Secret service
The civic election campaign, which seemed to have started three years ago, saw its first prop used this week by a political party.
Sadly, it wasnt a life-sized cutout of Vision Vancouver Coun. George Chow.
No, dear readers, it was a large white envelope with Top Secret written in bright red letters across it. NPA mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton was holding it Tuesday under the pigeon-bombed statue of Capt. George Vancouver outside city hall.
Anton gathered her team of candidates there to tell reporters Mayor Gregor Robertson is forbidding taxpayers to view full details of the applications for the $100,000 worth of so-called greenest city grants.
Why?
Because, as Anton said several times while providing the television camera crews with extreme close-ups of the mysterious envelope, the applications are top secret. She went on to say she was able to view the applications because shes a city councillor.
Anton was warned not to share the information with the public. A copy of a confidential memo from city manager Penny Ballem, which was provided to me from the NPA, supports Antons assertion.
Before I get to a quote from Ballem, you should know council already approved the $100,000 in grants for 16 organizations earlier this year. The successful applicants included the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition, which received $15,500 to work with SHIFT Urban Cargo to develop a bicycle delivery service and the Global Youth Education Network Society, which received $10,000 for workshops to connect communities on shared values, commitments and a vision for a sustainable future.
To Ballems quote: If any confidential information is released to outside parties without the organizations consent, the credibility of the citys granting processes could be seriously undermined. In addition, the city or any person that discloses personal information could be subject to a claim that they acted in breach of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, as was recently the case in respect of an unauthorized release of information by a councillor in the city of Prince George who was found guilty of breaching the privacy legislation.
After I left the press conference, I kept wondering why I had already read about these applications some months ago. Yes, I read the city report. Yes, I know there was some controversy around themand then it came to me, I read all about the applications on CityCaucus.com.
Thats the very blog produced by Klassen and Daniel Fontaine, the former chief of staff to Sam Sullivan, who was the NPAs mayor from 2005 to 2008. The NPA gentlemen obtained five of the 16 applications in July through the Freedom of Information Act. This didnt come up at Antons press conference. Maybe that was top secret, too.
More on this on my blog at vancourier.com.
Twitter: @Howellings
