Disclosure - JUNO Awards

At last night's council meeting, Mayor Dennis O'Keefe, announced he had asked staff to provide him with the costs of certain aspects of the city's snow clearing activities. He wants to share this information with the citizens of St. John's so that we may have a perspective of the costs of this activity.

This is a positive move by the mayor. However, it is unfortunate he does not apply it to all activities of the city.

Sometime in the past few weeks, the council, in a private meeting, committed up to $250,000 for the 2010 JUNO Awards. While I accept this committment may have to be kept secret until the official announcement, there is no reason for council not to explain their decision at the next council meeting.

There certainly was an opportunity for any one of our 11 councillors to comment on their JUNO committment as they unanimously approved the mayor's travel application for a trip to Vancouver to attend the 2009 JUNO Awards. The necessity for this trip was not explained.

Should the mayor wish to keep citizens informed, he should not be selective in his information- sharing. He should now explain to us why the city committed the $250,000 and how this money is going to be spent on the 2010 JUNO Awards.

This will provide some perspective for us.