To answer your question"What was council thinking?"...........they weren't.They approved the document given to them 3 hours before the meeting without reading it.......4 Million bucks.I c... 

 I do not feel that 500, thousand should be spent on a 30 yr celebration. Spend it on our hungry children, foodbanks and the like. What was council thinking? Maybe a few more speed traps... 

 In the grand scheme of things our mayor is a lightweight but he has proven time and time again that he has enough political experience to pull the wool over our council's eyes.