By Pepper Parr
March 2, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
At the beginning of each meeting of the city Councillors the Chair asks if there are any declarations of interest. Ward 4 Councillor Jack Dennison frequently has to declare an interest because his sports club operations provide recreational services to the city.
A declaration of interest prevents a member of council from voting for anything that he or she stands to benefit from. Other than that – it’s all pretty tame stuff.
A question cropped up at the Development and Infrastructure Standing Committee this afternoon when it looked as if ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman was in the process of getting himself into a conflict when he suggested that Lori McDonald spend some time in his part of town.
Lori MacDonald is the woman who wants to bring ArtFest to Burlington for a three day gig she wants to hold on Old Lakeshore Road.
The dates for the event are May 29-31 – which happens to coincide with the Car Free Sunday that is sponsored by Councillors Dennison and Sharman using the $10,000 the pinched from the city budget
Mayor Goldring wanted to know if the organization could “pull this off” with the time they have. MacDonald sounded confident and she seems to have much of the hard early stage work done. There are a couple of hair dressers on Old Lakeshore that are concerned about their clients getting into their shop.
MacDonald has been working on this project since October but hasn’t been able to say anything about it until Council had given it a nod.
Artfest Ontario is MacDonald’s company – which she owns runs. She has been in the art development business for some time – got into creating Artfest when she took on the development of an art show at the Distillery District in Toronto.
She used to do three a year in Toronto but is cut back to one due to the Pan Am Games. She has run an Artfest in Kingston for the past three years and is looking forward to getting something going in Burlington.
She really wanted to be at Spencer Smith Park but that wasn’t possible.
The tents will be set up along Old Lakeshore Road ans in the Emmas Back Porch parking lot.
The old Burlington Art Centre (now the Art Gallery of Burlington) used to run an outdoor art show but after a couple of really bad years due to weather for the most part gave up on the project which created an opening for MacDonald
She expect to set up more than 100 10 x 10 foot tents along Old Lakeshore where she is getting great cooperation from Craig Kowalchuk at Emmas Back Porch who has turned his large parking lot over to the Artfest.
Council will give the go on this, if that is their wish, March 23rd.
In the meantime Sharman will be doing his best to coax Lori MacDonald to ply her trade at Sherwood Forest Park during the Car Free Sunday May 31st.
I could have sworn I saw Paul Sharman wink at MacDonald while she was giving her delegation
If cultivating an event location is a conflict for Councillor Sharman in ward 5 it would also be a conflict for Meed Ward in ward 2.
That would be problematic in ward 2 with all the events taking place.
According to a recent post from Councillor Meed Ward, council approved the funding for the car free Sundays for wards 4 and 5 with an unanimous vote.
I take that as meaning both councillors from ward 4 and 5 voted to receive the funding specifically for their respective wards.
That seems closer to a conflict if there is one. .
Editor’s note: There was more than a fair share of tongue in cheek in the comments on how Sharman conducted himself
Sounds good to me.