One of my first questions is: what is the precedent? How often is this typically done? How many times per year has this happened in the last say 15 years? Is this out of the ordinary, or just status quo in the CBRM? Transparency is a major issue for this mayorship, IMO. Remember the consultant's report they sat on for months without even sharing to the councillors because its findings were contrary to their port strategy? Or the emails from his communications rep to a CBU professor that the professor interpreted as discouraging him from expressing his views on the port, etc. Then the whole HPDP (Harbour Port Development Partners) with Barry Sheehy where they bait you with stories of how he and his partner spent 1,000,000 out of pocket for "stuff" that they didn't want to elaborate too much in their Information Morning interview. But then use that speaking point as the justification to hand them over exclusivity deals. So your port marketing is now in the hands of a Georgian historian who is likely self published (pay fee; you're an author; TBD), and has eyebrow raising investments in China like monetized mahjong and some kind of "memorials" company that merged into mining interests, yada yada. You might want to have a little more background on these sorts of characters before handing over the keys. I like Ray Paruch for his willingness to critic and challenge these things. But we need the council filled with others will to do the same and press the issues. In fact, in a related conversation recently, I thought the name Ray Paruch might even be an option for the next mayoral ballot.