According to an account in The Heritage of Tuesday, September 28, the city is now hiring a project manager for the proposed LVEC. This person is to be given "the power of a commissioner" and a contract for three years paying "up to $2000.00 a week".
I realize that the Report on LVEC process (#04-284) which Council passed on July 13, provided for the hiring of a project manager. It also provided for "initial functional studies" to determine the feasibility of the site, but it is clear from the Report's wording that these are to be organized by city staff, in parallel with the process of setting up the steering committee and hiring a project manager. But what Council approved that night was a budget of $235,000. to cover activities in 2004. Nowhere is there an approval of the funds necessary to pay a project manager for three years.
I am dismayed to see the city make a commitment of this magnitude before the "functional studies" have even begun, let alone been completed. One would expect that the initial question of site feasibility ought to be determined before such a committment is made.
Will Council be in a position to approve, or not, this appointment, and the associated financial committment? If not, this appears to me to be a gross violation of the role of elected officials in overseeing public expenditures.
This has all the appearance of one more effort at "railroading": the argument will be "now we've spent all this money on a project manager, we have no choice but to go ahead."
Recently, task force members admitted that the cost of the LVEC could be as high as $54million, and at least certain to be more than the initially projected $28.5 million. There is still no hint of how the thing is to be financed--a matter which has become even more complicated in light of the public outcry over selling the 23 acre Memorial Centre site.
I would urge you to take this issue seriously, and to insist that Council finally take control of this increasingly absurd process. The least you can do is insist that the site feasibility be determined before any further committment of funds is made, and that any further financial committment be properly discussed and approved by Council.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Harlow