Councillors agreed to direct city legal staff to meet with Tradeport “and advise them that we are willing to sever out any portions that would be third party or proprietary interest and therefore would be exempted from the release to the public.”
In March of this year, the head of economic development, Neil Everson, reported that “Tradeport’s legal counsel is still in deliberations on this” and that a resolution could be expected by July. A new deadline for the staff report was set for September 22, but last week that was pushed off until December 1.
“I’m growing almost despondent on this particular file,” responded Clark to the extension. “I need to understand why it’s taking so long to get something that’s really in my mind not that difficult an issue.”
The general manager of economic development and planning said he didn’t have an answer.
See the full story here
It sounds to me as though Clr Clark is making a reasonable request, that is in the public's interest, but is having to unduly go to extremes to have that request met. What do you think?
What we've got here is a failure to communicate.
ReplyDeleteRecently, Ryan McGreal over at raisethehammer.org published an
editorial about the launch of the new(est) Hamilton Civic League:
http://raisethehammer.org/index.asp?id=954
"After a presentation this past March by Annie O'Donoghue of the Guelph Civic League explained how that group is working to transform local politics by increasing grassroots citizen participation and political accountability, a group of Hamiltonians have developed a plan to establish a similar group here... The Hamilton Civic League asks: What kind of a city do we want? Like its sister organization, it plans to start by organizing a ward-by-ward survey to get a better sense of the values and priorities of people across the city."
Over at the Hamilton Civic League's new web site
we find an electronic oath to take when registering:
http://civic.historicalhamilton.com/
As a member of the Hamilton Civic League, I recognize membership is a privilege.
I commit to:
1. Understand, support and promote the Vision and Mission of the Hamilton Civic League.
2. Conduct all business and volunteer activities in a reputable manner, to reflect honourably upon the Hamilton Civic League.
3. To maintain the apolitical nature of the Hamilton Civic League by basing decisions and actions on hard data, research, and community input rather than a political, personal, business or organizational agenda.
The keywords HARD DATA relate directly to what Councilor Clark
is attempting to show the public, to help alleviate criticism
about ACCOUNTABILITY. Unfortunately the end result is that,
"third party or proprietary interest(s)" always
get in the way of true transparency.
Is IT any surprise that "Tradeport's legal counsel is still
in deliberations on this?"
Is IT any wonder there are 44,000 lawyers in Ontario today?
Ignorance is bliss whereas peeking behind the scenes will
leave us despondent or at the very least, spoil the plot!
If Tradeport and the city are so unwilling to "come clean" with the audit of the airport lease agreement, surely suspicions are justifiably raised. It is wonderful to compliment Councillor Clark on his persistence in the matter. Aren't some of the current and former Tradeport participants also involved with the Connaught redevelopment?
ReplyDeleteTradePort has been getting a free ride for so long, shedding light on it now will only double the outrage. Every time one (a Jet) blasts over my house I know thy are making thousands, coming and going.
ReplyDeleteWe have over the past number of years repeatedly expressed our concern over the apparent lack of transparency regarding the Tradeport agreement. This lease agreement was heralded as a model 3P arrangement but the cloke of secrecy around it leaves an air of suspician as to its equity to taxpayers. The city has in the past 3 years received approximately $600,000 in direct rental payments for an asset that is probably worth in excess of $250 Million. Compare this to the $9 Million in dividends taken by the share holders of Tradeport. I would suggest the taxpayers of Hamilton deserve to see the details!
ReplyDeleteMichael Desnoyers
Co-Chair
HPD
Someones hiding something. Suspicious minds
ReplyDeleteElvis P.
I believe that the airport in this city provides huge economic benefits and Tradeport should be congratulated for that. I have no dought that if the city operated it, it would be losing money. If one were to factor in the spin off of this enterprise in addition to the small amount of "rent" the city recieves I believe the story would be much different. I love having the airport in this community and having a private sector firm operate it. Just look to the the Waterloo region airport and see how much money the taxpayers sink into it on an annual basis. I don't care if our Hamilton Airport paid a dime, it doen't cost taxpayers anyting and provide huge economic spin-offs, keep up the great work Richard Koroscil and company. Many thanks, I hear the plans all the time and think of the economic benefits your organization is creating and the jobs. Thank you, you put Hamilton on the map!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous;
ReplyDeleteI think the thread of this blog is in reference to transparency. If in fact the airport and Tradeport are such an economic jewel for this city there should be no reason the information can't be disclosed completely. Would this not stifle so called naysayers as HPD has been labelled. When the airport was being run by the city it lost on average $500,00 per year. In point of fact, city taxpayers have invested in direct dollars approximately $23.5 Million since 1996. To suggest it hasn't cost us a dime is grossly inaccurate and foolhardy. How much more will it cost city taxpayers in the future if the operations are covered under a veil of secrecy?
This city needs to make sound decisions based upon fact and prudent financial investment. Not rhetoric and ill informed boosterism.
M. Desnoyers
Co-Chair
HPD
I'm with Clr Clark and M. Desnoyers on this one.
ReplyDeleteCal
M. Desnoyers stated:
ReplyDelete"This city needs to make sound decisions
based upon fact and prudent financial invest-
ment. Not rhetoric and ill informed boosterism."
Cal and I agree, we're "with Clr Clark and M. Desnoyers on this one."
So what about this?
Hamilton sues to recover $10m investment
http://thespec.com/News/Business/article/645981
"Instead of a safe, secure investment with a bit better interest rate than a government bond, they became 'victims of (a) ... well-choreographed scheme to deceive it out of its investment funds.'"
"The defendants, the city claims, 'are sophisticated financial institutions that perpetuated a scheme through careful structuring and planning to create, promote and distribute an unstable and volatile product' consisting of a 'complex, insecure investment with no real capital structure' supporting it."
So there we have IT! Third party or proprietary interest(s) are
sophisticated financial institutions that perpetuate well-choreo-
graphed schemes. So what are we to do about IT?
Having been so personally involved in City related issues these past 4 years I can attest to the fact that the very little you see and hear barely scratch's the surface of what really goes on. There are so may things I have learned that having learned them I rather wished I hadn't. Given the thread was about transparency and issues related to the tradeport agreement I wonder how many people know there is a sub-committee to the ED & P called the AITF (Airport Improvement Task Force? The meetings for this committe are not always posted on the city web-site and although formal agendas and minutes are created they are not posted separately. If you want to find them they are buried inside the ED & P reports. If you should attend one of these meetings because they are public meetings you will feel cheated and frustrated because for at least the ones we have attended, the majority of the meeting is held in camera. This is most always explained as necessary because of legal issues or land purchase negotiations. Unfortuantely, when the issues finally make their way up to council a clamp of secrecy is put on them like what happened with the 3 pieces of land around the airport just recently purchased. There is no real transparency and perhaps as taxpayers (investors in this corporation) we should just accept our fate. After all - what can we offer?
ReplyDeleteM. Desnoyers
Co-Chair
HPD