Sunday, August 31, 2008

Ghosts of the past may haunt November municipal election


Podunkians don’t go to the polls municipally for another seventy five days, with almost eleven weeks of thought to come over who may or may not be the best bet to work on behalf of our interests.

But when we do, will we be thinking of some past items of some note that are starting to come back into view?

While the current controversy swirls around the hiring decisions of Mayor Pond, two echoes from the past are starting to stir again, issues that while not directly linked to the current tempest, do have tentacles that reach towards it in the form of a common denominator.

The message boards of hackingthemainframe have once again been the equivalent of our brown envelope, providing some background to two of the more contentious news events of the last few years. And perhaps providing some incentive for our local newspapers to revisit these past controversies with a new light.

On Sunday, Janet Beil, the long time employee of the Skeena Queen Charlotte Regional District, outlined some of the behind the scenes maneuvering at the Regional District office prior to her removal from her post.
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Hers is a contribution that provides Podunkians with an inside look at the state of affairs of those tumultuous times.
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For reference, here are a few of the past items on Regional District from the Podunkian archives:
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March 28,2007

That was quickly followed shortly after on the same portal, by a review by Wilf Rimmer, of the behind the scenes moves during the purchase of Monarch Cable by CityWest. Mr. Rimmer asks many of the same questions that have been popping up around town ever since the surprise announcement that the City was going into the Cable TV business.

It was at the time a purchase that was made in a most secretive manner and to this day still causes a fair amount of talk in the community, as to whether it was a wise or unwise course of action with a city owned asset.
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The Cable TV purchase by CityWest has long been a favourite topic of this blog, with these just a few of our many entries on the CityWest file:
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Both letters frame their situations with the view that the City’s management and many of its elected politicians seemed to be rather inclined to hardball when push came to shove, as far as their wishes and ambitions for their plans were concerned.

The letters also point to a less than transparent bit of business conducted on behalf of the taxpayers, who clearly didn’t seem to have much information provided as to what the city was doing in their name and with their tax dollars in both of these cases.

The contribution of the two letter writers in both instances, will serve to remind the public that there is still a fair amount of unfinished business and questions for our public officials to be held to account on, and perhaps these two reminders will make the 2008 election campaign a very interesting experience for all.

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