More Questions for Mayor Green
On April 30th-2012 Mayor Shari Green wrote a hand written personal note to Brian Fehr who is one of the people that has complained about the manner in which the Wood Innovation Center bidding took place.
In that letter, according to the National Post’s, Brian Hutchinson , Green writes " Brian I just wanted to send you a quick note to give you my support over the outrageous comments Pat Bell made about you when I met with him a few weeks ago in Victoria". The article continues with the Mayor’s note saying "I felt compelled to tell you because it was shocking to say the least , to have him tell me you are a drug addict and that you are dangerous" and adds " I don’t know if he thought that would intimidate me or was an attempt to sway me against you, but it failed miserably".
There are several questions that are raised as a result of this most recently released letter. One; did Mayor Green challenge Pat Bell on his alleged comments face to face, and if not why not? Why did she chose instead to take a grade three school student approach of writing to the other party, on a "he says, she says" basis?.
A further question is, at what point does a conversation between two people , in which one of the parties decides at a later date to write to the subject of the comments with their interpretation of what took place, fall into the category of "gossip"? The note indicates the meeting had taken place "a few weeks" before, why wait a "few weeks" to write a note to someone if the incident was "so outrageous"? Did the Mayor take notes during her discussion with Minister Bell?
The larger question however is this; if the Mayor feels so strongly about her relationship with Brian Fehr, how then can she, in good conscience, vote to re zone the old Haldi Lake school ( in which Fehr is a major principle) without declaring a conflict and opting out of the vote?
The letter in question, according to the Financial Post was written on April 30th-2012 . That means it falls within the time frame of the first go round of Haldi Road. In an interview with the Financial Post , Brian Fehr describes Shari Green as an "old friend" . I for one would like a definition of what constitutes a conflict in civic duties.
And further yet, if the Mayor feels that she would like to engage in this kind of conduct, then perhaps the City can release the minutes from the closed Council meeting during which Council voted to make the P.G. Hotel site as the spot where the Wood Innovation and Design Centre would be built. Who moved that the P.G. Hotel site be the place? Who seconded that motion? Time has passed , the price and all other related information has now been disclosed , the property is being transferred from the city to the province. What possible harm can come from the release of the minutes of the in camera meetings on how and why the location was selected? This information is important to the taxpayers who want to know why that exact site was chosen.
The financial Post article, also writes that Dan McLaren told them the intention was always to sell the whole block back to the City, (not just where the WIDC center is to be built) and the City would in turn, turn the whole block over to the Province. Commonwealth did in fact flip the P.G. Hotel property, making a gross profit on that deal of $750,000.00 dollars. McLaren wrote the fairness advisor , "the government has been playing dirty tricks on us. We have deal fatigue …we want out".
We have deal fatigue too, and we want all the facts put on the table to put this story to rest.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.
Comments
If anyone is curious here is the National Post story
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/03/15/brian-hutchinson-b-c-plan-to-build-iconic-wooden-office-building-turns-into-ten-storey-scandal/
Uh-Oh! Time for the …what I said is not what you think I said I heard you say I said I think you said but you heard what I said but that’s not what I said but you heard…………
Just when you think our mayor cannot get any stupider,
Dun dun dunnnnnn…..
It is a wonder the the(rigged)Bid Group of companies is still in business if this is how they operate.
âMan alive, Iâm not going to do this [prepare a bid] unless I know thereâs a good chance. It was for sure me that brought it up.â -Brian Fehr
So they only bid on a contract when they have the inside track? Can’t be bothered to put in a fair and competitive bid and win it on those terms. One of the costs of doing business for a construction company is costing out and preparing bids….win some and lose some and move on.
hmmmmmm! I smell lawyers!
I think we should be demanding the resignation of quite a few council members for this underhanded business of financing Dan Mclaren with taxpayers money. I also think McLaren and his accomplices should face our courts. If a regular guy pulled this stunt and made 750,000 from the taxpayers would there be charges somewhere? If not; I want in on the next one. What ever happened to the super hotel that Rod McLean was to build — is that still happening?
Three years can definitely feel like an eternity!
Mayor Green may as well pack her bag and baggage. By the time this case is through the court with conflict of interest charges. Did she not tell her tax paid legal council she was buddies with Fehr when she said that “My legal counsel has advised me there is no longer a conflict of Interest as Marshall Smith(employed by Fehr) is no longer employed in this city And I will participate in this Discussion”.
Mayor Green insured me her integrity was intact on this matter.
It appears not mayor green.
Canfor’s management should be wondering how BID got so much Canfor work. Maybe wining and dining the right middle management paid off. Private box at Rogers probably was a good investment. Fehr didn’t want to waste his time preparing a tender on this project- probably would be the first estimate he has had to prepare, as the rest of the work was probably handed to him as a “reward”.
Big Bore wrote: “If not; I want in on the next one.”
You sound like Brian Fehr ….. LOL.
According to IPG construction on the $40 million hotelcondo building began in the summer of 2012 and will be complete by year end…..talk about counting your chickens…
http://www.initiativespg.com/Documents/InitiativesPG_DowntownMidyearUpdate_FINAL.pdf
must be true as this is FINAL.pdf^^^^
On a side note I see that the Downtown Prospectus has had a major haircut and can no longer be called “a river runs through it”
http://www.initiativespg.com/Documents/IPG_CityCentre2013_WEB.pdf
Do see that the quote “Make No Little Plans” is still front and center. Hopefully 3.0 will have the words “realistic plans” in it somewhere:)
here’s the link to the story from the national post http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/03/15/brian-hutchinson-b-c-plan-to-build-iconic-wooden-office-building-turns-into-ten-storey-scandal/
Among other statements that raises some questions:
“The intention was always to sell the land back to the city, which was in turn meant to donate a portion to the province for WIDC.”
So who had that intention? McLaren? Who was he working with to hatch that plan? Did he discuss it with our new mayor or other members of Council?
The other statement that is interesting in the story is the next parahgraph:
“When the wood project seemed to stall, Mr. McLaren tried to cut bait and agreed to sell the land to Mr. Fehrâs bid group. But that deal wasnât consummated and Mr. McLaren was stuck holding property that heâd always intended for a âquick flip.â
So McLaren wasn’t planning to develop anything he and his group just wanted to flip property and walk away with a tidy profit? Nice.
The question is how come he got money from the public trust to finance a “quick flip.” Does everybody get a chance to access the public money at the bank of NDI or is it just for government insiders?
What is going to come of this?? Is there an investigation being conducted?? It appears the corruption knows no ends….
This gets more interesting as time goes by.. Notice the full length pic of Dan on Saturday’s Citizen?/ On front page??
I think the need for an investigation is becoming more and more obvious by the day.
I think that the investigation should start locally because this is where it started, right as City Hall – a push from at least Kinsley onwards – to use UNBC in a risky proposal for pure City self interest.
No one at the City or at the provincial level ever gave any thought that it would divide the capacity of a small university in a similar fashion that the new Bingo location divided the capacity of the Casino. With the disclosure of the over $150 million proposal that UNBC put forward for the full program with continuing annual operating costs added on top of that, they went for the full meal deal. Quite rightfully so.
With the project of the century on their brain, unintelligent ideas naturally flow. Itâs like a semi-public brainstorming session without the brains.
Why they (Province and City combined since this was a joint project) did not hire an individual/company who had experience with assembling such a project and doing a market analysis is beyond me. Perhaps that was the internal work of the various Ministries through their deputies and associates. I gather our new City Manager was not involved in those early proposals, but pushed the watered down proposal.
Right now, as an outsider looking in from the periphery, I think the whole thing is amateurish on everyoneâs part. We not only deserve better, but we are owed better representation all around. It just does not look good.
Every single project that the City has its hands in has become more and more suspect due to obvious favouritism at play and the inability to understand that whether it looks like there is a conflict or whether there is a real conflict does not matter one bit!!!
As Ben wrote, time to bring the discussions and decisions which were made in camera out into open Council.
IPG and the City need to get off their butts to provide a realistic plan for marketing Prince George with measurable objectives, people identified to take ownership and accountability (I know this may be a new concept in this town) of those objectives and promoted, demoted, or fired based on their success or failures.
You know, like a real world situation!!
This is getting messier all the time….time for a full blown inquiry into what has really been going on since the the downtown “revitalization” started. (Ben Meisner has shed a lot of light on the whole process in his 6 part Revitalization Seeds….thanks Ben.)
Who has been helping who, who has been profitting, who has been in conflict, who has been acting illegally! It’s time this all came out into the open so that taxpayers know what has been happening to their money!
What will happen to the Mayor and Councils’ decision on the OCP and rezoning of Haldi Road School owned by Wood & Fehr if indeed there has been a conflict of interest in this case?
Maybe Brian Skakun, who has been in Council’s penalty box since blowing the whistle (morally right) on the RCMP, will now get the praise he deserves for being the only councillor to oppose the Mayor and rest of council on the OCP amendment and the Haldi rezoning.
Stoltz is S Bonds constituency treasurer along with his buddy Charles Scott running S Bonds re election campaign. Mmmmm
Since Heather has assumed the helm at IPG the organization has been little more than a taxpayer funded headhunting firm for companies such as Canfor Bid, Lakeland, etc be it trips to Ireland or the one in early April to Toronto.
Good place for the new city manager to start and look under the hood of this supposed business development arm of the city. I think she will find it is firing on only one or two cylinders:)
A most interesting situation. Is this “nickel and dime” stuff compared to the goings on in Quebec? “The game is afoot, Dr. Watson”. An ongoing adventure of “tomfoolery” IMO. (look it up)
Red2b, I don’t personally know how much work BID does for Canfor, but I do know that until recently Mayor Greens’ husband was in upper management at Northwood ;)
It makes me sick to think how Pat Bell came by this interesting piece of gossip. Drug addict, yeah right. Brian is a successful businessman. You don’t get there by playing with drugs.
Wow, just when I thought that Rob Ford was the most embarrassing figure that one could find in municipal politics, along comes this crowd. The one difference is that Rob Ford still has some supporters, LOL.
“It makes me sick to think how Pat Bell came by this interesting piece of gossip. Drug addict, yeah right.”
For what it’s worth, the National Post article above did mention that Mr. Fehr had a history of addiction and he spent some time on Vancouver’s skid row, but has been clean for ’16 years’.
Haldi Road and Mayor Green has got conflict of interest written all over it. Marshall Smith campaigned for Green, raised election funds and he is one of the main players behind the recovery centre on Haldi. And he is a self proclaimed drug addict and has told his story to the Vancover Province so it is not gossip. Perhaps in her two weeks of recollection Mayor Green forgot it was Marshall Smith that Bell was referring to and not Fehr. Maybe not. And to find out now that Smith worked for Fehr !!!! “tell me who your friends are, and I will know who you are” How do you spell fraud ?
If you want to see a pic of mayor green.. Just look up Conflict of Interest in the dictionary.
It’s “lady” is a piece of work.. Say goodnight lady
Rob Ford got Toronto out of the red but doing so shook up the establishment which is a no no thus all the bad press over nothing.
Dan on the front page of the citizen, that rag of unbiased reporting. Almost seems they are making him out the victim.
They can commit all the fraud they want and they will still get re-elected in PG. The voters here seem to vote for who ever has the campaign finances to put up lots of glossy signs and fancy campaign commercials. With connections the likes of the scandals we are seeing its no wonder they can afford the ‘rich’ election campaign programs.
Brian for Mayor!
Mayor Green was clearly in a position of ‘conflict of interest’ on the Haldi Road issue and she should have stepped away from controlling the public hearing and voting at third reading on the matter…..maybe the rest of council will come to their senses and resind the OCP amendment at 4th and final reading.
The city has turned into a fiefdom functioning outside the domain of Law and Justice.
When will we ever get people that want to help society rather than help themselves.
“Chief Green”?
Of Prince Geowapiskat, BC ?
…Geocrappyroadsandair, B.C.
Pitchforks and torches on standby!
Where was Mayor Green on Moday, March 18 – not at Council Meeting – stress related perhaps? Something about a personal handwritten note? Oh well, perhaps on Spring Break.
It’s well known in the industry that Fehr is an ex crackie. To his credit he kicked the habit. Apparently.
However he did try to create a backroom deal to get around the tendering process with the WIDC.
When he didn’t get the deal he thought he had, he squealed to the media. So that really speaks to his integrity
Also Bid is tied at the hip with Canfor…..so what was the deal when Bid “acquired” the Rustad site
Who in Canfor is benefitting from a close relationship with Bid?
So many questions………
I for one would like a definition of what constitutes a conflict in civic duties.
———————————————
This is the BIG question! I too would like an
answer to this.
Mon Dec.17,2012 Regular Council Minutes
APPLICANT: L&M Engineering Ltd. for 0911408 B.C. Ltd.
LOCATION: 5877 Leslie Road
Her Worship Mayor Green advised that when this applicant came forward in the
past, she did declare a perceived conflict of interest due to a personal connection
she had to an employee of the applicant. She advised that employment relationship
no longer exists, and in order to undeclare her conflict and be able to participate
this evening and in the future, she was required to seek legal advice, which she has
done. Her Worship Mayor Green indicated she is no longer in a conflict of interest
and that she would be participating in the consideration of the matter.
Looks like the good Mayor also had a personal connection with the applicant!
Was there a conflict – let her tell us.
One might say this involved only one person on Council – is there a chance there would be more?
And if there were some visits ‘by the water cooler’, were there some exchanges of ideas, perhaps some gentle suggestions?
Discussions can always happen, and so they should. But if one, particularly the team leader contaminates the process and presses for a favorable outcome, all the while being very friendly with the proponent (as is clear by the introduction to this article) can that be seen as a conflict of interest? The Court of Opinion may say so, but perhaps we need an opinion from a ‘higher authority’.
Of course, I am referring to the Haldi issue.
The smaller the town, the more likely there is to be a conflict of interest with respect to the influence of powerful citizens and civic accountability, authority and power.
nuffsnuff: “One might say this involved only one person on Council – is there a chance there would be more?”
Of course there is more. Maybe it should be brought forward again of who received what for campaign contributions from the two owners of the property in the Haldi fiasco – Brian Fehr (and entities) and Craig Woods.
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