Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim turns assembly room into health club: advisor

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Dealing with criticism that he appropriated a metropolis council chamber for a health club, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim on Wednesday defended the transfer as a manner to enhance well being, well-being and privateness in his workplace.

The Grouse Room on the third ground of Metropolis Corridor has been used for conferences with delegations and enormous teams, and is accessible for council members to e-book as wanted.

However in January, council members acquired an electronic mail from Metropolis Supervisor Paul Mochrie informing them that two rooms on the grounds — the ceremonial assembly room and the chook room — can be used for “the common operations of the mayor and his workplace group.”

As a result of the e-mail got here on the heels of the mayor’s workplace’s new finances, Coun. Pete Fry assumed the rooms can be used as workplace area.

However final Friday, he got here throughout the open Grouse Room and noticed that it had been was a makeshift health club.

“The utter absurdity and unseriousness of repurposing a civilian asset as Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa hides a really actual drawback,” Fry wrote on social media on Tuesday, referring to Ken’s character taking up Barbie’s home and turning it right into a stereotypical bachelor condo within the 2023 Barbie film. “With course of, transparency and good governance, which we proceed to disregard.”

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“I used to be annoyed and disenchanted. It is a area we use to get metropolis enterprise executed, and we have needed to search for assembly area on different flooring,” Fry mentioned Wednesday.

Frey mentioned Sim used a restricted useful resource at Metropolis Corridor that was crowded with area for private use, leaving some council members struggling to discover a assembly area, whereas some selected to conduct extra conferences off-site.

Sim’s determination to transform the Grouse Room right into a health club wasn’t the one latest change to the room that concerned the mayor’s workplace.

After Sim was elected mayor in 2022, he moved into the identical workplace utilized by former Mayor Kennedy Stewart, however moved earlier this yr to the ceremonial assembly room – historically used because the mayor’s workplace – offering a extra formal and dignified setting to welcome dignitaries. The mayor’s workplace and delegations mentioned.

Adjoining to this workplace is the Grouse Room, which was a part of the mayor’s workplace suite and was used because the chief of workers’s workplace earlier than being transformed right into a convention room. The 2 rooms share a door.

“To make sure privateness and effectivity, we’ve moved the boardroom to a bigger, extra central location for board members,” Sim mentioned in an announcement. “This new area not solely gives higher privateness for the mayor’s workplace, but in addition fosters a extra conducive setting for significant discussions.”

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On Wednesday, Sim led the media by means of his suite of rooms.

The ceremonial convention room, now his workplace, incorporates three desks — one standing and two sitting — two giant sofas, a flat-screen tv, in addition to books and avenue indicators as graffiti.

One of many books on a shelf behind the sofas was titled “The Bitcoin Normal” by economist Saif Al-Din Amos. The latest was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s e-book “Be Useful: Seven Instruments for Life.” A notice on his everlasting desk mentioned “Sugar Free = Most cancers Free” in black everlasting marker.

The room subsequent to it, the outdated Grouse Room, now incorporates train tools, together with a Peloton bike, squat rack, dip bar, free weights and yoga mats.

The mayor mentioned he turned the area right into a health club as a result of “well being and well-being are essential, and this setup permits me to remain centered and energetic amid a tricky schedule.” Sim mentioned he purchased the tools himself.

“It isn’t simply me (who makes use of it), everybody has entry to it,” Sim mentioned.

“, different council members and folks within the mayor’s workplace. Typically we host conferences whereas attempting to draw some representatives.”

However Fry careworn that he and non-ABC council members can’t entry this place. When he tried to open the door to Grouse’s room on Wednesday, attempting to get in utilizing his key code, he was denied entry.

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Town corridor additionally homes a health middle, however “to be truthful, I do not know if it has the identical tools,” Fry added.

Sim’s chief of workers, Trevor Ford, confirmed that the basement health club doesn’t comprise a Peloton bike, however does comprise yoga mats, free weights and biking machines.

The workplace previously occupied by the mayor is now a convention room utilized by his workplace, whereas the convention room desk that was situated within the Grouse Room has been moved to a different room on the third ground.

On Wednesday, workers who used that room earlier than presenting to the mayor and council could possibly be seen sitting in a row of chairs lined up within the public hallway outdoors the council chambers.

“Municipal workers are experiencing a scarcity of privateness as a result of these modifications,” Frey mentioned.

Whether or not the transfer to transform the previous boardroom right into a gymnasium is an acceptable use of civic area is “open to debate,” he added.

Frey mentioned he had meant to ask questions in regards to the matter at Tuesday’s council assembly when the mayor’s finances allocation was on the agenda, however was blocked when the bulk ABC Council used a procedural transfer to finish the dialogue.

“My solely possibility, as a result of my silence within the assembly, was to relay this data to Twitter,” Frey mentioned. “Beforehand, we have been capable of ask questions like this, of common significance, formally.”

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Throughout Tuesday’s assembly, in a 7-3 vote, the council voted to reallocate $80,000 initially accredited for the town clerk’s division to the mayor’s workplace finances for a full-time workers member to deal with the mayor’s scheduling.

Frey, a fellow Inexperienced Occasion depend. Adrian Carr and Con Metropolis. Kristen Boyle voted in opposition to.

The $80,000 is along with the $100,000 the council accredited for “discretionary” bills by the mayor’s workplace.

Seim’s workplace finances for 2024 is $1.47 million, about 30 p.c increased than Stewart’s finances of $1.11 million throughout his final full yr in workplace.

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