Concert scandal headed for public debate: councillor
Posted Jun 14, 2011 05:41:18 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Regional councillors who wanted to discuss the concert cash scandal in public will likely get their wish.
Coun. Linda Mosher (Purcell’s Cove-Armdale) called News 95.7 Monday night to say she’s been told she can present a motion at today’s council meeting to hold the debate in public – and it’s believed the motion will pass.
Mosher was told the auditor general’s report would have to be discussed in camera because it deals with city personnel, but she notes all the information has already been made public.
“I don’t think there’s any big conspiracy theory here, I just think that the definition of personnel is the definition, and I can understand why you wouldn’t want to talk about employees or different people in public,” she said. “But in this case, the document’s public and the names are already named.”
Coun. Jackie Barkhouse (Woodside-Eastern Passage) was one of several councillors who said she’d support a public discussion of the auditor general’s report.
“I will be supportive of it being held in the public purview,” she said. “I have a very strong belief that the only way that people have faith in the political system is when there’s transparency.”
Mosher says councillors didn’t have much time to review the report when it was made public last Tuesday, and says now she’s had a chance to read it – she has questions that shouldn’t be discussed behind closed doors.
“So I’m going to try to stick to the high level, where do we go from here, do we pursue a police investigation by an arm’s-length police agency?” she said. “Do we get the provincial auditor general involved, given the Trade Centre involvement? What options are available to us?”
The auditor general’s report names the mayor, former CAO and senior officials at Trade Centre Limited as key players in the distribution of unauthorized loans to a concert promoter.
