{"id":37736,"date":"2026-03-05T12:26:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T17:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37736"},"modified":"2026-03-05T12:26:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T17:26:44","slug":"councillor-raises-concerns-over-process-transparency-in-victoria-hall-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/councillor-raises-concerns-over-process-transparency-in-victoria-hall-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Councillor raises concerns over process, transparency in Victoria Hall debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo has raised concerns regarding transparency and process in the discussions that led to Council\u2019s approval of a plan to renovate historic Victoria Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Councillor has sharply criticized the rising cost of the project, which, following Council approval last week, now stands at $2.2 million, well beyond the $500,000 previously budgeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Councillor Gallo says the ballooning price tag raises \u201cserious transparency and process concerns,\u201d those who voted for the project argued the previously-approved $500,000 was merely a placeholder within the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was not a transparent or responsible process,\u201d said Councillor Gallo in a statement following last week\u2019s Council meeting. \u201cCouncil was asked to approve a multi-million dollar increase without having been provided critical structural reports when they were completed and without those costs being reflected in the capital budget when it was adopted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Councillor argued the engineering and structural findings were completed in May of 2025, but Council was not provided that update in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis means Council did not have access to material information affecting millions of dollars in public spending when it was first known,\u201d he said. \u201cThat undermines Council\u2019s ability to fulfil its fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy vote against this increase was not about opposing the preservation of Victoria Hall,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was about ensuring proper process, transparency, and financial accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen a project increases from $500,000 to over $2 million, Council and the public deserve clear answers, full disclosure, and adequate time to review the implications. Residents expect their elected officials to exercise careful oversight when significant public funds are involved. That requires timely disclosure, open discussion, and a process that ensures Council has the information needed to make informed decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gallo\u2019s statement reflects comments made during the February 24 Council meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, he said it was a question of \u201cleadership\u201d on Council, particularly ensuring each elected member \u201chas all the necessary information and adequate time to review and discuss it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven the clear gaps in disclosure, the timing of the structural findings, the existence of reports Council did not receive until recently and the financial magnitude of this decision, it is appropriate that this matter be referred to Closed Session so that Council can receive full and complete information, including specific details that cannot be discussed publicly, and ask the necessary questions required to fulfil our fiduciary responsibility to the residents of Aurora before any financial decision is made.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting Councillor Gallo\u2019s concerns were Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese who said the decision made last week was \u201cnot about heritage or preservation of heritage\u201d but rather about \u201cprocess.\u201d Similarly, Ward 3 Councillor Wendy Gaertner said it was \u201calarming\u201d how the recommendations came before Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the way I want to be responsible to the taxpayers, so I definitely think this needs to go into Closed Session and I\u2019d like to know how this process happened or lack of process happened,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipal CAO Doug Nadorozny told Council that the process was a \u201cdifficult one\u201d to quickly summarize as the process has been ongoing since a \u201csuperficial\u201d 2016 review. The estimate of $500,000, he said, went back to that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince then, and this isn’t by any means a comprehensive review of all the steps, but the major points that bring us to today, Council will recall we were given direction as staff to consider a possible alternate use for that building. It wasn’t approved. It was suggested that we go back and do some more work with someone that had responded to the request for proposals,\u201d said Nadorozny of where the process stands now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom that point on, we were trying to figure out what’s the best way to get this packaged up and bring it back to Council for potentially an alternate use. As we contemplated that work, two things that we felt we were lacking information for a comprehensive review: one was really what lurked underneath that floor. The original consultant in 2016 did not do a survey of the conditions underneath. The floor seemed fine. There was nothing obvious from a visual perspective that the floor was about to give way or anything like that, so it wasn’t part of their 2016 assessment. We also discovered that before we could go to a tender or to get any kind of detailed work, we also needed a designated substance review, which is a common part of a big project like that to see, especially for a building that old, is there lead, is there asbestos, is there other things that would complicate a renovation? That level of detail was never done 10 years ago. That was all done as part of potentially bringing back to Council an alternate use that we had shared with Council previously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dry rot, he added, was brought up in May and staff had the consultant to \u201cgo back and do a more detailed review\u201d of Victoria Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe identified those areas where we needed some more information, and they are the ones that determined the situation with the dry rot and also the structure of the floor itself, being a floor built on top of a floor. That resulted in there not being an easy fix to that,\u201d said Nadorozny. \u201cWhen we got into a complete reconstruction of the floors, tearing everything down to that level, we decided that it made sense to do a more holistic approach to give Council the full spectrum of what could be done with that site when if you’re going to consider that kind of a restoration. It’s on that basis that the revised quote was brought forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council was ultimately split 4 \u2013 3 on whether to forge ahead with the next steps in the renovations rather than pausing for further information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the vote, Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland said she believed all the relevant information she needed to make a decision was before Council. Ward 4 Councillor Michael Thompson said he was \u201chappy to support\u201d Councillor Gallo\u2019s request for further discussion \u201cabout how we got there, how the reports came about, the lack of information, to have more transparency,\u201d but said it was important to \u201cmove forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important that we move forward with this and continue on this path for the development of Town Square and supporting the renovation of the existing facility, the asset, Victoria Hall, so that we can move forward with some of the things that we\u2019ve talked about in terms of future uses and\u2026complementing what is available to the public downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas, at the end of the debate, contended that \u201cevery single member at this table had the exact same information\u201d and the same opportunities to pose their questions to staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an investment in our community that we have been working towards: a goal of creating a vibrant downtown core, and it\u2019s another piece of that bigger puzzle of that revitalization,\u201d he said, adding the previously budgeted $500,000 was a placeholder figure. \u201cI’ll just remind everyone sitting at this table, we have a placeholder for an aquatic center. Does everyone at the table remember what that placeholder was? $22 million. Does anyone at this table think that we would have built an aquatic center for $22 million? It would probably be closer to $100 million to build that facility. We need to create a budget, put it in as a placeholder, to allow staff to have the ability and the funds to move forward and bring us Class D estimates to start to do the initial work. Because without any funds whatsoever, they can’t move forward. Without any direction from this table, they can’t move forward on doing a detailed analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the meeting Councillor Gallo says he\u2019s been heartened by the feedback he\u2019s received from residents, and contended the vast majority of the information in front of Council in closed session should be made public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost people, the vast majority, are disappointed on a bunch of levels \u2013 the increase in budget, the fact that we\u2019re spending that much money on it, and the lack of transparency are probably the two biggest things,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo has raised concerns regarding transparency and process in the discussions that led to Council\u2019s approval of a plan to renovate historic Victoria Hall. The Councillor has sharply criticized the rising cost of the project, which, following Council approval last week, now stands at $2.2 million, well beyond the $500,000 previously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9OE","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-30 18:21:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37737,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37736\/revisions\/37737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}