Even Council Members Were Not Aware Fireman Had Been Suspended
Councillor Frank Everitt said the first time that he was made aware of the arrests came in the form of a statement he received from City Hall – the same statement issued by the City in response to an inquiry from 250news on May 18th. Everitt says, "I noticed your newsroom had called and then saw the release, I had been completely in the dark."
Councillors Garth Frizzell, Lyn Hall, Murry Krause, and Brian Skakun all said they had not been informed of what had happened.
The news release also was vague;
“The City is aware of the ongoing RCMP investigation. Upon learning of that investigation, the City took immediate steps to ensure that public trust was not compromised. While we are unable to comment on individual circumstances due to privacy laws, we can confirm that the City is conducting its own independent investigation. As part of that process, it has suspended one individual without pay, pending completion of its investigation. The City has and will continue to take steps to protect the public interest.”
The issue received national attention but the fact that Prince George firefighter were allegedly involved was not known to at least five of the councillors until media began to report on the matter.
Comments
Not only does Ms Green not talk to Opinion 250, it looks like she doesn’t talk to anyone. But then again maybe it’s a good thing not to tell Skakun.
I wonder if the new city manager was informed?
This council is out of touch and dysfunctional, it’s no wonder we have to dodge foot deep potholes to work every morning. What did we elect them for?
Stolz would rather walk over to the PAC and finance our city to death than fix the roads. Who wants to make a bet that after the 2015 Olympics, Stolz will try to convince council to use the extra tax levy we pay now for the 2015 Olympics go into financing the PAC? The extra tax was to be dropped after the 2015 Olympics.
None the less this council is dysfunctional. I think Mayor Green shows a lack of leadership and runs this city the way she seeâs fit and to hell with the rest of us. We are after all just a bunch of dummies whom this council needs at election time only.
The answer Cheetos is a PAC and a women’s recovery Center.
Posted by: NoWay on May 24 2013 7:01 AM
The answer Cheetos is a PAC and a women’s recovery Center.
—–
And expensive lawyers to cover city council in poor decision making.
I would rather drive, or ride my motorcycle on the old Rt 66 before they started to fix it up, cause PG roads are crap, and if they won’t spend the tax $ to fix them. Get ride of this mayor, and council by using your power of the vote!!!
Quit complaining, and do it at the next election! It’s legal, they’re not a dictatorship government!
What????? Super Skakun was clueless to this, omg what are his sheep going to do now..lol
Frank didn’t know until he got a memo, eh? This guy don’t get out much, methinks.
“immediate steps to ensure that public trust was not compromised.”
Typical mealy mouthed bureaucratic hot air statement, intended to soothe the great unwashed masses.
News flash City Hall: public trust was already compromised if and when the firefighters involved decided to enter into criminal activity.
And any persons who got a ‘smokin’ deal on a new to them material possession are culpable as well. Those “fell off the back of a truck” deals should automatically raise suspicions in all but the most stupid of potential purchasers. Prosecute those who buy the hot stuff and maybe there will not be as many greedy persons lined up to buy the proceeds of crime.
metalman.
Seems to me you have to prove that you didn’t know the goods you bought were stolen. Kind of a giant leap, eh?
As much as I don’t like Ms. Green, I don’t think she would be the one to put the hush-hush on this information. Just my thoughts, but I would think the order to not say anything would come from within the firehall itself, or management, not our elected officials.
I also have to comment on the complaints about the roads. I too complain about them so this comment is to remind me too. Sometimes we need to put our problems into perspective and when you compare pothole problems in our fair city to some of the stuff that people around the world have to put up with (e.g. war, poverty, disease, etc.) it makes me think I should spend more time being happy about what I have.
Some streets are way too narrow, have no sidewalks in spite of being a bus route, have sharp curves in them and are a safety hazard, especially when people are swerving all over the road trying to avoid the huge pothole which have been patched over and over.
Disregarding the damage that can occur to a vehicle there is still the safety issue when children are walking to school and when pedestrians with small children and a stroller are trying to use the same street when a car is parked, or the bus is coming or the garbage pickup and so forth.
I am specifically referring to cratered Croft Road which is a bad safety hazard.
The City really does not have enough money to look after its infrastructure, and other costs. To much money spent on various projects, and to much debt.
They should be seriously considering downsizing to a more manageable size and population so that they can function correctly. I am sure a number of areas would be more than happy to go back to the Regional District.
Fact of the matter is they never wanted to be part of the City in the first place.
It is unbelievable that the employer of these two employees, who are alleged to have undertaken criminal activities, were not made aware of the situation!
If it is found that any of these employee’s crimes took place while they were on the job, that opens the City up to potential litigation.
That members of council would not be briefed, and were unaware of this serious situation, is… unbelievable!!!
Palopu: “They should be seriously considering downsizing to a more manageable size and population so that they can function correctly. I am sure a number of areas would be more than happy to go back to the Regional District.”
That would make no difference whatsoever. You’re just moving (insufficient) tax dollars from one level of government to another. The infrastructure still needs to be maintained, whether it’s municipal or regional.
Moreover, if these two employee had the lack of ethics and morales to steal from other people, what is the likelihood they would steal from their employer as well?
That City Council (the employer) would not be made aware of this situation is unbelievable!!!
It is a very sad state at City Hall with the total lack of transparencies. It only seems to be getting worse. What is happening to what use to be a wonderful city?
Folks you can either be a part of the problem and let it keep getting worse or be a part of the solution and try to fix things. Baby steps will get this fine community back to what it was.
Have a great and safe weekend.
So … were these guys casing houses and
businesses on routine fire inspections?
This case has a lot questions, and staying silent is not the way to deal with it.
City Hall, city employees (and the unions representing the workers) must never forget that they work for the taxpayer. Employees are supposed to report to their employers are they not?
“City Hall, city employees (and the unions representing the workers) must never forget that they work for the taxpayer. Employees are supposed to report to their employers are they not?”
Not sure what world you live in but there has been no accountability from those who are sucking on the taxpayers teat for ages.
OMG….So what?? This is a matter between the RCMP, the accused, and the head of the fire department.
We are not talking about people in government,religion,or child care.Firefighters are just employees working for an employer,trained to do there jobs like every other ordinary Joe.
Why has this remained the headline on this site for such an abnormally long time???
Just because there is a feud ( real or implied) between OP250 and Shari Green, this really is not that big of deal!!!
This kinda crap happens all the time!
fuceneh: “We are not talking about people in government”
It seems that a lot of people really do not understand who is government and who is not.
This is not a volunteer fire DEPARTMENT. These people get paid by the City of Prince George. The DEPARTMENT is a department of the City’s administration which is headed by the City Manager who takes direction from the City Council that is headed by the Mayor. Those 9 people are elected by us and the whole organization is paid for through our taxes and is responsible to the citizens of this community.
Now, what is it hat you were talking about? You might want to review your mindset based on erroneous assumptions.
“Why has this remained the headline on this site for such an abnormally long time???”
Perhaps it has somethig to do with the reporters on this site knowing how municipal governemnt is supposed to work.
If these individuals worked in the roads department would this even make headlines???
Firefighters are not government..give your head a shake.
Whatever you say …. fucen eh …… urban Canuck dictionary …. ;-)
So it seems that there is a lot more going on between the City Manager and department heads than we realise. I just wonder how much other stuff is covered up or glossed over or not worthy of mention?
Seems like nothing was mentioned to anyone until the story broke.
Keep digging, Opinion250, let’s see what else you can find out about ‘other’ things too. Looks like you’re the only ones doing the job!
Since no one is interested in switching to a ward/district system to make Councillors more accountable, I think one of the ways to improve transparency at City Hall would be to give each Councillor deparmental portfolios to monitor and report on. They should each be sitting as chair of at least one committee to cover the whole operation side of City Hall.
Many First Nations use the portfolio system for Operations governance. The Chief usually sits on the independent Economic Development Corporation Board as Chair. The elected Band Councillors are assigned their own department portfolio’s.
Most all school districts have their elected trustees assigned to specific departments or combined service committees. These trustees are expected to chair those committee meetings.
I have reviewed the City’s committees, and most of them maker no sense what-so-ever. Virtually none of them, except the few standing committees, have anything to do with service delivery to the city taxpayers.
http://www.princegeorge.ca/cityhall/committees/Pages/Default.asp
IMHO city hall needs restructuring and committees reassigned, examples could be: Police and Fire Protection Services Committee; Roads, Infrastructure, and Capital Works Committee; Parks, Recreation and Green Space Committee, etc.
I think the business committee could disbanded with more authority being transferred to the Chamber of Commerce, Initiatives Prince George, etc. (with council oversight)
In the past, I have provided restructuring advice to struggling businesses and NPO’s. Believe me, City Hall needs complete restructuring,
Ha, ha.. the files have now been blocked by City Hall’s site administrator. Wow, it’s just a list of city committees, what’s going here? Could someone let me know if they can get to the city committee’s list please?
Gus if they don’t want a ward system at the very least they should give each Councillor a portion of the City to be responsible for.
Ie; Hart Highway, 16 West, Blackburn, City Center, North Nechako, Foothills, West of Bypass, or some such.
This way they might take a bigger interest in whats happening in the City.
Just saying.
JohnnyBelt.
This Cities land mass is the third largest in the Province. The City is basically a 10 Mile radius from the center.
Had the population increased as the pundits thought to 200,000 people they might be able to look after the infrastructure in the area. As it now stands 75000 population has to pay for the infrastructure, and operation costs of this huge area.
The outlying areas have very few people to contribute to this cost, so the majority of the cost is picked up by those people who live within the bowl, central, and college heights area.
Problem is those people in the outlying areas are not well served by this situation and get very little service from the City.
If they were in the Regional District some of these costs would be picked up by the Province who in actual fact should be responsible .
It was the downloading of these area’s on the City (amalgamation) in the 70’s that caused this problem. What it did was seriously reduce the cost to the Province and hugely increased the cost to taxpayers in Prince George.
Amalgamation for Prince George was, and is a dismal failure. However in this burg, no one recognizes failure, and instead touts all failure’s as an absolute success.
Enjoy the rest of your evening.
I’m not a mayor green fan, nor am I a City of Prince George fan, but enough is enough Ben. This is getting old, and your repeated attacks on city administration is effecting your credibility! Let it go!
In the 70s Prince George was supposed to have a larger population than Victoria. We were supposed to be the second largest city in BC in the 80s but as it stands we are 9th. Nanaimo has a higher population with less than a third of our land base.
In the 2011 census there were 49 incorporated municipalities and PG had 8.7% of the total land base and 2.5% of the population base
I wonder how long that name will last…….fuceneh?
Firemen don’t steal all the time , as a matter of fact most people don’t steal. Only slime balls steal! So when the so called heros of society steal, it is a big deal!
Well said NoWay, a lot of kids grow up wanting to be firemen, in their young eyes, firemen are heroes! They still are heroes, except for these two yahoo’s!
Firemen are people too and can be influenced by money — I mean our Senators are getting away with it — why not firemen. Come to think about it, a cop could easily do this sort of thing. Government officials have been doing it ever since we had a government so don’t act so surprised. Greed does strange things to people and we are all people.
People murder too Big Bore and rape and all kinds of other nasty things. So I guess that is okay too. I mean we are just people and we do strange things. I like money too Big Bore but I don’t steal! I have a brain that tells me that it is wrong. People that do this are weak and have no respect for others and their property. What’s next? Their mommies didn’t buy them enough toys when they were little?
Sorry, I was greedy that day! Sorry for what? Getting caught?
Again, Palopu, you are living in the past.
You seem to be an expert and have an answer for almost everything. It is amazing that you don’t run for some political office. Surely, you would be a hit! ;-)
JohnnyBelt. Most of the mistakes were made in the past, and we have to deal with them to-day.
To many politicians and City administrators acting like Diamond Jim Brady, or T Boone Pickens, and throwing money around like it was their own.
I suspect if I ran for political office (which I wont) I would be somewhat of a hit.
If you ran JohnnyBelt, would you be a hit???
I am far too honest for politics. People don’t want the truth to be told to them. I suspect you would be somewhat the same.
Believe it or not, I share many of your views on how badly our tax dollars are managed. If I made everyone live within their means, there would probably be a riot.
Palopu wrote: “This Cities land mass is the third largest in the Province. The City is basically a 10 Mile radius from the center.”
As they say, it is not the size that matters, it is what you do with it.
Our Councils over several decades have had a policy of densification around which the OCP was created. As we know, the OCP for them is a âguidelineâ. Their interpretation of a guideline is that if someone want to put $5million into the pockets of this city and they want to do it at the rim of the city rather than the hub of the city, then they get their wish.
Since Council has never directed planning to come up with the cost of servicing one as compared to the other, no one even has a measure by which one development and its life cycle cost to the city can be compared to another. No developer has ever had to present such a development impact evaluation. After all, we all know that developers tell us we have the toughest regulations ⦠NOT!!!
Here is a list of a few cities in our population size range. The first number is the are in km2, the second the census population in 2011, and the third is the density of people per km2. We are not unusual in city area. In fact, I did not put Sudbury on the list because they just grew their city to over 1,000 km2 to take in some of the industrial sites which is the primary reason PG grew when the mills were built.
North Bay31953,651168
Prince George31871,030223
Thunder Bay448108,359242
Kamloops29985,678286
Chilliwack26277,936298
Sault Ste. Marie22375,142337
Abbotsford376133,497355
Here is a site from North Bay with a report from 2012 budget deliberations. Some notes of interest from that:
1.They have a new Ratepayersâ Association
2.They capture methane from their dump and receive an income from it. Donât; know how much they would have had to invest in it. Likely considerable funding from the Feds.
BTW, since someone mentioned that PG was once bigger than Victoria, which it was when it took in CH, The City is only 19km2 in area with a population of 80,032 in 2011 for a density of 4,111 people/km2
That is an anomaly since has not evolved into a metro government yet as most cities do eventually in order to save administrative costs.
Oops, here is that North BAy ite link
http://www.nugget.ca/2012/11/27/city-talks-budget
I get a kick out of the comments on there. If 250NEWS readers and blogger would move to North Bay, they would be right at home …. ;-)
Theft ring? Hahaha man cops are DUMBBBBB in this town. Truth will come out soon enough …people seriously.. don’t believe everything you read. The amount of CRAP investigation from ‘news givers’ on this story is pathetic . Every story I’ve read on this site about this topic has so many holes in it and non truths. Where the f are you getting your facts for your story. Rumor mill? ?? Seriously tho. Don’t worry conconcerned citizens.. firefighters of pg are all stand up guys in the community! And do THIER JOB WELL. Some police on the otherhand. ….
Comments for this article are closed.