Along the Fraser When the Pitt ditch cells are all full. p6
Environment
Hydro slash piles an increasing forest fire hazard. p4
THE NEws
Gardening Decoding the English cottage garden. p33
www.mapleridgenews.com Friday, July 19, 2013 · serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · Delivery: 604-466-6397
Bing blasted for staying on council Residents want a ‘full-time’ city councillor by M on i sh a M ar ti n s staff reporter
Colleen Flanagan/tHe News
Holding on
The new member of the legislature was chastised by the public at a council meeting Tuesday for holding onto his job as a councillor for the city of Pitt Meadows. Bing As cameras rolled, two residents took the opportunity during question period to criticize Dr. Doug Bing, saying voters did not elect a councillor to sit part-time. Instead of resigning and triggering a by-election, Bing will stay on city council until the start of 2014. see Bing, p13
Raileen Hazelton holds three-year-old Olivia at the Maple Ridge SPCA branch, which is introducing a low-cost spay and neuter program. see story, p11
Citizen seeks unedited video Nicole Read files freedom of information request by Ne i l Co r b e t t staff reporter
Parks: Man rescued after slipping
at Cliff Falls; girl hit by falling tree. see story, p8
A citizen has made a formal Freedom of Information (FOI) request at Maple Ridge district hall, asking for the complete, unedited video of the council meeting that the district says contains defamatory comments. Nicole Read wants access to the June 17 committee of the whole
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video. She also wants to see any paper trail that led to the video being removed from the municipal website, and has also asked for any correspondence, reports or emails that demonstrate the reason and decision to deny public access to the full video. Coun. Corisa Bell questioned the district budget at that meeting. The video of that meeting was first removed from the website, reviewed by district lawyers, then edited and re-posted several weeks later. Read specifically asked for any document that is or mentions a
formal defamation complaint resulting for Bell’s statements or discussion. Read, who allows that she has developed a trust of Bell and believes “her heart is Bell in the right place,” said the present situation casts the councillor in a poor light because the public is left wondering if she has done something
wrong. Read said in her letter to council: “Related or not, this transpired mere days after Coun. Corisa Bell filed a formal complaint regarding comments made to her by Chief Administrative Officer Jim Rule, following which Coun. Bell requested that the mayor suspend Rule.” Read later said that she made the FOI request because of the public’s interest in government transparency. “The timeline of events makes me uncomfortable,” she said. see Video, p5
Index Opinion Along the Fraser/Health Care As we Age Home&gardening Acts of Faith/Cycling Community Calendar scoreboard
6 6 22 23 24 33 56
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