Laurie Charlton's blog

Can you believe what Rossland City Council has done now? After months of promises that there would be a full, open discussion about the options for the Columbia Avenue infrastructure project after tenders provided hard numbers to consider, Council decided to turn the decision making over to CAO Victor Kumar.

Mayor Greg Granstrom and Corporate Officer Tracey Butler tried to get authorization to disregard my requests for information under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).  They failed.

What’s going on (or not going on) at City Hall about the tenders for the Columbia Avenue infrastructure project?  Tenders were opened on April 3 and there hasn’t been a peep about what the bids were. 

The date for receipt of tenders for the Columbia Avenue infrastructure project has been delayed - again.  So has council’s often-requested discussion about what to do about the project - particularly the issue of parallel vs. angle parking.

Council and the community are being led down the proverbial garden path by CAO Victor Kumar about the Development Cost Charge (DCC) Bylaw.   Information provided to council by Mr. Kumar is misleading, inaccurate, incomplete, and frequently unsubstantiated.  The only realistic data being provided seems to be coming from Ken Holmes.  Thanks Ken!

Council recently considered rezoning applications that exposed some of the flaws in the zoning bylaw and the process used to consider those applications. 

CAO Victor Kumar wants to scrap the City’s Development Cost Charge (DCC) bylaw because it “. . . has served its purpose and is no longer required based on the availability of other taxation tools . . .” Nonsense!

If council goes along with this cockamamy idea, taxpayers in the future will be stuck with paying for expansion of infrastructure to service new development, primarily at Red Mountain.  Of course, by the time that happens, the CAO and the current council will be long gone from City Hall.

Mayor Greg Granstrom should resign.  He apologized to council and took full responsibility for not providing information to them about the architectural and engineering studies undertaken for the proposed expansion of the swimming pool into an all-season facility.  However, he did not apologize for the unauthorized expenditure of $25,000 for those studies.