LIME QUARRY: Graymont starts public hearings A5 Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Father’s Day Show and Shine held in Fort George Park A3
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www.pgfreepress.com ■ PINE VALLEY DECISION
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DELYNDA PILON newsroom@pgfreepress.com
Teresa MA LLA M/Free Press
Rebecca Saunderson performs a ballet number during Disney Mania, part of Excalibur Theatre Arts year-end recital which featured four shows and dozens of dancers on Saturday at Vanier Hall.
The Community Charter was created to balance the authority of local governments with accountability and transparency, and if council didn’t break the charter making a final decision about Pine Valley in a closed session, they at least broke the spirit of the charter, according to a former Prince George mayor. Dan Rogers was one of the people who sat at the table when the charter was being re-written. “I certainly concur with Coun. (Brian) Skakun’s assessment,” Rogers said. Skakun said last week he opposed council’s decision to move the decision over the golf course land behind closed doors, saying there was no legal basis for doing so. Rogers pointed out that, up to this point, all the discussion around the issue was done in a public forum. Then, at the 11th hour, the discussion went to a closed session of council. Why it was taken into a closed session is something most of the citizens of the city want explained, Rogers said. Mayor Shari Green, when announcing the city’s decision to not sell the property last week, said meetings during which the business of selling city real estate is discussed will remain closed to the public, “The Community Charter doesn’t say real estate matters must be closed, it leaves it up to council to decide. There is a vote before they can go into a closed session. It only goes closed when council believes to discuss it during an open session will harm municipal interests.” In this case, Rogers doesn’t understand how any new circumstances that would cause harm would be introduced now. Because it is parkland, and a 40-acre chunk of it, Rogers said it should have been discussed publicly. Plus, he said, it’s likely the parkland would have to be rezoned before a developer would have an interest in it. Potential land use changes must be discussed in public. “This is a potential land use change. I can’t see someone just buying parkland. Changing land use is something that, by requirement, must be in a public session. In 30 years I have never seen a situation like this, where a public discussion of selling off 40 acres of parkland and green space is taken into a closed session at the 11th hour, then council releases a simple statement of vote.” In a democracy, Rogers said the public has a right to know how their elected officials voted. “That lack of transparency is almost worse than selling 40 acres of parkland,” Rogers said. “Council has the authority and right to sell the land, but they can’t break their own rules along the way.” He added council needs to share the documents and information that have led them to host what he describes as a “fire sale”, then people would understand why the decision was considered. More importantly, the public had a right to know how councillors voted, he said. Rogers said the great irony is council took no steps to follow its own policies, speaking of the report required from the Golf and Curling Club before changes there were allowed.