A fairly decent agenda for a July General Issues Committee meeting. Let's see, Merulla has a notice of motion coming regarding gambling in Hamilton that had everyone a twitter last week (didn't happen, held over until August) and oh the Mayor felt the need to be school teacher regarding the ownership of the Centennial Parkway rail bridge which he managed to explain three times to anyone who would listen ( I stopped at one and a half, me slow and bad) and then there was the presentation by the Good Shepherd folks proud owners of the Good Shepherd Square doing good work in Hamilton for dozens of years. I've left out at this point the potential very big story of the day (probably will get the biggest headlines for what didn't happen) because I want to juxtapose the grilling received by the Good Shepherd vs the other supplicant for city money, a fella by the name of Darko. More about him in a moment but first, what was up with the grilling of the Good Shepherd?
Here's the background; once upon a time they proposed an over 50 million dollar project, a consolidation/expansion if you would of their services. They announced fund raising, and then they announced Provincial and Federal grant monies. Today they were basically asking for a 5 million dollar interest free loan to be applied at a million a year over the next five years to help bridge their fund raising efforts. You'd have thought they had a brought a bag of dumpster garbage with them. Councillor Terry Whitehead from Hamilton's Ward 8 grilled them about guarantees the city would get it's money back, questioned staff regarding Hamilton's credit rating, and pondered out loud which current unfunded capital projects would have to be bumped in order to give this agency it's five million. All legitimate concerns and questions. Judy Partridge from Ward 15 wanted to know the organisation's overall debt load and was city staff aware of that total? She tried that one twice but I'm not sure she actually got the answer she was looking for. An aside; when you go before council asking for taxpayers money don't you think you should have audited financials in hand or better yet, distributed before the meeting to the people actually voting on your request? Not so today although the Good Shepherd folks kept assuring councillors they would get them the information requested. At the end of the day the Future Fund Board was going to be asked to consider funding this request of the city with the unspent velodrome funds they had forwarded to the city when the velodrome was still on our Pan Am games radar. Talk about passing the buck. In the end I suspect that board will request the funds back from the city and then ponder what to do with it next with no guarantees it will be applied to the Good Shepherd. In fact I suspect the Good Shepherd as early as the August meeting of the GIC will be back hat in hand asking about option number 2 which is a five million dollar loan carrying a 2.2 per cent interest charge which basically keeps the city's credit rating unaffected.
Now to the crux of this story, yes I know, burying the lead again.
The very next time on the agenda was a request for a nine million dollar loan, interest free loan by the way from the Downtown Multi-Residential Property Investment Program to help pay a quarter of the development cost of a hotel at the corner of Bay and George or 40 Bay Street South opposite the west end of Jackson Square. It's a Homewood Suites Hotel operated by Hilton rising 15 stories and providing 182 badly needed suites (why do I still want to call them hotel rooms?) commercial opportunities and 110 parking spots. Hey a big chunk of the even bigger development Mr. Darko Vranich has been pursuing for a decade, the redevelopment of almost the entire block bounded by Main, Bay, Caroline and George. You've seen the demolition and you have seen the cranes operating, my goodness cranes operating downtown, and that's why I wonder does Mr. Vranich now have the city of Hamilton over a barrel? Think about it. The always media shy Darko Vranich was at the GIC to answer any questions any member of council might have had about this project. For five million the Good Shepherd took some heat, in fact had some body parts pressed close to the grill. Mr. Vranich? Nothing. No really, any questions? Nadda. No really, how about dust from the ongoing demolitions? Nope. Well what about dumping dirt illegally on vacant properties? Nothing. Well then maybe some one will ask about guarantees for the nine million interest free loan. Silence. Well maybe someone will ask how come the Good Shepherd was grilled and the "good" developer was not. He's right here for crying out loud. Anyone? Crickets. Not one question about guarantees, the hotel market place right now, the Canadian economy, nothing about this impacting on other projects, no concerns about the city's almost billion dollar debt that just expanded by nine million dollars (I know it hasn't hit council yet but that's a formality).
It truly is a tale of two presentations, or is it solitudes, or in fact isn't it really about two different cities, the one most of us play in and the other that can be influenced apparently. Your opinions are welcome.
