City Council & Judy Rogers throw Estelle Lo under the bus

It seems that the current City Council, or at least some of its members will stop at nothing in order to deflect attention and blame for the $100 Million Loan fiasco. See David Cadmans comments below (Ed. I fully support the 2010 Olympics and would even have supported the $100 Million Loan if it was public and transparent)

On a separate matter, Cadman also said that he has written a letter to city manager Judy Rogers stating that he's assuming there has been no discussion of a severance package for Estelle Lo, who recently resigned as the city's chief financial officer. "When people resign, they don't get a severance package," Cadman said.

Did anyone ever think that she was forced out because she may have had issues with the $100 Million Loan? Judy Rogers withheld information on her resignation till after the election, with or without the knowledge of City Council. (I tend to beleive that it was with the knowledge of the Council who did not want anyone to rain on their parade with the Millenium Project)

How could the Director of Finance resign on October 17th and Council not know about it till after the election when it was released on November 6th? If Council did in fact not know of this resignation, then Judy Rogers should be taken to task for withholding this key information from Council and the Public.

City Council is acting against the interests of taxpayers by focusing on who leaked the information of the loan and who leaked the swipe card information instead of focusing on why the Director of Finance resigned and why it was supposedly withheld from Council and certainly withheld from the Public.

Estelle Lo served the City of Vancouver for 10 years and this is how she is treated? (Ed. I do not know Estelle and have no connection to her whatsoever)

As the recent Alan Garr article in the Vancouver Courier stated
"Managers say Rogers has created the "most toxic workplace" they've ever experienced." It seems that City Council is acting in the same manner.

Shameful

What $100 Million, Vancouver celebrates AC-DC Day

While Vancouver taxpayers are rigthfully upset at the lack of information from the City on the $100 Million loan to the Olympic Village Developers, and the secrecy surrounding this action as well the the resignation of Estelle Lo, the Mayors office has more important things to do.

http://www.mayorsamsullivan.ca/vancouver-celebrates-ac-dc-day-november-28th.html

Change can't come soon enough. Trouble is, City Hall stays the same.

Van City Council to hire lawyer to waste our money

This is turning into a fiasco on top of a disaster and we taxpayers just take this crap.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=cf5c7687-00b7-4d1c-96e1-987536c1d1a3

City Council is hiring legal counsel at a yet hefty unknown cost to determine why they all agreed to secretly loan taxpayer money to the Olympic Village Developer. They are not looking at why Estelle Lo, Director of Finance had some of her key duties stripped from her prior to the secret vote, which she did not attend. They are not looking at why she resigned and more importantly why Judy withheld that information from the public and supposedly from Council itself till after the election. They still haven't released any more information about this so-called loan despite the public outcry.

This is a disgrace.

Is Gregor Robertson, Vision Mayor-Elect backtracking already?

I am very concerned that Gregor Robertson is backtracking on what to do with City Hall officials and the $100 Million loan fiasco, and the shameful way the Esther Lo situation was handled courtesy of Judy Rogers.

Here is a quote from http://www.irwinloy.com/blog/tag/gregor-robertson"I’m very concerned when a chief financial officer steps aside and resigns,” Robertson said. “I’d like to know why and what concerns exist around that.”But he acknowledged Judy Rogers, the city’s powerful top bureaucrat, would have the final say on the matter.“I’ll see what the city manager says about whether these concerns can be aired,” Robertson said.

Judy Rogers having the final say? Wondering whether concerns about the Chief Financial Officer having her responsibilities pulled and then she leaves under unknown circumstances prior to the election, and that information is withheld from the public and even over 3 weeks after she resigned, we still don't know what happened?

Is it time to dump Judy Rogers?

Great article by Alan Garr at the Vancouver Courier

As I have long stated, my bad experience with her can't be unique, and we now see how this severly impacts all Vancouverites.

Are we Canadians too meek when dealing with Government?

Yes, yes, yes. No matter what the scandal, we might grouse for a few days and move on.
Ferry fiasco to the tune of over $600 Million? Oh well.
$100 Million "loaned" to a developer in secret? Tsk Tsk.

Thats why Judy Rogers and the City of Vancouver can put up a lame notice like this on their web site back on November 6th and offer nothing since then.

The financial and schedule risks assumed by the City with respect to the Olympic Village remain unchanged. The City is conducting business related to Southeast False Creek and the Olympic Village pursuant to a unanimous Council mandate.
Staff has kept all Council members informed on developments since the beginning of the project, and will continue to report out as appropriate. The City will continue to make information publicly available when appropriate in order to continue to act in the taxpayers’ best interest.
The City is confident that the Olympic Village will be completed on schedule and turned over to VANOC as planned.

Who decides when it will be appropriate to let the taxpayers of Vancouver know what is going on with their money? Why, the same people who tried to give it away in secret?

You would think that the taxpayers of Vancouver would be demanding accountability and answers from Judy Rogers. Obviously not, and she knows it.

Why is Vancouver City Manager Office not being investigated?

If Vancouver was a Public Corporation, which in a sense it is, and information about a resignation of the top Finance official was witheld from the shareholders/public prior to a major company event, there would be a criminal investigation. Yet, in this case, the City is using its employees, the police, to "investigate" the source of the leak of information that the public needed to know. This is what a police state does.

Since Judy Rogers is the City Manager and she is the one that announced the resignation of Estelle Lo, one can assume that she was also the one to whom the resignation was tendered. Yet, despite the fact that an election was coming up, and news of the $100 Million loan had already been made public, this information was witheld from the public till after the election. We are also led to beleive that it was witheld from City Council as Peter Ladner and others claimed to have no knowledge of her status. I wonder what was done to keep Estelle quiet about her resignation till after the election. When you are handing out $100 Million of taxpayer money in secret, whats a few dollars to keep it quiet. I assume Vancouverites will never know the details of the severance package.

Its surprising to me that her office is not being scrutinized closer in this whole affair, especially since she is also on the board of VANOC. I guess she knows too many secrets and where the skeletons are buried. Even the media has not cast any questions in this direction.

See a good article by Gary Mason of the Globe and Mail here: Globe

Estelle Lo "Resigns"

Did she resign or was she pushed to resign and by whom? This stinks, which is no surprise given what we see at City Hall. Of course they witheld this till after the election. Interesting that now Judy Rogers is sending out the email to Councillers and Staff but could not be bothered to face the public when the leak of the $100 Million loan came out, and instead sent Jody Andrews out to face the fire.

http://www.francesbula.com/?p=658

Update: Did anyone notice that the resignation email sent by Estelle was after the notice of her resignation sent by Judy Rogers?
Judy's email: Sent: Mon Nov 17 09:06:07 2008
Estelle's Email: Sent: Mon Nov 17 09:13:33 2008

I guess since we know that Estelle actually resigned on October 29th, these emails were just a charade.

Why Vote when Judy Rogers runs the city anyway?

I am a strong believer in utilizing your vote in a democracy. This time, however, I am quite disillusioned about the municipal votes in Vancovuer.

Till recently, I thought that Peter Ladner would get my vote for the next Mayor. Aside from the fact that he never once bothered to respond to email I sent him, the shennigans with the $100 Million "loan" to Millenium bother me a lot. Not so much that they loaned the money, but that they not only tried to keep it secret, but talk about getting the police on whoever did the public a favor whether that was their intention or not. I just don't like Peters talk about how the negotiations had to be secret or we would be in a bad position. Everyone knew about the cost overruns on the project, it was public information. Everyone knew of the softening real estate market. The Developer needed the money, what kind of leverage would they have?

This attitude suggests that all of us taxpayers are idiots who don't understand whats going on.

Beyond all the people asking for our vote, what difference would it really make? They will still raise property taxes, and we will still have the same problems we have with the current administration. I can guarantee it. Worse, nothing changes in the real seat of power, the unelected City Managers office. This is the entity that Vancouverites deal with. I want to know what those running for office plan to do to ensure that City Hall is accountable to citizens of Vancouver.

No one is talking about the $100 Million

Strange, this issue had some legs last week, now nothing. No one is asking exactly what kind of guarantees we have in Vancouver. No one is asking when this information would have been relayed to Vancouver residents if not for it being leaked. Would we only have found out about it if it turns out, as I think it will, that we are on the hook?

Meanwhile, our so-called leaders act like children. Peter Ladner says he forgot his secret "don't tell the taxpayers" document in the meeting room, and someone put it in someone else room. Is this a kindergarden? These people want to be our leaders?

Meanwhile, not a peep from Judy Rogers who surely had a hand in all this being that she is also on the Board of Vancouver 2010.

Judy, can you spare $100 Million?

Taxpayers don't need to know, we just have to trust City Hall. Of course, Judy Rogers is not available for comment, she puts Jody Andrews out there on the firing line. No one knows for sure if the Director of Finance has resigned or not.  As it says in The Province " Rogers is on the Board of Directors of the Olympic Organizing committee and would be intimately familiar with any deal on the project"

I have stated in my own small case that there is a lack of transparency, accountability and communication in City Hall. We are now seeing this on a much larger scale.

Vancouver Taxpayers pay City Lawyers to fight them

Did you know that the Legal Department of the City of Vancouver has a budget of $4.5 Million, of which 90% is salaries and benefits? They have 7 litigators , 9 solicitors, 10 Legal Assistants, and about 12-13 others not including the Senior Managers. About 43 people total!!!!

So we the taxpayers, as in my case, pay to allow these people to fight us when we have an issue with a decision by they City that we feel is incorrect. Is that crazy? So, if a citizen has an issue with a $1000.00 claim from the city, given all these people and the above average salaries and benefits they would get, the costs to the taxpayers would spiral out of control very quickly. I am 100% positive that the costs in my case have probably been higher than 10 times as much as my claim.

Who reviews what this department does, and how they do it? Who makes sure that their budget is properly spent to the benefit of the Citizens of Vancouver? No one, it seems.

Elections, elections, elections, City Hall could care less

I am very happy to have the opportunity to vote in my riding as well as provincially and federally. However, these days, I have a very cynical feeling about votes that impact Vancouver.

It seems clear to me that no matter who gets into office, nothing changes at City Hall unless the unelected Judy Rogers wants it to. No citizen can expect a clear, fair, unbiased process when dealing with the City.

Here is a quote from someone I wrote to who is running for office of some kind in Vancouver.

"The power that lies with Judy Rogers in her ability to manage city affairs does require a re-examination as this is not the first I've heard of her adversarial and antagonist approach."