Bad optics

BY KIRK STARRATT

kstarratt@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

In the opinion of the councillor for the area, bad optics surrounds a recent discussion at Kings County council related to a proposed long-term care facility in Greenwich. However, others contend there was nothing sinister about how the matter was handled.

Warden Fred Whalen said council went in-camera for about an hour-and-a-half Tuesday night, March 4 and then came out into open session to discuss the Shannex proposal, a discussion that lasted about 45 minutes.

He said council approved getting the public process underway because of a limited time frame to meet provincial requirements.

Whalen pointed out that the proposed site in Greenwich, on land owned by Phillip and Tanya Barnett south of Highway 1 in Greenwich, between Sunnyside Road to the west and Avon Lane to the east, is not agricultural land. It’s zoned R7, residential.

Whalen said the former Horton High School site that sits on the border of Greenwich and New Minas has appropriate zoning for such a facility, but the province deems that site to be too close to nearby industrial activities. Whalen said one issue of concern in the discussion was the fact that one site that was under evaluation for the proposed development is located in another municipality, the Town of Wolfville.

Whalen said there wasn’t a soul there to hear the discussion. It bothers him that there could be bad optics from the perspective of the public because, due to an oversight, the audio recording equipment wasn’t turned on.

However, he said he has nothing to hide and it’s understandable that the clerk forgot to start recording. It was late and she had been asked to leave the chambers during the in-camera session because discussion related to her being appointed as returning officer for the upcoming municipal election.



Looks horrible: Parker

“It totally looks horrible that we tried to do it in-camera,” said Chris Parker, area councillor, about the Shannex discussion following the meeting.

There was no electronic recording made, as is the usual practice, and no members of the public witnessed the discussion. He said anyone wanting to know what transpired would have to rely on the official minutes and they wouldn’t be available immediately.

Parker said he’s concerned about not following the Municipal Government Act (MGA), which is very specific when it comes to what can and can’t be discussed in-camera, and matters to be discussed in-camera have to be listed. He said he became concerned when the solicitor said the Shannex matter didn’t meet criteria and is concerned the chief administrator didn’t seek that legal advice first.

Parker said there are lots of development issues in Greenwich. Development is a sensitive topic in the community and the county can’t be seen as sneaking anything past. He questions why the open public discussion of the Shannex proposal didn’t take place before council went in-camera to discuss other sensitive matters.

Parker said he was afraid of setting a precedent for planning matters if the Shannex issue had been discussed in-camera. However, he said he isn’t against the project because it’s about keeping seniors in our communities.

Deputy Warden Diana Brothers said she would like to see Shannex hire its own planner to reduce workload on municipal staff if there’s a limited time frame to get the project in motion.

“I don’t want to see our other applicants lose ground on account of it,” she said, pointing out that the farm businessmen in Greenwich who have been waiting years to have their original planning application dealt with would be a good example.

Review meeting agendas

Brothers, who chairs the planning advisory committee (PAC), said she would have tried to get the Shannex matter on the PAC agenda the week before it came to council if she had been asked because the committee is flexible and this would have been a good way to handle the matter. Brothers said she wanted more information.

She would like to see the chief administrator review meeting agendas with the municipal solicitor beforehand to determine what matters qualify to be discussed in-camera under the provisions of the MGA.

Chief Administrative Officer Brian Smith said the Shannex discussion focused on the timeline set by the provincial Department of Health in relation to the proposed project. Although council has given permission to get underway, he said the matter would still have to go through the normal public process for a Municipal Planning Strategy amendment.

Smith said the oversight of not turning on the electronic recording equipment probably had a lot to do with timing, as the session lasted to around 11 p.m.

“I wouldn’t interpret much from whether a switch got turned on or not,” he said.

When asked about accessing an electronic recording of the Shannex discussion, Municipal Clerk Ann Longley said it occurred to her after it was too late that she forgot to start recording. She was apologetic for the oversight and offered quickly to help track down information from the discussion through other first-hand sources.