It was expected to be a heated debate regarding the passing of Stars and Thunder 2018.

In the end, an expected result. But by an unexpected margin of 5-4.

City Councillors Mike Doody and Noella Rinaldo both voted down the motion, which saw the approval of the eight day option at $5.75-million dollars.

Both of them spoke with Rogers Media after the meeting and said they had nothing against it, but preferred to have a four-day festival instead.

Rinaldo says it was something she heard from many people, adding it would’ve been easier on everyone.

“I think we’d be able to condense it and improve it even more,” she said, “I think we might be watering it down a little by going eight days so I think this would be a lot easier on the volunteers, easier on staff and definitely easier on those of us that are getting a little older that attend the festival.”

She adds many of the people that did attend, she found went an average of 4-5 days out of the eight.

Doody echoes those comments, saying people told him they found the eight days in 2017 “tiring and taxing.”

“(Those people) still feels that four days is a long four days and with what we’ve learned from staff and the organizers, we’ve learned what the pluses are and what the minuses are and I think we can put on a real wing-ding of a four-day music festival.”

When asked, neither of them hold resentment for how the vote went down.

Meantime, both councillors that voted against the 2017 edition—Rick Dubeau and Joe Campbell—had their reservations this time around too.

Both pushed for contingency dollars, much like you would see with other large scale projects in case of unforeseen events.

“It’s something you have to take into effect,” Dubeau said during the meeting, “We sold $390-thousand dollars worth of tickets the week of the festival.”

“In my opinion, those people were waiting to see what the weather was going to be like, and that was one of the few weeks that we didn’t get rain for most of the week. We got extremely lucky.”

Campbell says it’s needed so council doesn’t pass any additional costs on to the taxpayers.

“I want to emphasize, I enjoyed Stars and Thunder I,” he said, “I’d enjoy a Stars and Thunder II, but it has to be done under proper circumstances where our taxpayers are not put at risk…and we are putting our taxpayers at risk right now with this budget. It has zero room for us to maneuver.”

Councillor Andrew Marks was the first to speak on the subject after the presentation by Black. Marks says “we have a winning formula” with the eight day option.

He adds changing the formula would put them in a spot where they may have to start from scratch.

“We’ve done eight days, we’ve done professional, we’ve done big, we’ve done well and the citizens of the City of Timmins absolutely deserve the very best,” Marks says.

Before the meeting, a request by resident John Ivanovs to speak on this item was approved.

It was at this point that council agreed to have the man speak. Ivanovs—a longtime critic of the festival and a man whose frequented city council meetings over the last number of months with a t-shirt protesting the event—pointed to the burden this puts on taxpayers.

He says while the eight day option seems better than the four days financially, another option worth considering is spending zero dollars on the event.

“The (proposed budget) represents the equivalent of 8.1 per cent of the city’s approved expenditure and capital budget for 2017,” he said.

Ivanovs noted the sole sourcing of contracts involved—and sole sourcing in general—is “ridiculous.” He admits Ron Sakamoto is a quality promoter, but suggests there could be others out there that could do the job at a lower cost.

He finalizes by saying the festival should be part of the budget process, with public input.

Black responded by saying the cost was actually around $600-thousand dollars, when factoring in the revenue generated.

What came next was an hour of debate, which saw exchanges reminiscent to the early fall of 2016, with calls for respect, points of order and even some profanity laced in.

CLICK HERE to see the full exchanges, under Item 4M, 4N and 6B.

Some of the highlights include:

  • Councillor Pat Bamford pointing to the positive economic impact the festival had on businesses.
  • Councillor Dubeau says $2-million dollars on entertainment is “too much,” adding Day 1 will fall on a Sunday in 2018 (The 2017 edition started on a Saturday.)
  • Comments also drew reactions from the sizeable crowd, to the point that Doody spoke up and told them emphatically to “show a little politeness.”
  • To comments of residents not being able to afford the festival, Councillor Veronica Farrell says she knew people on ODSP and with special needs saving up money to attend, as they knew of it well in advance.
  • Black says people close to him have asked why he would want to go through with another festival, noting all the negative backlash that came of it.  He says there was “far more pleasant community pride, people happy that week” and many still tell him the festival offers an experience many locals can’t get to in larger centres.
  • Dubeau questioned the procedure at the end, when Councillor Walter Wawrzaszek provided closing comments.

Nonetheless, when it came time to vote, Black offered the notion that if council has an idea to cut costs, he is open to hearing them out.

CAO Dave Landers noted there were about 20 sub-committees working on the event in some capacity.  And during the de-briefing after the fact, they “learned a lot.”

Dubeau asked for a deferral, citing the CAO has a report from staff of the things that did or didn’t go well this past year.  He says that should be given out for comments.  He also pointed to the split of council wanting four days instead of eight.

His deferral request was denied by a 7-2 vote (Campbell voted alongside him).

He then requested adding a 30 per cent contingency dollar amount, saying “problems do arise” that could impact the financials.

It was again defeated by the same 7-2 count.

When the whole eight day request was voted upon, Mayor Black voted in favour, along with Councillors Bamford, Wawrzaszek, Farrell and Marks.

Councillors Dubeau, Campbell, Doody and Rinaldo voted against it.

Filed under: City Council News, Local News, stars and thunder