Review of Oct 26th Central Cariboo Joint Committee meeting

Last night - the Central Cariboo Joint Committee met for the final time in this term.  See the meeting notes I took here.  However, there were two incidents that come up that deserve commentary:

1) During discussion on the newly revised Fee-for-Service Policy - CRD Area 'D' Director Deb Bischoff informally advised the Joint Committee that she was beginning the process to withdraw Area 'D' out of Functions/Processes including Joint Fee for Service, Joint Grant in Aide, Victim Services and Arts & Culture.  It should be pointed out that to pull out of these services/functions requires a legislative requirement which involves the Minister of Community Services, as per the Local Government Act.  That caused WL City Councillor Sue Zacharias to interject and ask Director Bischoff on what grounds that she feels she can proceed with these steps.  It is a "unspoken practice" that a sitting member of WL City Council, even when that member lives in the Electoral Area Director's area, does not directly challenge how a CRD Director makes a decision.  There is a process outside of the meeting to raise concerns about how the CRD Director makes that decision(s).  As a City voter - I have a reasonable expectation that members of WL Council will concentrate on managing the affairs of the City and not tell others, including CRD Directors, how to manage their affairs, even when that member of Council lives in the Director's Electoral Area

2) The Joint Committee agreed to direct Staff to apply  to the Province's $30 million Community Recreation Fund.  However - during discussion, Central Cariboo Joint Committee Co-Chair and Area 'F' Director Joan Sorley took exception to considering this late item when she had no prior knowledge of this before consideration.  City CAO Brian Carruthers clarified that his staff followed standard procedure which is when City of WL manages Joint Committee affairs - every member of WL Council is emailed the Agenda and late items and the CRD Executive Assistant is also notified, via email.  It should be noted that Mayor Cook, as Chair at this meeting knows procedures for introducing late items, after 3 years, and should have introduced this item at the beginning of the meeting.  This, in my view, says that Joint Committee Agenda prep, etc should be managed by one body (namely the Cariboo Regional District in my opinion) so things like this don't occur in the future

SBF