March 14, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Statement on Gregor Robertsons response to HOOTSUITE Petition to Court
We received Mayor Robertson's response to our petition in the past 48 hours, which is now being thoroughly reviewed. While we are dismayed that Mr. Robertson is not taking responsibility for his actions, we are nonetheless not surprised. His response essentially calls our petition frivolous and vexatious. We wholeheartedly disagree. The evidence we submitted to the court suggests at the very least an apprehension of bias in Mr. Robertson's voting on the city property to HootSuite / Mr Holmes. As stated before, Robertson, HootSuite and it's CEO Ryan Holmes clearly had a relationship, which extended to electioneering and promotional assistance, which continued after the lease was approved. Also suspicious are the circumstances surrounding the lease. The lease was granted through a nontransparent process and behind closed doors. The city only released the full details of the lease after approximately 1 1/2 years from the vote and only after repeated FOI requests from many sources including myself, resulting in the British Columbia Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner scheduling an OIPC inquiry to begin on the matter at my request and eventual pressure from the media. Furthermore, we have at least one email that appears to indicate that the decision to lease the property to HootSuite appears not to have been decided by the city real estate services department but rather by Mr. Robertson and City Manager, Penny Ballem. We are also in the possession of redacted emails that clearly show the special assistance of Gregor Robertson's chief of Staff, Mike Magee as well as communication being sent to his private consultancy company by Ryan Holmes. For the foregoing reasons, we will continue with the petition process with the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The Mayor's response sadly does not address our concerns. Glen Chernen Contact @glenchernen on twitter or chernencomments@gmail.com