Once Again I Am Telling You

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "This Just In":

Has the Town never entered into an agreement with the Federal Government on leases?

I think that your thinking that some clandestine thing is/was going on is a bit much.

The Federal Government has departments that do nothing but this sort of thing. The feds are the ones that are in control and set the terms. There is no negotiation invloved. Why? For the reason that you are on about now. If the feds required councils to sign off on leases that they enter into, they would NEVER get a lease done. Municipal councils appear to have nothing better to do than fiddle about on small stuff like this. In order to get things done, you have to expedite the process.

I defy you to find something wrong with the lease.

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 Anonymous has left a new comment on your post:

Not sure I understand. Does the restriction specifically say that members of council are not allowed to review it, or that it may not be released to the general public? If somehow it says or implies that council may not see it, how is it that the Mayor could sign it? I mean, what is the mayor if not a member of council?

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I  provided  exactly the information  I  received on  my request to view the lease for the hydro property, which  the town owns. 

I asked  for a copy  I was informed my request could not be granted. I asked for a written refusal. 

I will receive a form for an application to the  Federal Department of National Defence with my agenda package.

I must make an application to the Federal agency .They will decide what information will be provided and what not.

I am not trying to explain . I do not understand it myself.

The disposition of the hydro property  was a decision  pending in the 2006 election.

Would it be sold? Would it be used for town purposes ?

The Parks  Department made use of the building as a paint shop and a workshop and as storage .

A Century barn on development property with no use determined, was carefully dismantled ,nails pulled one by one, and transported to the hydro building and stored carefully indoors. My recollection was Mr.Panizza our former town clerk  referred to  other storage uses but they were not identified.

Four years went by and no attention paid to the building.

Suddenly on the eve of the election, a joyful proclamation that the building had been leased to the Department of National Defence.

 I objected on several grounds. Not the least was the impropriety of an outgoing council committing an incoming council to a decision they had no part in making.

It is never done.

Another aspect occurs  even as I think about the situation; if the town owns a property and decides to sell it, a bylaw must be passed declaring the property  surplus. The property must be appraised and offered for sale in an open and transparent process.

I  know of  no reason why the disposition of the hydro property  should not have been handled in an equally open and transparent fashion with any person with an interest invited to submit a proposal.

It did  not happen.

During budget discussions at the beginning of the month, I noted  rental revenue for the property  was not showing in the revenue table.

The treasurer responded , it was  in the budget for the department of environment and infrastructure. But rent did  not start to be paid until February 2011.

The joyful proclamation of the lease was made in September or October of 2010.

It was then I decided I needed to see  the lease.

My request has been refused .  I have provided  the reasons I was given for  being refused  access.

Yes ,the CAO negotiated the lease.

Yes,  the associate solicitor "worked" on the lease.

Yes, the Mayor and Clerk signed the lease .

Yes, the lease was probably copied and printed by other  personnel.

But NO, as a representative of the owners of the  property, I am not allowed to see the lease and understand what the town committed to, with the federal department of national defense, on the eve of the last  municipal election.

Now you know everything I know.

In all my years, I have never seen the like of it.