Citizen reminds council it isn’t delivering; Mayor takes exception to the comments.

By Pepper Parr

April 9, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

While not yet a candidate Bell Line resident Vanessa Warren let fly at a city council meeting Monday night.

She delegated to talk about the new court house to be built at Walker’s Line and Palladium Way..

Vanessa Warren telling council they were not delivering on their promises.

 What Warren was doing was highlighting the significant lack of communication on the part of the city about a new Courthouse expansion and consolidation of both the Milton and Burlington Courthouses  that  is ready to proceed with a request for design/build/lease proposals.  You could imagine my frustration at not having received any communication about this proposal from my local Councillor; nor have any of the dozens of what I would consider very engaged residents I have spoken with.

 “It is clear from the report that, since 2006, it is has been well researched and well funded – and slated for vacant employment lands in the 407 corridor, it might also seem well planned…except for what I see as two glaring oversights.

 The first oversight had to do with Community Engagement, which Warren reminded Council was

To fulfill the vision and mission of the Burlington Community Engagement Charter, that included Early and Widespread Notification

 Warren added that the engagement charter was to celebrate its first birthday the following day.

 Warren reminded Council they were about to confirm the location of this courthouse and seek an RFP for a design/build/lease arrangement for the next 25 years and beyond without even “brushing  up against the first level of public participation on the list in its own Charter, which is to inform.

 Warren brought to Council’s attention the “really poor transportation planning” for the Alton community  when transit wasn’t even thought of  until  after it was built, and less than three months before the start of the school year.

 I think everyone can agree” said Warren “ that that was an example of ad-hoc and backward-looking work and should have been a lesson well learned. 

Council sat stoically while Vanessa Warren reminded them that they were not living up to the provision of the Community engagement Charter which was to celebrate its first anniversary the next day.

Warren wasn’t finished:  She pointed out that one of the key criterion used to select the courthouse location was that it be  “serviced by public transit”, presumably because many people who use the court system will have need of busing and other alternatives. She had wanted to put a map up on the screen in Council chambers showing that there were no plans for a bus route in place to service the court house that is to be move in ready by mid-2016.

It was at this point that the Mayor interrupted Warren and asked her to “make your comments specific to the Growth Management Plan” under discussion.  The Mayor appeared to be having a problem with comments about the failure to live up to the committeemen to keep the public informed set out in the Community Engagement Charter.

Warren said later that she didn’t think the Mayor was right in interrupting her and that all her comments were very germane. She added that she felt most of the council members were “squirming in their seats”

 “I spoke last week with Jenny Setterfield, Transportation Engineering Technologist at Burlington Transit, the point person on the City’s Transportation Master Plan and she was not aware of this project.

 This all makes me very concerned:  concerned that Council has failed to, at the very least inform the local community about what is taking place, and concerned that Council will once again be directing Burlington Transit to back-fill it’s development plans with three  months  notice.

We need really strong leadership to enhance the livability of our urban spaces while still protection our green spaces.  This proposal – while overall being positive – has been approached the wrong way.  You’ve only looked at one bottom line.

You should not be consulting  after the fact and then  ask residents to show up for the photo-op later.  You consult in advance and you ensure that the big picture planning tools – like transit – are in place to ensure success. 

 I would suggest that approving the recommendations before you tonight will be a violation of your own Community Engagement Charter, and will only work towards creating a disconnected and poorly serviced City.

Councillor Paul Sharman asks Warren what some of her assumptions were while Councillor Lancaster listen as she is roundly criticized by a ward resident.

 Jeff Fielding the city manager did add some comment after the Warren delegation and pointed out that the location of a new court house had to be the result of a consensus of all four municipalities in the Region and that some issues had come up from one of the municipalities – he didn’t say which one – that would be reviewed April 14th.  He added that there would be no problem deferring any decision by council until the next round of Standing Committee meetings.

Which was fine  – but the comments didn’t deal with the fact that the public had not been made aware of the plans for the court house and any transit requirement has not even been looked at.

Warren had brought the issue to the attention of the people in her ward and the city at large.

 That was Monday night.  On Tuesday morning Vanessa Warren announced her intention to run for City and Regional Council in Burlington’s Ward 6 and said that after “four years of inaction, inaccessibility and poor communication from the incumbent, Blair Lancaster” she would run for the office.