By Pepper Parr
May 30th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
The public meeting about the city’s purchase of the Robert Bateman High school property from the Halton District School Board is going to take place – and that at this point is all we can tell you.
We don’t know who is going to facilitate the event; we don’t know which staff members will be taking part, we don’t know if the public will be able to ask questions.
It is a large piece of property – huge potential.
Will members of Council be on hand – they were the ones that made the decision to, in principle, buy the property.
A lot of just don’t know around this story.
We have asked the city of the event will be recorded.
We expect that this will be a turning point for this initiative.
The public wants answers.
We now get to see just how engaging the city is and how transparent they will be Tuesday evening.
Maybe its time for the mayor to stop chasing photo ops and call an open in person meeting to address what will end up being one of the most expensive undertakings in the city with results that will have extensive long term affects. The meeting should be chaired by an independent professional moderator. The information that the city has provided on the project soo far would be a joke if it were not so sad. It will be interesting to see how the city, in their view can squeeze democracy into ninety minutes.
I sent an email to Councillor Kearns on Friday asking the same questions. She responded by directing me to the Press Release sent out by the City, Unfortunately, it didn’t answer the questions I was asking.
I emailed her back thanking her and copied those included in her email to ask for the answers to my questions.
This morning I received this response from Kwab Ako-Adjei.
”
Ako-Adjei, Kwab
9:21 AM (55 minutes ago)
to me, Lisa, Francine, Suzanne
Hi All – As with any public meeting the City holds, including virtual meetings, those in attendance will have an opportunity to ask questions. We are finalizing the details of how the questions will be asked, we will let those in attendance know at the beginning of the meeting how they can ask their questions.
City Manager Tim Commisso will be leading the discussion along with other City staff (to be confirmed) that can speak to the project.
Regards,
Kwab
Kwab Ako-Adjei
Director, Corporate Communications & Engagement
(905) 335-7777 ext.7747
Cell: (905) 220-5870
kwab.ako-adjei@burlington.ca
It seems that this very important public meeting which is in conflict with the Season Launch of the Burlington Performing Arts Centre is not really organized as yet.