Call it another round of Black versus Dubeau.

Mayor Steve Black and Councillor Rick Dubeau have clashed regularly during this council term. And a line in a report regarding management of detailed design work on the Aquatic Centre set the stage for more intensity.

The administration report set out to hire Sierra Planning for just over $72-thousand dollars to help manage the work being undertaken by Perkins & Will.

Perkins & Will is conducting Phase 1 and 2 of “construction ready services” to get the Aquatic Centre in a position to be under construction, and Phase 3—or construction management services—if there is sufficient funding to move ahead.

It started off as general concern from Dubeau on Phase 3, stating “I’m uncomfortable with the fact that it’s a general comment and that there isn’t a specific number identified there, whether it’s fundraising, provincial funds or federal funds.”

CAO Dave Landers clarified that moving to construction is based on council’s approval.

Dubeau contends any mention of physical construction shouldn’t be in the report.

But things went south when in his argument, Dubeau made reference to a typo on the Connecting Link by-law passed in 2016—the very same typo that led to Dubeau accusing city staff of misleading council…and subsequently voted off all boards and committees after refusing to apologize.

As Dubeau made reference to it, Mayor Black chimed in to try and keep the discussion on the item on the agenda.

Black says if Dubeau doesn’t like the wording in the report, to take it up with the CAO but the Ward 5 councillor.

Black says the construction phase isn’t part of the vote.

“How long do you want to spend on that tonight,” Black asked Dubeau.

The councillor replied by asking for some respect, adding City Clerk Steph Palmateer admitted the infamous Connecting Link typo wasn’t a typo at all.

“And yet, that has not been clarified,” Dubeau continued, “So tell me why this is in here, when that wasn’t a typo when I brought it up and (then) I was excluded and taken off all the committees, and I was proven right in that aspect.”

“So don’t tell me this doesn’t count, because it counted last year, which cost us over a million dollars per kilometres.”

Black reiterated that if Dubeau didn’t agree with it, vote it down.

Dubeau continued to make the comparison with the Connecting Link, and Black interjected again to keep the discussion on the Aquatic Centre report.

Again, Dubeau refused, saying he was just responding to Black’s comments.

“Mayor Black, you’re not going to censor me again,” Dubeau said.

“I’m not censoring you,” Black responded.

“Yes you are, you’re not allowing me to speak,” Dubeau retorted, “I allowed you to speak, I did not interrupt.”

As Dubeau continued to recap the Connecting Link typo, Black tried to cut in and that’s when both of their voices jumped up a few decibels.

After another moment of arguing, Palmateer stepped in to clarify his point of view on last year’s typo.

He notes that even though they passed the by-law, nobody picked up on the error that listed 2.2km instead of the 1.4km that was eventually constructed in 2016.

Palmateer then turned it over to the admin report they were originally talking about, saying that approving the report is just for getting Sierra to manage Perkins & Will’s detailed design work and going to construction “has nothing to do with the by-law that council’s going to be passing (tonight) for this project.”

Dubeau replied by asking that when he apologized to Palmateer in May, if the clerk admitted it wasn’t a typo last year.

“Yes, I drafted the by-law before the report was presented,” Palmateer answered.

Dubeau would go on to say the admin report and by-law have to meet and that he was censored for it in the past.

Black says that’s not why he was censored, reminding him it was for the “misleading council” comment.

Black continued to say they can go back and look at previous council meetings on their own time, but asked if Dubeau had anything else to say regarding the report on the table.

“The report from administration does not jive with the by-law being passed,” Dubeau says, “And I have a serious issue with that.”

No other comments were made.

When it came time to vote later in the meeting, council passed it 6-2 with Dubeau and Councillor Joe Campbell voting against it.

CLICK HERE to see the full exchange, under Item 4M.

CLICK HERE for the admin report in question.

Filed under: city-council-news, Local News