A motion by Gibsons Coun. Dan Bouman, which he admitted was based on rumour, fell flat Tuesday night after Mayor Wayne Rowe said the rumour was completely false.
Bouman’s motion called for CAO Mani Machado to provide monthly reports to council on “the regular Friday meetings attended by the CAO, the director of planning, the chief executive officer of the Town [the mayor] and the George Hotel and Residences project consultant.”
Rowe seconded the motion “to get it on the table … because I’m very curious to hear about these meetings that I should have been at, but I wasn’t.”
Bouman told Rowe that he had heard “around town … on numerous occasions” about the Friday meetings, “and I don’t know, but I’ve been advised that your name comes up on some FOI [freedom of information] stuff related to those meetings.”
He added that he would “have to accept” Rowe’s word that he did not attend the meetings and acknowledged there was “nothing unusual about developers coming in to meet with staff — in fact, that’s what they’re supposed to do.”
“What you’re telling me,” Rowe said, “is the statement you’ve got here about me attending those meetings is just based on a rumour that you heard around town? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yeah,” Bouman replied. “I think I’ve heard it here at Town Hall, but I’m perfectly willing to accept your word if you’re telling me you don’t attend these meetings.”
“I’m telling you that,” Rowe said.
“OK, because that fundamentally changes the nature of the meeting if an elected person is there,” Bouman said.
Machado confirmed, “We don’t have such meetings attended by the mayor,” and explained that staff works in teams on various files, including the George project, and typically those meetings are held on Monday.
“To my recollection,” Machado added, “there was one meeting last year that the mayor was part of, which is typical when a developer is introducing a project.”
While the meetings are not recorded or reported on directly, he said, the contents do inform the ongoing staff reports on the project that go to council, “and those of course are public documents.”
The motion was defeated with no one voting in favour, including Bouman, who said he was glad to have the situation straightened out.
Coun. Gerry Tretick, however, took a harsher view.
“I’m really disappointed that such a motion came forward based on a rumour,” Tretick said. “It sounds to me like this is just an attempt to gain some political advantage and I don’t know who’s behind it, but I really would suggest these kinds of motions be kept out of agendas in the future.”
A second motion by Bouman, for staff to provide council with departmental reports on a monthly rather than quarterly basis, was also defeated, although it did receive the support of Coun. Lee Ann Johnson.
Rowe said he wouldn’t rule out the suggestion at a later date, but did not want to change council procedures only four weeks before an election.
At press time Wednesday, only Rowe had filed his nomination papers as a candidate for mayor, while Bouman, Johnson, Coun. Charlene SanJenko, Katie Janyk, Stafford Lumley and Greig Soohen had filed as candidates for council. Nominations were set to close today, Oct. 10 at 4 p.m. The election is Saturday, Nov. 15.
