Month: April 2021
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.
