Very quickly… I spoke with Councillor Fraser just now and here’s what he has to say:
- There was a meeting of council on Friday before the release of the clerk’s report on the waste water petition. It was informal and councillors were just briefed on what the report said. The content of that report was news to him at that time and the rest of council seemed to be hearing the clerk’s findings for the first time as well.
- The meeting wasn’t about preparing a message for the public. It was just an informal briefing.
- As far as he knows there’s been no attempt over the weekend to circle the wagons and prepare a united front for tonight’s meeting. I pressed him on this and he says that if there has been any attempt to get together in the background and prepare “The Message” he hasn’t been a part of it.
- He was away for part of the weekend and when he returned his inbox was full of e-mails about the waste water petition. The overwhelming majority — by like a 50 to 1 margin, though sounds like he hasn’t done an official count — of those e-mails were saying there should be a referendum on the waste water P3 and the petition should have been accepted and stuff like that. He also said that so far about the only e-mail he’s seen that was supportive of the clerk’s decision and was opposed to the referendum was forwarded to him from another councillor.
- He also didn’t know who ran that robocall over the weekend about the waste water petition and P3. If it was from staff, he hadn’t heard about it.
That’s about it. As for who’s going to make what motions at tonight’s meeting and whether or not there’ll be a referendum in spite of the clerk’s decision, can’t say at this time. You’ll just have to show up at city hall yourself. Fun starts at 5:30. I’ll be live tweeting the event from @PDCityHall.
