Below find material originally meant for the Committee of the Whole (COW), 21 Dec, 2015, within the single-public-presentation allowed 5 minutes per month tops. 15 minutes altogether for the Whole.
With clarifying bits added and followed by an addendum here - in excess of said 5 minutes.
He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
Thomas Paine
COW:
City Staff states in the Nelson Star, 19 Nov, 2015: ... a design for a market can be completed that does not impact the larger Railtown revitalization planning work'.
This - although a preliminary plan for the Cottonwood Market (CM) has already been in the making for some time, while the lengthy planning-process for Railtown - led by a different consultant - won't even incrementally start before somewhere in Jan. 2016. The proverbial cart before the horse. Unless it isn't nudge-nudge!
Having to complete the development-plan as a whole by Sep. 2016 to make it eligible for government funds has it ripe for a predetermined rush-job: CPR Station and CM, with lesser fillers in between.
Started in January maybe by a by-invitation group of nameless stakeholders only - at the exclusion of the public, even though public input had previously been promised for Nov. 2015. Such input naturally having to be the foundation for a neighborhood - but! One thing the public has been "invited" to: pre-plan funding for David Reid's Taj Mahal has - thanks to Kevin Cormack, City Manager - come from the public's pockets.
A Request for Decision, 16 Nov, 2015, Topic: Cottonwood Market Redesign is inexcusably dealt with as a Late Item - thus missing from the same-date COW's very light Agenda - and left unannounced as such at the beginning - the usual procedure. Meaning - a possibly concerned public is strategically absented - while the Request states there will be an opportunity for the public to participate in the design process as well as the Railtown sustainable neighborhood plan. The very deliberately very late very unpublic way the topic is introduced in this COW alone seems to indicate the opposite.
The Star states: It was reported at Council a local business intends to contribute significantly to building the new structures, but no other details were given. And not demanded by Council!
This contributor is also mentioned vaguely twice in the Request - once as a partner. But not whose partner and partner in what and how. Neither giving the name of this so-called partner nor his clear intention with what kind of contribution is an inappropriate - anecdotal since without documentation (here we go again: shades of the Panhandling Bylaw Request!) - addition to/omission in the official Request for Decision.
This is particularly disturbing as Cormack and at least Reid clearly have a close relationship with this partner-in-City-Hall-affairs.
One may connect the very large dots through the same Star with: Councillor Robin Cherbo asked if the new structures could be made of wood. Cormack responded that would be an option and that the unnamed business that has stepped forward "deals in wood".
Mr. X - as such accepted by Council - thanks to Cormack could be cozily positioned for major hush-hush involvement in material-supply and whatever here and why not the Railtown development as well. Surely - as one of the by-invitation-only insiders.
Nelsonites are left mis/uninformed. With inconsistencies piling up: the whole process - barely begun - already is becoming less and less fathomable.
Why indeed! Cormack's response is not to the Councillor's point.
I urge Mayor Kozak and Council to decisively here/now embrace the electorate - more and more marginalized in favor of business-interests - by officially making the name and business of this partner and his involvement as well as a complete list of the by-invitation group of stakeholders available for publication in the news-media. Plus facilitate a town-hall meeting in January for public input on Railtown and the Cottonwood Market.
Addendum:
I would have presented the preceding material-in-total in the COW, 21 Dec, 2015, if this COW hadn't been cancelled just like that. Without the general public notified through the various means available to City Staff - except on the City's Facebook thingie: now Staff's one-size-fits-all convenience into outside-reality.
As for future COWs: When accessing the month-by-month Meeting Calendar for 2016 in the usual spot on the City's home-page: while COWs are listed - their now alternating times - 13:00/19:00 - are not. Neither are times for any other meetings.
There was talk of relationships coming from candidates during the last municipal election. A year later - there has been little relationship-building with the general electorate. Too busy with stuff.
If not now - when?
In a small yet significantly thoughtful gesture: Councillor Morrison is the only one on Council providing her email address for public input at the bottom of her Star COLUMN.
The above COW-material went to Mayor Kozak & Council by email - in time for the Regular Meeting of the Minds, 4 Jan, 2016. Seeing that the success or an unfixably locked-in failure of Railtown will determine this administration's legacy.
So - come on already, Council!
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