It was always a political gamble for the mayor and council.

And now it looks like Nanaimo's private partner for the hotel component of the Port of Nanaimo Centre, Millennium Developments, may end up being the broom that sweeps incumbents out of office.

Report after report of Millennium's troubles continue to surface and the company's supporters, like Liberal MLA Ron Cantelon, and Liberal MLA-wannabe Jeet Manhas defend the firm saying the reports are "speculation" and "innuendo."

The latest delay in the construction of the 18-storey hotel occurred Thursday when the city's design panel rejected Millennium's plans.

It doesn't help the company's defenders much when Millennium principal owner Shahram Malek refuses to return phone calls from reporters to answer questions about the repeated delays.

For Manhas to tell my colleague Darrell Bellaart that Malek is just "shy" is ridiculous. For the deal this council (and Manhas was part of it) gave to Millennium, Malek should make himself available. His company purchased prime downtown land, across Gordon Street from the Vancouver Island Conference Centre for just $10. It also has the option to build condominium towers adjacent Maffeo-Sutton Park, a sweetheart deal if ever there was one.

The hotel has, from the start, been considered key to making the $75-million taxpayer-funded a success.

And now with the conference centre built and the city's advisory panel rejecting the design permit application, those incumbent councillors who repeatedly defended the company are wearing that support like an anchor around their necks, which may in the end sink their re-election chances.

It's not that they didn't have enough warning. Even the city's own consultants Grant Thornton in 2004 didn't advise this Cadillac of conference centre plans. His recommendation was for a facility about half the size of what we have ended up with.

The Friends of Plan Nanaimo brought experts on the convention industry to town. Council did not heed these warnings. You would have thought that the narrow victory the 'Yes' side eked out in the 2004 referendum would have given this council pause for thought.

Then, it seemed almost before the ink was dry on the original partnering deal citizens voted for in the referendum campaign, the amendments to those terms started coming in. A few months later, the price of the project had shot up from $50 million to $72.5 million.

That's when things started to unravel, though to be fair city council kept its end of the bargain and built the conference centre patiently (some might argue too patiently) waiting for Millennium to get its financial house in order. Then came another amendment which allowed for the land swap and Maffeo-Sutton; These were not inconsequential changes and there were calls for a second referendum on the agreement.

Council, in its collective wisdom, rejected this.

The idea was to get the hotel built and open at the same time as the convention centre.

Was the 170-room hotel always a "pipe dream" as Victoria tourism expert Frank Bouree has stated? ...............................