Wednesday, December 21, 2011
St. Pat’s-Alexandra sale violated policy
City policy says surplus schools must first be offered to community groups.
Posted by Mairin Prentiss on Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 4:12 PM
According to a 2000 document, the city must first ask for community pitches 90 days in advance and review them before inviting commercial bids---and any feasible proposals should be recommended to council and brought to a vote. If council doesn’t support any bids or there are “no” [bold in original document] proposals from community groups then the school may then be put on the market, according to the in-camera report, “Policy and Procedures for the Disposal of Surplus Schools.” Read the report here.
A little soft-shoeing is tacked onto the end of the policy saying open market sales shouldn’t be considered a last resort---explaining the market value should be weighed against the benefits of other uses.
However, staff were supposed to select the school’s fate in this order: 1. City use 2. Community use 3. Commercial use.
This procedure separates non-profits bids and for-profit bids from competing---as they did last week.
“They didn’t follow the policy,” councillor Dawn Sloane says bluntly of staff. “When policies are not followed, and things are ramshackled together as a report that’s an injustice to our community and an injustice to all of HRM.
“A lot of the councillors didn’t even know this policy existed.” she continues. “And then to not reference it in the report that came to council is showing that they did a very slack job.”
Shaune MacKinlay, the city’s spokesperson, said it’s too early to say if there was a violation or not. Staff are meeting today, Thursday, to compare the overlooked policy to they way they unloaded St. Pat’s-Alexandra. For now, the city doesn’t have any statements.
“We have to get people in a room and look at how we dealt with the RFP, and then look at the policy and see if we met some of the terms of that policy through our RFP process or see if there’s something we could have done differently.”
Sloane says the city only asked the North End Community Health Centre for an “expression of interest,” perhaps pirouetting around another rule: The policy says community groups must be advised 90 days in advance to submit written proposals, including management structure, financial statements, a five year business plan and a statement detailing their purchase or lease offer.
On Sunday over 100 people came out to rally against the city’s decision to sell the former school to Jono Developments Ltd.---an offer Sloane says likely looked peachy to the cash-strapped city.
“They’re scratching to find any money they can,” says Sloane, pointing to some over-budget projects such as the Washmill underpass, “Now we’re seeing these issues being solved by using a community that’s not allowed to have their own voice at the table. They’re preying on the vulnerable.”
Survey Asks
Do you agree with Halifax's school board cutting 152 teachers?
Comments (6)
Showing 1-6 of 6
The whole nub of the argument here if i can use that phrase is that the non profits, notice I said non profits, not volunteer organizations meaning that their staffs are paid from some other source. Having cleared that little item up, they want the buildings for their use, in addition they want you and I through our taxes to pay for heat, lights, insurance, maintenance, (you can bet there will be lots of broom pushers on the payroll ) and every other item that can be expensed. Meanwhile having the city give up tax revenue,construction activity, and last but not least a removal of some of the most crime infested area of HRM. Now how can that be a bad thing, except for the criminals andd drug pushers?
like
dislike
CAO Richard Butts lives in Toronto and commutes to Halifax, and obviously neither knows nor cares about the community.
He has a plaque on his desk with the words 'Halifax, nice place to work but I live 1,300 kilometres away'.
Is his salary so high because he needs to pay for his pile in Toronto ? Think of his carbon footprint.
I can't see the entire school site as being necessary for the health and native friendship centres. It's a huge property with big operational costs and infrastructure problems. It would probably end up being a drain on the charities that hope to use the site. Redevelopment would make much more efficient use of the land and is something Gottingen needs to revive it's commercial strip. That said, this didn't have to be a zero sum game. Had HRM followed their own procedures, they might have discovered the community interest and been able to reserve a portion of the site or secured space in whatever new development arises. This would have then freed up two other Gottingen properties (health centre and friendship centre) for redevelopment since the charities would have sold their old properties further enhancing the whole street. It's kind of lose, lose.
The sad part is the contrast to other land sales. Look at the excessive concern that HRM took to guarantee no loss of parking when they sold the sister lots off of Spring Garden and the big effort that has been made with the Bloomfield Centre! HRM needs to start following their own rules. This making it up as they go along just creates unnecessary controversy and potentially leaves us with missed opportunities.
Bizarre. The feds follow a process flow with surplus properties. It's followed to the letter. Offer them first to other fed departments and crown corporations, then the province and then the municipality, and finally go to the market. Almost no exceptions, and if there are exceptions is all done under approved special class of property programs. How is it the city seems to be just making stuff up as they go? It should all be very open and transparent but in typical city fashion it's sneaky and they try to hide stuff away. Is it sleaze or incompetence. Or maybe fear due to heavy handed stuff like how Butts fired Whitemore. Any way you slice it the city is run like a gong show.
Maybe a bit of "backroom" dealings going on? No doubt a lot of money tied up in the private proposal. It certainly wouldn't be the first time an "incentive" was offered to ensure a particular outcome of a political process.
| ||||||
|
Guides
- Home |
- Dating |
- Bitch |
- News |
- Music |
- Movies |
- Dining |
- Arts |
- Opinion |
-
Best Of
| - Halifax Free Classifieds |
- Jobs |
- Housing |
- For Sale |
- Classes |
- Bulletin Board |
- Health, Beauty |
- Services |
- Real Estate |
- Wanted
- About Us |
- Our Staff |
- Contact Us |
- Advertise |
- Work With Us |
- Send us a Tip |
- Privacy Policy |
- Comments Policy |
-
RSS Feeds
|
- Archives
