NoneEliminating Vancouver’s elected park board could save the city around $7 million per year, according to a report heading to council next week. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim unveiled the Parks and Recreation Transition Group’s final report Thursday, which suggested the savings would come from efficiencies, streamlined processes and reduced duplication. The report also argued that the integration of parks and recreation under council authority could help ensure 36 hectares of parkland currently designated as “temporary” were reclassified as permanent. “This transition isn’t just about governance,” Sim said. “It’s about unlocking opportunities to save, to improve and to invest. Now, by streamlining services, cutting duplication, eliminating unnecessary red tape, we’re going to save Vancouverites $70 million over the next decade.” The report states that delays related to duplication in authority between the two elected bodies added about $15 million in added costs to city projects over the last four years, particularly related to construction. “Right now, getting permits for events like festivals or filming can be a frustrating, multi-step process, and we’re going to change that,” Sim said. The transition group’s report recommends replacing the oversight duties of elected park board members with a city council subcommittee on parks and recreation, made up of five councillors. The committee would advise the full council and represent the city in talks with other government bodies on parks and recreation issues. Completing the transition would require updating 18 city bylaws, integrating duplicated teams and aligning policies between the city and parks departments, the report states. Sim announced plans to abolish the city’s elected park board last December, despite campaigning on retaining and improving it in the 2022 election. At the time, Sim said the elected body was “broken ,” and that eliminating it would align Vancouver with other major Canadian cities. The move has met with resistance from some community groups and a majority of elected parks commissioners, including three who split with Sim’s ABC Vancouver party over the plan. That includes independent commissioner Laura Christensen, who said she doesn’t trust the financial figures in the transition group’s report. “There’s no backup on where these numbers came from. They came up with this number of $7 million a year, but the report itself says its difficult and they are unable to really estimate what those savings are,” she said. She added the savings were minuscule in the context of Vancouver’s multi-billion-dollar operating budget, and that the Park Board had managed to boost its own revenues by $4.5 million last year alone. “$7 million a year, in the grand scheme of the city budget, is not huge,” she said. “For example, in the 2025 budget, the VPD is requesting a $22 million increase to their budget.” Christensen also criticized the report’s conclusion abolishing the board would help ensure temporary parks are made permanent, something she said city council could already do tomorrow if it wished. Vancouver Green Coun, Adrianne Carr said her colleagues are already dealing with a heavy workload, and taking on new committee obligations would be difficult. “I already work about 60 to 70 hours a week,” she said. “So for me, it’s almost impossible to think about taking on an extra two days a week and in workload.” The report notes several challenges with completing the transition, including employee concerns and uncertainties about their roles, reporting structures and job security. It also highlighted concerns from the public about losing dedicated parks oversight and specialized expertise and fears that smaller community groups could have their voices overshadowed by larger groups under the new structure. It recommends mitigating those concerns with the creation of a Parks and Recreation Community Partner Relations Office, to handle engagement with stakeholders and ensure stability across elected city administrations. While the transition report is slated to go to council next week, it will be some time before there is any movement on the issue. Eliminating the park board will require the provincial government to make changes to the Vancouver Charter. B.C.’s NDP government has given its approval in principle, but has not given a timeline on when those changes could take place.
NEW YORK (AP) — The founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network could face decades in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to federal fraud charges, admitting that he misled customers about the business. Alexander Mashinsky , 58, of Manhattan, entered the plea in New York federal court to commodities and securities fraud. He admitted illegally manipulating the price of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token while secretly selling his own tokens at inflated prices to pocket about $48 million before Celsius collapsed into bankruptcy in 2022. In court, he admitted that in 2021 he publicly suggested there was regulatory consent for the company's moves because he knew that customers “would find false comfort” with that. And he said that in 2019, he was selling the crypto tokens even though he told the public that he was not. He said he knew customers would draw false comfort from that too. “I accept full responsibility for my actions,” Mashinsky said of crimes that stretched from 2018 to 2022 as the company pitched itself to customers as a modern-day bank where they could safely deposit crypto assets and earn interest. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a release that Mashinsky “orchestrated one of the biggest frauds in the crypto industry” as his company's assets purportedly grew to about $25 billion at its peak, making it one of the largest crypto platforms in the world. He said Mashinsky used catchy slogans like “Unbank Yourself” to entice prospective customers with a pledge that their money would be as safe in crypto accounts as money would be in a bank. Meanwhile, prosecutors said, Mashinsky and co-conspirators used customer deposits to fund market purchases of the Celsius token to prop up its value. Machinsky made tens of millions of dollars selling his own CEL tokens at artificially high prices, leaving his customers “holding the bag when the company went bankrupt,” Williams said. An indictment alleged that Mashinsky promoted Celsius through media interviews, his social media accounts and Celsius’ website, along with a weekly “Ask Mashinsky Anything” session broadcast that was posted to Celsius’ website and a YouTube channel. Celsius employees from multiple departments who noticed false and misleading statements in the sessions warned Mashinsky, but they were ignored, the indictment said. A plea agreement Mashinsky made with prosecutors calls for him to be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison and to forfeit over $48 million, which is the amount of money he allegedly made by selling his company's token. Sentencing was scheduled for April 8.
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