SFU’s always-great City Program has another interesting lecture coming up, this one by Thomas Osdoba, the former sustainability manager in Vancouver. Those who think the recent firing of the city’s chief electrician was odd should refresh their memories about what happened with Osdoba, who was fired by then-city manager Judy Rogers after a lot of [...]

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For years, I’ve heard that business leaders in the city are itching to give millions to solve homelessness and, related to that, the problems of the Downtown Eastside. And many have tried to tap into that. Former mayor Philip Owen and others started a fund through the Vancouver Foundation to try to encourage donations for [...]

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It’s not formally announced yet, but one more body is about to be added to the crew at 12th and Cambie — former journalist and recent B.C. Liberal candidate Robin Adair. He’ll be handling “intergovernmental relations” and, for the time being, communications — something that Laurie Best was doing until recently, but she’s being moved [...]

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Oh, poor Paul Hancock, the city’s Freedom of Information officer. He must be working overtime these days, dealing with all the FOIs that have flooded in in the last four months. Here are the latest results from one of my requests. The details of Judy Rogers’ severance agreement. Not much new in terms of the [...]

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Everyone who FOI’d Judy Rogers’ severance package got their letter this morning on the amount, though not the full severance agreement. It was $571,788 — not the $700,000 that some people had been chattering about. Still a whack of money, though. You can read my web file here from the Globe and I’ll have more [...]

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My pal Jeff Lee over at the Sun had an interesting story in Friday’s Vancouver Sun with details about the in-camera meeting back in June 2007 where the Non-Partisan Association majority voted in favour of the $193-million loan guarantee and completion guarantee for Fortress, so that Millennium could get its financing for the Olympic village. [...]

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Sources in city hall tell me that Olympic project manager Jody Andrews tendered his resignation today, effective immediately, after several weeks of being stripped of responsibilities and pretty much ordered not to talk to the public/media about the village. The relatively young 40-something Andrews, who has worked at the city for 18 years, was put [...]

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Oh, I couldn’t resist. A few more bits and pieces. 1.The story travelling around city hall currently is that the memo from city manager Judy Rogers that laid out the original plan to provide guarantees ($193-million loan guarantee and completion guarantee) for Millennium’s Fortress loan started off with the line: “This is a good-news story.” [...]

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Unfortunately, all of the news coverage you’ve read or are likely to read about yesterday’s kick-off of the French Revolution at city hall (city manager Judy Rogers replaced with former deputy health minister Penny Ballem) can’t quite capture the scene down at 12th and Cambie. A couple of us got the word last night that [...]

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The party talk this weekend is all about the Visionista’s move to replace Judy Rogers with former deputy health minister Penny Ballem, a highly unusual move at a local government level. It’s not unusual to get rid of a city manager. It is unusual to put in someone with zero experience in city issues. Typically, [...]

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