Editor:
I am suitably impressed by Mayor Rowe’s and Coun. White’s well considered letters concerning Gibsons council’s decision process related to the Trellis Senior Services initiative. The community deserves this type of open communication from municipal government. Sadly, I remain disappointed at these gentlemen’s performance on the matter of the George.
It is public knowledge that Mayor Rowe has provided legal services to the developer, and the BC Ombudsman has ruled there is no conflict of interest. Very well. But in the 2014 all-candidates meeting, Mayor Rowe cautioned candidates, saying that by taking “a clear cut position now” on the George, “you risk a lawsuit by one side or the other.” Mayor Rowe (and other candidates) also referred to expected post-election negotiations with the developer regarding building height, but under Rowe’s administration, these negotiations yielded an increased total height (to protect the aquifer) and no significant reductions in usable height were achieved. Not the outcome anyone hoped for or expected.
In that candidates meeting, Coun. White stated “the whole conversation around the George should start around the aquifer and the potential threat to our aquifer.” Informed citizens now suggest there exists documented reference to aquifer and ground soil engineering reports that have never been made public. White also stated that, living close to the George, he had a personal preference for it to be lower. White recused himself from further George deliberations just months after election, thus we can’t count on him to pursue his concerns. Who speaks in lieu of candidate White now? Simply put: Do said reports actually exist, and if so, who has seen them, what do they contain, and why are they not public?
If the George is the great idea so many claim, it should proceed in a manner that is fully beyond reproach, and not otherwise. Gibsons residents deserve as much.
Alan Donenfeld, Gibsons