Grants Report vs Advertisments. You be the judge and then Let's Move On !

By request are the three items that have stirred up the controversy between the Mayor and the Vernon and Districts Taxpayer Association. The Grants report is the report produced for the first time at the last COW meeting in the morning (and hopefully will be updated and published quarterly in the future for the benefit of Council and taxpayers). The cost of the Civic Complex is a compilation of the numbers from a report by the CFO at last council meeting that was buried at the back of the agenda according to Rolke of the Morning Star. Nevertheless it drew no comment from the Council at that meeting. The last image is a copy of the advertisement in the local paper in January 08 (duplicated in the pamphlet that was handed out and mailed in our utility bill) describing 'How much money has been raised through Grants?'
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If you click on the image you can a better look at the long overdue Grants Report that has stirred up the questions about the advertising about grants that were part of the PR about the Civic Complex during the January 2008 Referendum.

• There are 2 $1 million applications for the library from the'MRIF' program applied for on 'Jan 31/07'
  
• Clearly in the 'Application Status' column is the word 'declined'
  
• Clearly in the 'Notified' column is the date 'Dec. 18/07'
• There is a grant for $650,000 applied for on 'Feb.16/07' through the BC150 program for 'Civic Complex Landscaping Project'. in the 'Application Status' column is the word 'Canceled' but there there is 'NO' date in the notified Column.

In a article of April 22 Tyler Olsen of the Morning Star received answers from the Mayor in an article called Association claims shot down by city.
Salient excepts from the article:

• The Vernon Taxpayers Association has alleged that the city knew that it would not get three major grants for the civic complex but continued to lead residents to believe that alternate funding was being pursued in January.
• “It’s not true at all. They don’t understand the process,” said Mayor Wayne Lippert.
• But Lippert says that even if the grants were denied, they were for 2007, and any referendum advertising referring to the search for funds would have been for 2008. “We are always looking for grants. It’s an annual thing,”
• Lippert isn’t surprised that the two grants, worth $1 million each, were refused.“The grants were turned down because of the successful grant for Duteau Creek (water upgrades). There is only money in grants available and the government looks to see what each area gets,” he said.

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Don Quixote Comment: Now I have posted many times during the referendum and counter petition portion of this ill advised saga on the inadequacies, superficiality and self serving public relations that were used in the advertising campaign. They spent over $5,000 on the first in advertising and PR and got rejected by over 6000 angry petitioners and then proceeded to spend over $27,000 only to be rejected by 71% of the weary and shell shocked 5603 people who bothered to vote in the Referendum in January.

This tempest in a teapot about the Grants and who knew what and when is just the last of a series of gaffes that were perpetuated on a citizenry that were promised open and transparent government. The seeds for the overwhelming defeat at the referendum were laid when the Mayor and some Council members told the public 'We will built it regardless of how many petition against it, the taxpayer is just allowed to decide on how this project will be financed'.

The proponents stressed the amount of money that the Library was putting up (actually the ability to tax people in the future) and what would be lost of the referendum failed. They didn't overtly stress these Grants but the subtle hint that they were available was implicit in their PR Campaign.

I will continue to post the going ons of this never ending saga for the historical record. However it is time for both sides to cooperate in a better use of their talents. The Taxpayer's Association is acting as the clearing agent doing most of the legwork for the Hospital Petition. Perhaps the City of Vernon can make the petition available at City Hall and set aside a small budget (perhaps from the Mayor's discretionary Fund) to help defray the expenses of this group? An ad in the local papers that I'm sure could be obtained at a cut rate expressing the full support of the City Council would be a good PR gesture also.