event was deferred.
The issues being the safety of the public all those unruly characters coming to our town filling the jails and costs, numbers were thrown around like confetti at a wedding, $100,000, $150,000 with every new number being larger than the last.
I wish I had a copy of the editorial from the Pass Herald written by Lisa Sygutek it was very well written and spoke about how inflated the numbers were to justify the cancellation of Thunder in the Valley, she was right.  
Never the less the decision was made to proceed with the Rum Runner weekend and bring in new events, family orientated (Wine and cheese festival) vendors, bands for the evening remember the Rum Runner Days flyer that we received with our utility bills (expecting 20,000 plus people).  So the security was all in place for the influx of people finally after years of not knowing what this weekend cost the taxpayers we would have certainty of financial information.
So in March I asked Councillor Saindon for his committee's budget which he was kind enough to share with me it appeared the weekend was projected to actually make money. Revenue's of $160,500 with expenditure's of only $151,720 well finally last night three and a half months after the event Council was provided a financial breakdown of the weekend.  

Revenues projected at $160,500 actually turned out to be $45,452.
Expenses projected at $151,720 actually turned out to be $89,456.

Remember all the big numbers for RCMP/Security/Peace Officers at one point the number of $60-70,000 was being thrown around then with the committee budget it was dropped to $35,000 actually ended up being $18,017.
On the issue of unlawful behaviour we had 5 less people in jail this year than last.

Note: When Councillor Saindon presented his report last night he spoke with great emotion about the difficult time his wife went through with personal medical problems, and the stress of what she was required to do to put on the Rum Runner Days weekend. That I have a lot of understanding for I know what it's like to be in the centre of the Crowsnest Pass political world when you are having to deal with a family crisis.

What I did not like was when he criticized all the people that choose not to participate in the weekend either as a volunteer or participant, and the criticism of people and groups not willing to change, to make Rum Runner Days into what council's vision of it should be. Just maybe on this weekend the silent majority disagreed with council.