SUNDAY
April 28, 1996

Staff errors add up to $50 million

BY MARTIN MILLERCHIP
Contributing Writer

THE VALUE of North Vancouver
District’s landbank has mush-
roomed in just three rainy April
weeks by $33 million.

That's good news for district taxpayers, who,
without the landbank, would otherwise be fund-
ing capital projects out of tax revenue or limit-
ed investment income.

But outgoing municipal manager Mel
Palmer’s own review of the district's Capital
Management Plan (CMP) reveals staff errors
that total approximately $50 miilion.

According to Palmer the district can count
on $176 million as a “reliable conservative esti-
mate” of its unsold land value.

That's $33,246,750 more than a recent audi-
tor’s valuation of the same Jand.

A recent News story revealed that an in-cam-
era council decision had requested an external
audit of the district’s land development figures.

&& They go up
and down like a
yo-yo and
TI have lost all
confidence in
their accuracy. 99
District Councillor Ernie

Crist wants figures

reviewed by new munici-
pal manager Gord Howie.

a

rice Council

That audit, conducted by chartered accountants Doane Raymond, concluded
that the value of the land inventory stood at $142,547,100, a shortfall of approx-
imately $21.5 million from the CMP figure of $164 million adopted by council in

December 1995.

Palmer's review of the review confirms the auditor's lower valuation of the
CMP but adds $28.5 million worth of land not previously factored by district

staff.

Summarized Palmer: “The review clearly showed that there was not sufficient

See Land page. 3

Mine!

COLLINGWOOD SCHOOL senior boys’ rugby player Josh MacLean goes for the bali
during Thursday’s game against Argyle secondary. Collingwood won 12-5.

aby used to stash drugs

Cocaine and heroin
hidden in his jacket

BY ANNA MARIE DANGELO
Nows Reporter

THANH LUONG Tran’s one-year-
old son had 12 packets of cocaine
and heroin stuffed in his little jacket
Jast year when a North Vancouver
Mountie took him out of his car seat.

Tran, 32, pleaded guilty to possessing the
heroin in his child’s jacket for the purposes of
trafficking on April 17 in B.C. Supreme Court
in Vancouver.

Tran also pleaded guilty to selling cocaine to
an undercover North Vancouver RCMP drug
squad member.

The Vancouver man was sentenced to six
months in jail and 24 months’ probation,

Drug charges against Minh Hao Hoang, his
wife and mother of the child, were dropped.

On Monday, Tran was in court again, this
time in North Vancouver.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching
his bail conditions.

Judge Bill Rodgers sentenced hint to a con-

current 14 days in jail on each count. That
means Tran will serve no extra jail time for
breaking promises he made to the court.

Since Tran’s arrest, he had been charged
with five counts of bail breaches related to
arrests made five months after the original
charges, 10 months later and a year later.

Tran was astested for breaching his curfew,
having contact with Hoang and possessing a
cellular phone.

With Tran’s charges of bail breach racking

up, Judge Doug Moss decided to keep Tran in

jail for the two weeks before his trial for rea-
sons of public safety.

Some charges Tran and his wife haven't
been facing involve child endangerment.

The North Van RCMP drug section asked
the North Vancouver Crown office and the
regional Crown office to lay criminal charges of
child endangerment.

The Mounties believe strongly that Tran and
Hoang put their child in danger because:

B® heroin and cocaine drug transactions can
involve “shoot-ups” between unhappy cus-
tomers and vendors;

@ police take-downs of suspected drug dealers
can involve the use of guns;

MH the child could have reached into his front
pocket and started munching on a bright red
packet of heroin at any Gime.

Tran and Hoang were charged after a March

14, 1995, armrest near Stanley Park in what
Crown lawyer Jay Straith called “a dial-a-dope
situation."

Heroin or cocaine customers call a celular
phone number and use a code name to arrange
to purchase drugs.

An undercover North Vancouver Mountie
bought from Tran an “cight-ball” of cocaine
costing $240. Hoang was standing nearby,
according to Straith.

The baby boy was strapped in his car seat
with three decks of heroin and nine decks of
cocaine in his coat jacket pockets.

Straith said ‘Tran was the author of his own
misadventure.

“He is a lousy candidate to ever receive bail
in the future,” said Steaith during the bail breach
sentencing.

‘Tran showed little emetion as he stood in the
prisoner’s box with his head down listening to a
Vietnamese interpreter speaking softly beside
him.

Tran’s lawyer Mike Mahoney informed the
judge that. Tran and his wife had an. eight-
month-old baby in addition ta the now two-
year-old boy.

Tran did not have a criminal record prior to
his trafficking conviction, The defence lawyer
said Tran worked on a piecemeal basis for a

See Deportation page 3

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