Documents detail meetings of mayor and Trio owners
The Herald has obtained emails and text messages exchanged in 2016 while Trio and the city were negotiating changes to agreement to develop Skaha Lake Park
Penticton’s mayor agreed to meet privately at least five time last year with Trio Marine Group’s owners, one of whom also used his connection to fume about a separate business being shut out of community events, while the other complained about an apparent leak from City Hall.
Meeting arrangements are contained in documents released this week to The Herald in response to a freedom of information request. The package consists of emails and text messages exchanged in 2016 between Andrew Jakubeit and Trio owners Tom Dyas and Tom Hedquist.
It was during that timeframe that Trio and the City of Penticton negotiated changes to a deeply unpopular agreement that would have allowed the company to build a waterslides development in Skaha Lake Park.
Changes were also made to a related agreement giving Trio the right to run nearby Skaha Marina.
While the messages show the men enjoyed amicable relationships, the three also clearly expressed frustration with each other at times.
Can you do breakfast?
Dyas, who also owns TD Benefits, a Kelowna-based company that sells health insurance, reached out to Jakubeit for at least four meetings in 2016: twice in January and once each in May and October.
One of the January meetings was a breakfast date in Kelowna, while the latter two get-togethers were set for Skaha Marina.
Dyas, who’s also president of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, offered Jakubeit two potential meeting times for May 15: 10:30 a.m. or 1 p.m.
“Probably 1 … then it can be a beer not a coffee,” Jakubeit responded. “Plus I usually try to go for a bike ride in the morning. Your marina is a good spot.”
Hedquist, who also owns Trademark Industries, a dock-building and crane company in Penticton, requested a meeting with Jakubeit at City Hall on Oct. 13.
“Will you have something to present to me or is this another conversation?” Hedquist asked Jakubeit just a few hours before the meeting.
“I have something on paper,” Jakubeit replied.
Two weeks later, the city unveiled revised agreements that killed off the prospect of waterslides in Skaha Lake Park.
In those deals, Trio was awarded $20,000 in compensation for walking away from the waterslides, $20,000 to help pay for repairs at the marina, and had $39,000 in unpaid rent and taxes forgiven.
A different government spokesperson confirmed separately Wednesday that Trio has also not yet hammered out a three-way lease between itself, the city and the province, which owns part of the marina, although that deal isn’t required until Oct. 1.
A separate agreement for Trio to run a concession stand in Skaha Lake Park doesn’t take effect until 2018, when the city can propose to the public some sort of in-water amenity that would also be operated by the company.