I ran into Penny Ballem at Bob Rennie’s UDI speech at the Hotel Vancouver yesterday and was surprised when she waved a booklet of bus tickets, saying they were her way of getting around these days. I’ve only ever seen her on her bike until now. What happened, I wanted to know, thinking perhaps she’d […]
City manager’s bike stolen from city hall
May 21st, 2010 · 28 Comments
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Concord Pacific land assessment to be checked
May 5th, 2010 · 28 Comments
Mike Howell at the Courier has been on the case this week about why the big tract of land that Concord Pacific owns in the northeast corner of False Creek has been valued so low in land assessments, i.e. only $400,000 — less than the value of an average 33 X 120 lot in the […]
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Homeless in Vancouver climb to almost 1,800 but only 400 sleep outside
April 8th, 2010 · 5 Comments
The results of the city’s homeless count are in and, as the Vision Vancouver team hoped, it shows that the numbers of people sleeping outside was reduced by almost exactly the number of beds created in the mayor’s seven emergency shelters. The memo from city manager Penny Ballem spells out the dire consequences for the […]
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Ex-chief electrician gives his side of the story to the Tsakuminator
March 30th, 2010 · 38 Comments
Whether you think Mr. Tsisserev is a loyal employee who was unfairly dumped on or a dogmatic ,righteous and disgruntled ex-employee (people I talk to at city hall generally say the former) and whatever you think of Alex’s questions, this interview is a fascinating glimpse into the backrooms of city hall. http://alexgtsakumis.com/2010/03/30/exclusive-on-the-record-with-former-vancouver-city-electrician-ark-tsisserev-the-interview/
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Chief electrician docs released; payout $177,000 + letter saying reports of electrical problems wrong
March 26th, 2010 · 23 Comments
This is currently circulating at city hall, a place that is as porous as limestone these days. My only observations at this point are that the payout is not a lot, considering that Mr. Tsisserev was making in the $120-130,000 range the past couple of years. I’m sure there will be lots of commentary on […]
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Homeless count numbers will be a political tool
March 24th, 2010 · 4 Comments
The city had its own homeless count, a first, yesterday, which everyone covered. Here’s my version. Interesting to note that the city’s numbers will be out in a couple of weeks — just before the five community emergency shelters are set to close April 30. I await developments on this front.
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Vancouver engineering head retires
March 12th, 2010 · 11 Comments
I’ve been hearing about Tom Timm’s impending retirement for a year, one of the names that kept popping up on the list of “people most likely to get fed up and quit after Vision and Penny Ballem took over.” Then I also heard that he’d been saying even before that he was only going to […]
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Vancouver business elite discovers how messy solving homelessness is
March 8th, 2010 · 14 Comments
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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Vancouver’s HR manager latest to quit
July 29th, 2009 · 30 Comments
Well, all I can say is Yikes. One more city manager bails, Kevin Ramsay, the recently hired head of HR. He’d replaced Mike Zora, who had become the object of union unhappiness, and from what I had heard, was doing a good job and managing to calm things down a little. But not any more. […]
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Adair appointment confirmed + more in Ballem memo
July 17th, 2009 · 9 Comments
This memo from city manager Penny Ballem is making the rounds today at city hall. I’m curious about the hint when it comes to the new deputy city manager. Who could it be? There have been rumours of at least one strong internal candidate for this one. We await the news. OFFICE OF THE CITY […]
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