Governance – Board Support & Documentation

Request for North Westside Governance Study – Board Report Dec 12 2016 is the RDCO CAO’s Staff Report that was first requested by the Board at the August 22 RDCO Board Meeting where the NWCA made their Presentation and request for Board support for a Provincially funded Governance Study.

This is the Power Point Presentation used by the CAO when he presented the Staff Report. I would like to respond to the three sections listed as “Examples of Misinformation”.

1. “the RDCO Board Chair and CAO have arbitrarily and deliberately negated the Stake Holders Voting Rights of the Electoral Area Directors …”  Voting Rights are specified under the Local Government Act (LGA) … but it is a legal opinion sought and paid for by the Board that determines how that section of the LGA is interpreted and enacted upon by the Board including voting rights and who get’s to vote. This Board requested “legal opinion” is held in-camera and no legal opinion or representation was made publicly available to the Electoral Area (EA) residents whose fate is determined by this full Board decision. Should a legal opinion be obtained on behalf and for the EA’s I believe that voting privileges would be returned to the true stakeholders of these services the EA Directors that represent the residents that pay for said services. As was the 2012 Voting Privileges used at that time to determine water rate increases.
2.   “The water systems as with all our local services are owned by the residents within that Local Service Area each created by a specific bylaw” I still stand by this statement of ownership. During the 2015 Town Hall Meeting held in the North Westside the CAO was asked how the community could run the water systems and at that time the CAO indicated that to operate the systems the community would have to incorporate and take back the systems and run them as an incorporated entity such as happened in Lake Country and West Kelowna when they decided to go it on their own. Currently the different services (fire, water, community parks, solid waste and EA Planning) in the North Westside are currently in the name of the RDCO and are operated and managed by the RDCO … but they are services bought,paid for and owned by the residents within the local service areas designated in the establishment bylaws for each service area. Should the area achieve self governance then as I understand the process the decision as to who will be the owner/operators will lay with that self governed organization.
3.  “Director Wayne Carson stated that: “Through this present-day process, the voice of the electoral areas, represented by Patty Hanson and myself, has been completely silenced, thus fully negating our ability to have any real governmental power within our areas.”  
   1. The first statement by this slide “Directors Carson and Hanson have the same voting entitlements and voice as every other Electoral Area Director in the Province”  Does not address the lack of policy and direction input that exists within the current structure of the RDCO Board and how they approach decisions within the EA’s. The Directors and residents of these areas have no appreciable say in their services and functions that only they pay for. This is taxation without representation and therefore not a representation of good Canadian democracy.
   2. The last slide presented is a perfect example of how statistics can be used to tell any story. Ethics, integrity and trust of the source are what decides the credibility of any statistics and in the last two years the RDCO track record is not enviable, from the perspective of an EA Director. Rework these statistics and only include EA local service issues and the discriminatory voting pattern will rear its ugly head. The EA Directors are outvoted consistently on local stakeholder issues while on the other hand the EA Directors are very supportive of the Regional Issues of importance to our municipal partners, where the fairness here?

I believe that what is abundantly clear from these two documents (Staff Report and Powerpoint Presentation) is that the CAO is not a supporter of this Governance Study process and will do what he can to knock the process of the tracks to maintain the unelected authority of the RDCO over our small communities and their services.

The full Board Audio for the December 12 Board Meeting is proof of the level of cooperation that we can expect from the CAO and certain members of the RDCO Board. One Director’s opinion expressed before the Board is that regardless of the level of support indicated by the signatures on the petition, NWCA presentation to the Board, community town hall meetings and the lack of opposition within the community that the whole process is still a waste of money. I wonder how that remark would have been received if this governance issue had possible benefits for his constituents instead of just the bothersome Electoral Area residents that do not vote for that individual. I suspect there would have been a more empathetic response from the Director, maybe the wearing of that “regional hat” I keep hearing about.

Also during this most important discussion for the EA’s municipally appointed Directors can be heard going on record complaining about all the valuable Board time wasted discussing EA affairs. The answer to this problem is simple – return the Stakeholders Voting Privileges to the EA Directors  and let them decide their own local services issues. This would give the Board ample time to get on with issues of Regional interest and importance to all Board Members and residents of the Regional District.

To summarize where we are with the requested study for the North Westside is. 1/ We need the RDCO to submit the application for the Study and the funding request to the Ministry ASAP. 2/ We need to assure the involvement of a community committee to represent the wishes of the community throughout the Study process by their inclusion as a Community Committee in the Terms of Reference.

#Success #Quotes Chase Your Dreams @styleestate