'Watch dog' tells how city lost millions

Monday, October 31. 2005
http://vernon.kelownadailycourier.ca/archive/2005/10/28/stories/585_full.php4?latest_date=2005/10/28
Coun. Barry Beardsell took the brunt of the criticism at Wednesday night's all-candidates election forum as he defended his self-proclaimed role as the city's "watch dog." Visibly upset, Beardsell went on the offensive and charged that the city lost about $3 million in recent development boondoggles. "I am the watch dog, I was the watch dog and I want to continue to do that," said Beardsell to a crowd of about 300 gathered at the Schubert Centre, It's not often a chartered accountant is a member of council, he added. He was asked by an audience member where he had been when former mayor Sean Harvey had been misusing his expense account.Beardsell said he had been the councillor who questioned in March why Harvey's expense account was $8,000 over budget. It took staff two months to come forward with the information after the story broke of Harvey's misuses, which Beardsell said could be due to the staff being intimidated."There is a record of me asking that question," said Beardsell.But if Beardsell asked the question in March, how was it he was quoted as saying "I'm shocked" when news of Harvey's misspending broke, asked another audience member.The councillor argued though there was an overrun, it still wasn't known why.Beardsell proposed the whistle-blower policy recently adopted by the city so there is a process in place where staff can report anything they have a problem with without feeling intimated.Some of Beardsell's competitors in the election race came to his defense, saying he wasn't the only member of council that was part of the finance committee. What the public doesn't hear about is the other dollars wasted on projects like the Anderson subdivision. Millions of dollars were lost on that project, he said."The public hasn't picked up on that because the media hasn't told them," said Beardsell. Beardsell later explained the city used its borrowing powers on a dozen land owners of the Anderson subdivision in order to assist them with providing infrastructure for commercial developments. The city is to be repaid over 15 to 20 years; only some owners balked at the infrastructure costs and a legal fight broke out, he said. To break the impasses the city used $1 million of taxpayer money for further assistance in providing infrastructure. Beardsell said the city shouldn’t be providing financial assistance now that the property is worth about $17 million, a major increase in value.He also said that in December 2004 council voted to increase development cost charges (DCCs) when former mayor Sean Harvey was absent. Coun. David O’Keefe a long-time opponent of such increases voted against the proposal, Beardsell said.At the next meeting Harvey was present and put through an amendment to defer the increases for 2 1/2 months. Beardsell said that he and Coun. Jim MacGillivray were the only ones to oppose Harvey’s change.The 26 developers got new DCCs at the “bargain basement” rate, saving them $2.3 million and costing revenue of that amount for the city development reserve fund.