By the start of 2010, the City of Prince George had made a commitment to purchase the Prince George Hotel, however, there was no decision, at least not on the part of the City, of what would become of the   8 lots once the hotel was demolished.   Although there was strong pressure to dedicate the site for the much promised Wood Innovation and Design Centre,   in early 2010 that project had not yet been approved by Treasury Board. The scope of the project had not been defined,  and the City owned plenty of sites in the core which may be more suitable depending on the plans for the building. For instance, the City owned the   site which was the former home of CKPG , as well as owning the site that was once the home of  Norgate Autobody.

 

The Downtown Business Improvement Association is a not for profit society and according to a staff report to Council, “the funds and property of  a society must be used and dealt with only for its purposes and in accordance with its bylaws”   While the DBIA may raise funds from sources other than the tax levy, the staff report says “Council has a role as the overseer of money received by the DBIA under the DBIA bylaw”. That bylaw created the special levy which is applied to 486 properties within the designated area. 

 

In 2010, the levy was estimated to create about $200 thousand dollars.

 

What can the money be used for?   Under section 215 of the Community Charter, all money granted to the DBIA   “must be used for a business promotion scheme as defined by the DBIA Bylaw:

a) carrying out studies or making reports respecting an area within the Downtown Business Improvement Are

b)improvement beautification or maintenance of streets, sidewalks, or municipally owned land buildings or structures in the Downtown Business Improvement Area

c)the conservation of heritage property in the Downtown Business Improvement Area

d)the encouragement of business in the Downtown Business Improvement Area.

 

As was noted in Part 4 of the series, there was a major changing of the guard at the Downtown Business Improvement Association in the Spring of 2010.   Of the 12 members elected to the new Board of Directors at the end of March , 5 held directorship with Commonwealth companies.

 

The new group   held an event in May which it referred to as the “Let’s Get Started” follow up event.   Former Premier Mike Harcourt  was invited to return to Prince George to gauge the progress that had been made since the initial “Let’s Get Started” event of September of 2008.

 

The workshop in May brought together some key stakeholders in the community who would be shown images of a variety of venues in the downtown of Prince George, in some cases the images were ( as reported in part 4) strikingly similar to the images created for, and circulated by the Commonwealth Group of companies in its pitch for a New Downtown.

 

Although the previous DBIA had a budget for 2010 that had been presented to, and approved, by Prince George City Council , the new group would seek changes.

 

In July of 2010, the DBIA appeared before City Council to present a revised budget even though significant expenditures had already occurred which were not provided for in the original spending plan. The significant expenditures included a budgeted amount of $25 thousand dollars for the “Let’s Get Started” follow up event. 

 

Before Council would approve the revised spending plan, it called for all the invoices and receipts from the May workshop to be produced. The DBIA presented a cost of just over $19,000 for the event.

 

It wasn’t until months later, when a special financial review committee (selected and approved by the DBIA membership)  found an invoice for $9,450.00 payable to Versa Designs that it was determined that although listed as costing $19,000, the Let’s Get Started event had cost $28,000.00 dollars. The invoice, issued on May 31^st-2010 was from Versa Design for three drawings, similar to those that had been used in the original proposals put forward by Commonwealth in 2009.

 

The invoice was paid by DBIA cheque under the signatures of DBIA President Hugh Nicholson and Treasurer Dan McLaren. 

 

 

In spite of the fact that the invoice had never been approved by Council as part of the overall budget, no one at the City has raised the matter. 

 

 

The information on the expenditures of the DBIA only came after the DBIA sought a letter of opinion from a Vancouver lawyer as to whether the membership had the authority to ask for anything more than the financial statement from the DBIA. The DBIA, under Nicholson had been blocking an attempt by the audit committee to look at the books. The lawyer in question replied to Carla Johnston, the newly elected President of the DBIA and the Vice President Hugh Nicholson, that indeed the membership had the authority under the Act to access all documents of the DBIA.

 

In early 2011, concerned with the manner in which the DBIA was being operated, a group gathered at the annual meeting with a view to changing the direction of the DBIA. Before the vote, saying they didn’t feel there was positive energy from the DBIA membership, President Gordon Langer, Directors Heather Oland, Adele Yakemchuck, and Mary Jane Hannah either resigned or did not stand for re- election. No one from the old Board, including former treasurer Dan McLaren, was re-elected.

 

The issue of why the $9,450.00 expenditure  to Versa Design was not reported to Council when Council specifically asked for all receipts from the Let’s Get Started follow up event , or why the matter has not been followed up since its discovery, is not known.

 

And what of the  Wood Innovation and Design Centre, the seed that seemed to have sparked the revitalization plan? At this point, it still had not been approved by the Treasury Board, and it would be six more months before the Premier would announce the site for the project.

 

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Final instalment:   So many questions left unanswered, will be posted on Friday, Jan 18^th.

 

**Editor’s note; because of the sensitive nature of this series , there will be no comments.