Kings County Municipal Building public meeting to be held Tuesday

The Kings County Municipal Council is facing criticism that its public engagement sessions to be held discussing a new municipal complex in Coldbrook are not genuine.

In the spring, the Kings County Municipal Council voted to sell its current home in Kentville to the justice department. On Tuesday evening, the county is holding the first of two public engagement sessions on the project.

This is where things get complicated.

Through a series of in-camera meetings, council has already chosen the location and bought the land for the new municipal complex. It will be built in Coldbrook on six acres of land off Exit 14 of Highway 101, in the same industrial park as Leon's Furniture. Some councillors say that process happened with zero consultation with the public.

'I think the key decisions have already been made'

"It's a bit — I don't want to use the word dishonest, but what are they going to be able to tell us?" said District 3 councillor Pauline Raven. "The request for proposal is already set in stone. What if they did want to open up discussion around having this building in a different place or having more things than just chambers and administrative offices in the building?"

"I don't think a lot can happen because I think the key decisions have all already been made."

Deputy Warden Brian Hirtle told CBC News there is still room to hear from citizens on things such as what the foyer or meeting rooms should look like.

"Can you imagine trying to ask 50,000 people where you were going to go with a building? We'd be talking about it for 10 years to come," he said.

Hirtle doesn't seem too worried about criticism decisions haven't been made in the public.

"We've been given the mandate to be able to make decisions for residents of the county. If we make the wrong decision, I guess they get to decide that in the election in 2016," he said.

Hirtle says he constantly receives feedback from the public, even when he is out and about at community breakfasts.

The Kings Citizens Coalition has questions about this week's meetings.

"They're not really community engagement meetings," said coalition co-chair Gordon Lummis. "They're really meetings to try and explain what they've done. There's no opportunity as we can see it for public input, it's really to explain, really a sales pitch for what they've done."

Decisions made behind closed doors

Raven said many decisions have been made in-camera, like the decision to sell the current municipal building, how much to sell it for, where to locate the new building, how much to pay for that land, what the building will look like and what the RFP will be.

She said the council goes in-camera too often.

"I think you could have much broader discussions and leave the specifics for the in-camera meetings, but have the broad discussion in advance of those in-camera meetings that when you go in, you're going in with the information from your constituents that you need that could influence how you feel about what you're discussing in camera," said Raven.

When asked how much money has been spent on the project already and what the total budget is expected to be, both councillors would not say, with Raven saying the budget had been discussed in camera.

Hirtle said the criteria to go in camera is very restrictive.

Lummis is also concerned with the number of in camera meetings council has.

"The municipal act is very specific as to what you can do in camera. It's for contract or personnel matters or that sort of thing. They have gone way beyond just talking about contracts, they have gone into locations, and not just general locations, but they have gone way beyond what the municipal act, in our view, is intended to do," he said.

For the first six months of 2015, Lummis said of the 20 council meetings, 14 have been in camera.

Goodbye, Shiretown​

Lummis does not like the planned new location.

"You can't have a vibrant town if all the retail and other activities move outside the town, " he said.

Hirtle said the decision to move to Coldbrook shouldn't hurt Kentville. He told CBC News with the justice centre expanding in Kentville, there shouldn't be a loss to the downtown core.

Raven disagrees.

"If we stayed too, it builds that centre for retail and commerce even more," she said.

Tonight's public engagement meeting is at 7 p.m. in the orchard room in the municipal building on Cornwallis Street in Kentville. Another meeting will be held tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the fire hall in Kingston.