Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Steve Rant - Outcome of December 15th, 2009 WL Council Meeting

Last night, WL Council held their final meeting in 2009 and while some good things came out of the meeting (2 Delegations that perform Christmas songs), some things came out that Mayor Cook deserves to be criticized for:

1) Appointment of CRD Director

Pursaunt to Sections 784 and 786 of the Local Government Act (LGA), a municipal council is required to appoint 1 Muncipal Director (Section 784 of LGA) and 1 Alternate Director (Section 786 of LGA). Last night, Council passed the following motion as it pertains to the City of WL Director on the CRD Board for 2010:

That Mayor Kerry Cook be appointed as the CRD Director for Williams Lake for 2010, in accordance with Section 784 of the Local Government Act and that Councillor Sue Zacharias be appointed Alternate CRD Director for Williams Lake for 2010, in accordance with Section 786 of the Local Government Act and finally that Councillor Surinderpal S. Rathor be appointed as the Second Alternate City Director to take the place of Mayor Kerry Cook and Councillor Sue Zacharias

This motion is, in my view, contrary to advice I received from Sue Moxey (Director of Corporate Services - City of Williams Lake) on August 24th, 2004 when I specifically asked if the City could have 1 Director and 2 Alternates, to which she replied:

Further to your request to Mr. DeFeo (former City of Williams Lake CAO), Section 786 of the Local Government Act outlines the provision of alternate municipal directors. As the City has only one municipal director, we may only appoint one alternate director

So, the LGA says that if you have 1 Municipal Director, then you can have 1 Alternate. Now, the more Municipal Directors you have on a Regional District Board, then you can also have as many Alternate Directors. The formula being: "x" Municipal Director(s) = "x" Alternate Directors, with "x" being the exact number of Municipal Directors on a Regional District Board, whether "x" is 1, 2, 3, 5, etc

Now, the City should have limited the motion to appointing Mayor Cook as the CRD Director for Williams Lake with Councillor Zacharias appointed as Alternate. If both Mayor Cook or Councillor Zacharias could not attend, then, with sufficient notice, WL Council could have voted to temporarily replace Councillor Zacharias with someone else as Alternate CRD Director (City of WL) for a specific meeting or meetings, as WL Council sees fit

2) Mayor Cook's changes to Council Portfolios for 2010

Last night, the CAO's report with regard to Mayor Cook's changes to Portfolios, Committee appointments, etc was set to be debated and voted upon. However, Mayor Cook chose to withdraw it as Councillor Rathor was absent. In my view, this report could have easily been voted upon because Councillor Rathor could have been informed beforehand of the changes and then move forward. Routine items should not be held up due to the absence of 1 Council member

3) Consideration of Late Items

WL Council, at its' meeting last night, was set to consider 2 Late Items. Now, Council's Procedure Bylaw says, on late items:

"An item of business not included on the Agenda must not be considered at a Council meeting unless introduction of the late item is approved by Council at the time allocated on the Agenda for such matters"

Councillor Rathor, when in attendance, always makes sure that late items are formally approved on the Agenda at the beginning of the meeting. Mayor Cook did not call for a motion to add the 2 Late items to the Agenda. Now, I know my blog readers' will wonder -- How do I know this?

The answer is -- I was at the meeting last night and not once did I hear Mayor Cook ask for a motion to add the late items to the Agenda or a member of Council objecting to the late items be considered without formally adding them to the Agenda and that is a lack of leadership on Mayor Cook's part. She knows the process, being in office for 1 year and clearly knows better

4) Mayor Cook's comments on 1 Year in Office:

Last night, as Mayor Cook was reciting all the things that she has done in her 1st year in office as Mayor, she made the following comment:

" this is the best non-political Council that I've served on"

A little reminder to her that politics makes the world go round. Is it right or fair? Not really. In a perfect world, the game playing that goes on provincially and federally wouldn't occur, but as we know, the world is not perfect. Councils, since time immemorial, have been politically vocal on issues. Sometimes, it earns them "brownie-points" with the political masters in Victoria/Ottawa and sometimes not

Now, an example of this is:

After Mary Sjostrom was sworn in as Mayor of Quesnel on December 1st, 2008. The then-Minister of Transportation (Hon. Kevin Falcon) paid her a visit a few days later. Some might call that being lucky, but I call it for what it is - paying back Quesnel for electing a BC Liberal friendly Mayor (it's no secret that Mary Sjostrom has supported the BC Liberals', even as a Quesnel City Councillor). She was also appointed as the only Director on the BC Transit Board, from outside the urban areas of BC. Again, some can call it luck, but again, I call it for what it is - paying back Quesnel for electing a BC Liberal friendly Mayor. Again, history is full of examples where when local voters elect a Mayor that is friendly towards the governing party in Victoria or Ottawa, usually taxpayer funded goodies are sure to follow. Might be immoral or wrong, but it is reality and probably will be for a long time to come unless/until taxpayers wholeheartedly demand a change to the "system"

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