This news release just out from the city on the new CFO who has been hired. Some were thinking that Vision, grateful to Estelle Lo for her emails to Judy Rogers highlighting concerns about the Olympic village that were then leaked by someone to the media, might hire her back. Apparently not. Here’s the new […]
Entries Tagged as 'City Hall Talk'
Vancouver appoints new CFO — not Estelle Lo
March 11th, 2009 · 4 Comments
Tags: City Hall Talk
Deputy city manager gets an extra title
March 8th, 2009 · No Comments
The city’s deputy city manager, James Ridge, got named the chief information officer or some such thing recently, according to city internal emails. That ought to allay the rumours, at least in that corner, that Ridge, who came to Vancouver from North Van a couple of years ago, was going to be one of those […]
Tags: City Hall Talk
City hall lawn gets dug up for community garden
March 4th, 2009 · 15 Comments
Just when we were almost finished with the chicken jokes (related to the city plan to allow people to keep chickens for personal use in their yards), now comes this announcement from city hall that they’re digging up part of the lawn for a community garden. Here is the news release below. City to create […]
Tags: City Hall Talk
The new new new journalism: David Byrne blogs on Mayor Gregor
March 3rd, 2009 · 11 Comments
Check out what the former Talking Heads member and now independent musician had to say about Vancouver’s mayor in his blog here. I thought he might mention Gregor’s stellar performance in the audience, where he waved his lit-up Blackberry, instead of a match or lighter, to show his enthusiasm during Byrne’s recent concert here in […]
Tags: City Hall Talk
The Hoggan contracts were just fine + A thank you to Geoff Plant
March 3rd, 2009 · 7 Comments
That was the word from city manager Penny Ballem this afternoon. Although Councillor Suzanne Anton didn’t get a seconder to her motion, which I posted earlier, asking for clarification in how those contracts were awarded, Mayor Gregor did ask the city manager to give an explanation since “questions have been raised.” Penny’s statement: “It was […]
Tags: City Hall Talk
The problem with the Hoggan contract
March 3rd, 2009 · 6 Comments
Councillor Suzanne Anton is going to raise questions this afternoon about the contract that went to public-relations expert Jim Hoggan for his company’s help in managing the messaging around the Olympic village mess. Previous explanations I’ve had from the city say it went to Hoggan because his company has expertise in international business media, which […]
Tags: City Hall Talk
Fire chief sails off to sunset — thoughts on why?
March 1st, 2009 · 7 Comments
This Tuesday email from city manager Penny Ballem about the retirement of Fire Chief Ray Holdgate is slowly filtering out to the public. Any thoughts, public or private, on this move? Planned retirement or something else going on? You can always email me at [email protected] From: Ballem, Penny To: Robertson, G; Anton, Suzanne; Cadman, David; […]
Tags: City Hall Talk
Believing in the real-estate market the new sin at city hall
February 19th, 2009 · 17 Comments
Another council day, another smackdown of city staff. On the whole, all the councillors tried to play nice and praise city staff yesterday for all their hard work on negotiating the buy-out of the Fortress loan that was announced yesterday. (For more details than I provided, read Rod Mickleburgh’s story in the Globe today here.) […]
Tags: City Hall Talk
Another city blogger joins the fray: Geoff Meggs
February 15th, 2009 · 25 Comments
Former journalist, now councillor, Geoff Meggs has put his blog back in motion recently. For those of you who just can’t read enough about city hijinks and deep policy thoughts, the link is here. It was impressive that in a recent post, he took the time to publish a lengthy comment from someone critical of […]
Tags: City Hall Talk
Cost-cutting memo expected at city hall by end of week
February 10th, 2009 · 28 Comments
We (my, myself and I) hear there are lots of rumblings about what the new economic chill at city hall is going to mean. City manager Penny Ballem is apparently moving at lightning speed to push the trimming plan into action asap. That means that, by the end of the week, staff are expecting more […]
Tags: City Hall Talk