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This is the Video of the COW meeting on Sept 10 re the discussion on the future of the LIBRARY/Civic Complex. It is 72 minutes long, so grab a beer and watch the City Council debate the merits of various future scenarios.
Please excuse the quality and the shaky Blair Witch Project style filming. It is hard to film and drink the free coffee at the same time.
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There seems to be little appetite or desire to push this project using alternate financing sources so the only way forward appears to be to await the decision of the Library Board which is meeting on Wednesday Sept. 19. If the Library decides to withdraw their taxing power to contribute at least $9 million or doesn't extend the deadline then this project is dead.
If however they agree to leave this $9 million on the table pending a ratification referendum of Vernon residents then the project to be brought forward to referendum and the timing of that referendum will become the subject of a Council decision tree planning session.
There appear to be two schools of thought amongst the Councilors; Coun. Gilroy and Nichol appear to be prepared to accept the project on the Civic Site and go to referendum in February of 2008. To the credit of council there appears to be a substantial consensus that any referendum will be both on whether the project should be built AND the financing of such a project.
The other school of thought was best expressed by Coun. Cochrane who wishes the Council to partner with the private sector to redevelop the Coldstream Hotel site with a high end residential and commercial component and include the Library, art gallery etc. as part of a private public partnership. He indicates that there have been several expressions of interests in this approach. If council chooses this direction he envisions a referendum at the next Civic election in Nov. of 2008. Coun. Beardsell's stated view of having time on Council's side and not dancing to the tune of some artificial deadline imposed by the Library board seems to indicate that he would agree to a complete do-over on the decision making on where and how the Library should be accommodated in the City's plans for either the City Hall or the Coldstream Hotel site. Coun. Cunningham appears to favour the bigger dream of the Coldstream site with its residential component being a little less upscale than Coun. Cochrane's but would accept the present Library/Civic site if only to allow the Library to get a long desired and updated user space.
Coun. Baumbrough was absent and the Mayor has not expressed his opinion in any discernible form in the public arena that I have observed.
The Council has had their knuckles rapped for using the Alternate Approval Process on a 'want' item instead of going to a referendum where they could have sold their idea to the residents who might have agreed to go ahead with this project. They have backed off on their back door financing plans and will go to a true referendum on both should the project proceed and how do we finance it. A referendum in February on this present proposal will have to overcome this initial stumble and will be a harder sell now. A referendum in Nov. of 2008 on a private public partnership for the Coldstream Hotel site (done in concert with the new OCP plan) which delivers a new Library/ Art Gallery etc. at a reduced cost to the taxpayers could pass.
Either way the people will have their say. We elect Councillors to decide and make hard and tough financial decisions on issues. Where the City has a need such as a sewer plant, roadways and infrastructures etc they should make that decision but where we have decisions about major 'want' items like the Multiplex, performing arts or parkland etc. then that decision should go the people in a referendum. The danger of trying to fast track the decision by going to a counter petition method has been shown.
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