Just Andy being Andy: Breen brushes off former mayor's accusations, legal threats
Danny Breen will not engage in a debate with Andy Wells over allegations of illegal misspending and secret meetings the former mayor made on Monday night.
Breen, who has not ruled out a run for mayor in the next election, said that's just the way Wells does business.
"That's the way he has operated in the past in politics and continues to do so," he told the St. John's Morning Show.
"It would be appropriate to have a reasonable conversation about those. I'm certainly open to reasonable conversations, but I've got no intentions of getting into that."
Wells berated the council following Monday's meeting, threatening legal action for "deliberately or ignorantly" breaking city bylaws by voting on financial matters privately.
Breen insisted the council only deals with legal or human resources matters behind closed doors – things that are mandated to be kept private.
When asked if he was running for mayor in next year's council race, Wells again refused to tip his hand one way or the other.
Breen, meanwhile, said his decision would not be affected by Wells.
"[He] absolutely has no impact on my decisions," Breen said. "When you run in politics, you run based on yourself and what you can offer the electorate."
"His possible candidacy does not impact my decision one bit."
Breen has repeatedly said he'll decide if he'll run again in the New Year.
Council waives rule, approves parking lot
Meanwhile, a large park-and-fly lot near St. John's International Airport proposed by Clayton Hospitality Inc. will not be stopped by city council.
The 625-space, 2.5-hectare development would exceed a city bylaw that limits parking lots to 0.5 hectares. The bylaw was never enforced, Breen said, and many lots in the city exceed the limit.
Council voted to waive the bylaw Monday.
Since parking lots are an approved use in the zone, the issue will not require discretionary approval from council.
Instead, the plan will only need to be approved by city staff based on regulations and engineering requirements.
The parking lot has been in the works for a while, Breen said, but access to the property was on Radio Range Road, which was too narrow for the proposal.
The developer has since acquired crown land on Craig Dobbin Way, which will now be used to provide access to the property.
Nearly departed businesses
In other council news, with the planned closures of longtime downtown businesses like Templeton's and Ballistic Skate and Snow, Breen said council is hoping to meet with the owners for "exit interviews."
The decision drew the ire of Bob Hallett, a downtown restaurateur and former member of Great Big Sea, who took to Twitter with his frustrations.
Breen said it is important for council to get "first-hand experience" from the departing owners, to learn more about what could have been done to save their businesses.
He said with the economy in a downward turn, it's time for the city to pay "special attention" to the downtown core.
"The economic times are certainly part of it, but that's probably a time we need to work harder to help out down there."
