UBID Board Passed Bylaw 277 to Borrow $3.5 Million Dollars in Secret
What is the legal status of Bylaw 277 to borrow $3.5 Million dollars on behalf of Union Bay landowners?
It was passed at a secret Committee of the Whole Meeting Mar. 22, 2019, (while Chair Haraldson canceled public meetings) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fwCIgfU8qpzBVOVGC1GYCTEhlbN7U1XI/view and never brought forward to any public meeting. It was finally posted on the UBID website June 4, 2019. No minutes of the Mar. 22, 2019 COW meeting have ever been posted.
From the BC Government website: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/local-governments/governance-powers/councils-boards/meetings/rules
Meeting Requirements
All meetings of a local government elected body must be open to the public unless authorized to be closed. This includes committees, commissions and other subsidiary bodies.
Under certain circumstances, a municipal council or regional district board may close a meeting or part of a meeting by passing a resolution that sets out the basis for closing the meeting.
Local governments may not adopt bylaws in a closed meeting. All council or board votes on the reading or adoption of a bylaw must be made in an open meeting, even if the issues that gave rise to the bylaw were discussed in a closed meeting.
The resolution required to close a meeting or part of a meeting must be passed in the open part of a meeting and the resolution must state:
- The fact that the meeting or part of the meeting is to be closed
- The basis under section 90 of the Community Charter on which the meeting or part is to be closed
When crafting the resolution, local governments will need to reference the specific wording in section 90, subsections 1 and 2 in order to explain why the meeting, or part of the meeting, is being closed.
Minutes from the 2019 Annual General Meeting contain a Q & A. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sgWwAs0GJdIwynpy9YfuAujC_FivOnZc/view On page 3 question #4 answer clearly states the Bylaw was approved at the Mar. 22, 2019 COW meeting.
The Gong Show Board and CAO (Oct. 2016 – Sept. 2020) Left UBID Short $730,000.
The Trustees received a punch in the gut today from the auditor. UBID has been borrowing from itself.
Water Treatment Plant cost over $5 Million – not $4.2 Million. https://www.mycomoxvalleynow.com/52335/new-water-treatment-plant-in-union-bay-given-green-light/
Freedom of Information request results posted on UBID’s website: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PWIII3Ri5-zJ1iSkNjkh7Le0t3IOXW2H/view There were three contracts with Koer’s Engineering. The public was never advised of the extra contracts.
Who signed off on spending over $1 Million extra dollars? Any of this come before the Board – no one seems to recall. Convenient that Trustee Haraldson was absent from the meeting today. Apparently, he will be attending the AGM to bid farewell and answer questions.
This is the section where the Trustees learn about this devastating financial news. Thankfully, Chair Munro wants to know exactly what happened.
BTW – the Water Supt at some point asked about a washroom and office for Public Works staff at the Water Treatment Plant and was advised there wasn’t money in the budget. Now it is too costly to build because of the skyrocketing building costs and with the hundreds of thousands we are in the hole, a modular costing over $125,000. will have to be purchased. How’s that for budgeting.
This is the entire meeting.
Kensington Island Properties aka Union Bay Estates Still Hasn’t Applied for Land Clearing or Turned Over Parks/Trails Land – Why is Ole Slick Stalling? It’s a Turkey!
Ole slick’s MO is to blame everyone else for the yearly delays since darkening Union Bay’s doorstep. What is it with this developer? It’s pretty clear this developer can’t be relied upon for information – it’s always the same old bullshit.
Hasn’t turned over Parks and Trails, Affordable Housing lots still not turned over (although slick can buy out that option so poor folks don’t live in/around the wealthy) and didn’t bother to submit an application to clear around the borrow pit. Look how much clearing has been done around that pit without an application.
From another individual who has been asking about KIP.
Will Take at Least 5 Months for UBID Staff to Identify Location of “B” Parcels
I made the gif above to show how long it takes to input the Roll # to determine the exact location of a property. Staff confirmed at the Mar. 18, 2021 meeting they are in possession of the Roll Number for each of the properties.
Received the response to my email Mar. 21, 2021, showing how easy it is to locate a property, advising it will be after the AGM (Apr 29, 2021) “before they are able to revisit placing the properties without proper addresses.”
The board started discussing the B parcels at the Dec. 3, 2020 COW Meeting. The problem was identifying the B parcels that had water service available and were not being billed parcel taxes like the rest of us. Since that time staff have been unable to determine the location of the properties because they don’t always have an address.
Excerpt of Dec. 3, 2020, COW meeting discussion B parcels.
Excerpt of Dec. 10, 2020, Regular Board Meeting, discussion of the B parcels. Admin thinks it’s important. Should be dealt with early in the new year. At 9:30 Deputy Administrator responds to Trustee question as to how much work would that take. At 10:30 Water Supt. states he could do 90% of the work off a map and then states he might be able to do 100% off a map.
Excerpt of Jan. 26, 2021 Strategic Planning Session. Discussion of B Parcels. Everyone agrees B Parcel matter is high priority matter.
Excerpt Feb. 4, 2021, COW Meeting B Parcels
Excerpt Feb. 4, 2021 COW Meeting B parcels and tolls owing.
Excerpt of Feb. 25, 2021, Admin has list of B parcels. This is amazing – the Acting Admin asked “Lindsay to potentially work a few extra days, if necessary, outside of her usual 3 days a week to give us some assistance to move this project along”. DAYS???
Excerpt of March 18, 2021, discussion of the B parcels. 80 properties remain unidentified.
Excerpt of March 18, 2021, my BC Assessment question and the answer.
Union Bay Improvement District Board Meeting Mar. 18, 2021
Very long meeting. Lots of information.
Rather than trying to describe what took place at the meeting, I’m posting the email I sent with followup questions from the ones I asked yesterday. Will post the response when I receive it.
These are the 2 pages of the attachment in the email.
This is another email following up on questions from the meeting yesterday. I’m not going to post the screenshots included in the email as it was just to give examples.
This is the video clip showing how to search with Roll # at BC Assessment. The property I put in was just random to show results.
