By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

NNN’s top 10 of 2017: Nanaimo politics

Dec 29, 2017 | 5:36 PM

NANAIMO — Typically when a mid-sized community makes national headlines for their municipal politics, it’s unusual.

Nanaimo’s Council and City Hall achieved the feat several times in 2017 and the headlines were mostly unflattering.

Hot off the heels of spending more than $320,000 on Hometown Hockey festivities and the event centre proposal’s resounding defeat in a referendum, it was announced a special prosecutor had been brought in to guide an ongoing investigation into Nanaimo Council. That investigation ultimately did not lead to any charges.

The Criminal Justice Branch revealed a councillor had been arrested and released on conditions.

A week later, coun. Wendy Pratt resigned, sparking a costly byelection which saw former RCMP officer Sheryl Armstrong take the vacant seat in a landslide.

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In July, a bizarre press release was issued, supposedly detailing the findings of a lawyer’s investigation into complaints filed under respectful workplace and violence in the workplace policies by chief administrative officer Tracy Samra. The release included a video showing Pratt storming across the room and swatting at a phone which was filming her during a closed council meeting. Samra later told the Globe and Mail she released the information out of fear council would not.

That release of information followed an incident where Samra shouted obscenities heard by staff and members of the public in the lobby of a City building.

Related to those incidents, in September, Snuneymuxw First Nation removed their flag from atop City Hall in reaction to the alleged violence experienced by Samra.

Nanaimo politicians were called to testify before the province’s privacy commissioner over multiple leaks of confidential information.

Councillors directed staff to wade into the battle between Snuneymuxw First Nation and the Nanaimo Port Authority over control of the local harbour, despite warnings from staff and a letter from the federal government saying they had no interest in entertaining any change in governance.

Dueling petitions were created calling for cooperation at the Council table and support for Samra.

Nanaimo’s chief financial officer was sued by his former employer for allegedly wracking up personal expenses on the municipal credit card.

After no managers were fired at Nanaimo City Hall between 2006 and 2016, at least five were let go this year. However, one of those managers, Charlotte Davis, was rehired barely three weeks after being let go.

Unionized CUPE staff boycotted the annual Christmas lunch, citing a work environment rife with vitriol and fear.

Automated garbage collection was rolled out over parts of the city. It was revealed shortly after phase one went live that the roll-out was $440,000 over budget.

Five councillors expressed strong interest in moving ahead with phase two of the core review examining the City’s departments. Eleven of 70 recommendations from phase one of the review have been implemented and cost savings remain unclear.

The City removed comments from their Facebook page after alleged racist and defamatory posts. That followed a change to question period requiring all questions to be submitted in writing and approved prior to being asked.

Just last week, Council announced it had decided to drop a lawsuit filed against mayor Bill McKay, after going public with allegations in November of 2016.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, as Council passed some popular decisions.

They painted two more crosswalks with rainbow colours downtown to support Pride festivities. Ground was broken on a new covered mutli-use sport court in Harewood and a brand new lighted turf field opened at NDSS.

More than 250 acres of land in the south end was protected as parkland and a development application in Linley Valley was rejected.

Council will move ahead with some of the first phases of the hugely popular waterfront walkway next year and staff are reviewing providing showers for the homeless.

As part of this year’s budget deliberations, $1.5 million will be spent over the next five years on pedestrian safety improvements.

Council also directed staff to explore a ban on plastic bags at the retail level.

It appears a conference centre hotel will move ahead, as a development permit has been issued for a nine-storey Courtyard by Marriott on Gordon St.

That’s only an overview of some of the twists and turns of 2017.

2018 is an election year…now the REAL fun begins.

This story came in at number 1 on our top 10 list of biggest stories we covered this year. NanaimoNewsNOW is counting down our top 10 local stories of 2017, with the top two stories named on New Year’s Eve. Be sure to check back and offer your thoughts on the biggest stories of 2017.

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