CITY HALL FENCE ORIGIN - IT WASN'T COUNCIL

 

$???? Worth of Staff Work for a Project Council Never Asked For

When is a council report not really a council report? When it’s cooked up, scoped, and pushed forward by senior staff before elected officials even know it exists. That’s exactly what happened with the SARC South Parking Lot “improvements.”

The $500 FOI Paper Trail

Voice of Nanaimo filed a Freedom of Information request to answer one simple question: Who authorized this report?

At first, City Hall claimed it would cost nearly $500 in staff time to dig through the records. A more refined FOI was submitted and persistence paid off. The records show exactly what happened — and it wasn’t council driving this project.

How It Really Happened

- Dave LaBerge, Director of Bylaw Services, proposed the idea of fencing, resurfacing, and new CCTV at SARC.
- He raised it with Dale Lindsay, General Manager of Development Services.
- Lindsay “concurred” and asked LaBerge to assemble a project team to cost it out and prepare a package.
- Engineering, Civic Facilities, Transportation, and even external contractors were pulled into meetings and scoping exercises.
- By the time a report was ready for council, staff had already sunk significant time, coordination, and public resources into the project.

Council never asked for this work. Staff authorized it, staffed it, scoped it, and presented it.

Why It Matters

This case exposes how governance at City Hall really works:
- Council sidelined: Decisions are made internally, with elected officials only looped in after staff have already created momentum.
- Staff autonomy: Senior managers can direct multiple departments and contractors into action without a single vote from council.
- FOI obstruction: It took a bit of wrangling, a $500 fee estimate, a second submission to get the truth — even though the issue was always about one thing: accountability.

The Bigger Picture

When taxpayers wonder why costs spiral or why council seems rubber-stamping staff reports, this is why. By the time council sees a recommendation, staff have already invested taxpayer dollars and professional capital. Saying “no” becomes politically awkward — staff know it, and they use it.

This isn’t about a parking lot. It’s about who really runs the City of Nanaimo.

The FOI record shows it wasn’t council. It was staff — Lindsay and LaBerge — who greenlit this project. And that’s $500 worth of proof that staff, not council, are steering the City.