City tackles rumour mill

By Richard RolkeJul 26 2006 http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/
Officials with the City of Vernon are acting swiftly to deal with the conspiracy theorists. Instead of cheerleading a proposed study into North Okanagan governance, some council members spent Monday trying to firmly establish that they’re not related to the citizens’ group that has initiated the process. “There’s a perception of conflict of interest in the community. There needs to be assurances that it’s just perception and one does not exist,” said Coun. Buffy Baumbrough. The reason for perception is that three of the founding members of the Society for the Future Governance of the North Okanagan — Jack Borden, Richard Hamilton and Pat Lett — are appointees to the city’s land corporation, while another used to work for the city — Jim Radford. As individual citizens, they should be encouraged to take an active role in democracy, including raising issues of concern to them. There is also the reality that most of the individuals in the society have been friends for years and they share some common beliefs.But the fact that they also have an existing relationship with the city will have some people naturally trying to read between the lines. There could be suggestions that this is just a backdoor attempt by the city to push amalgamation or to turn the screws on the regional district. With Vernon city hall the target of so much rumour and innuendo in recent years, it made complete sense for council members to tackle the issue head-on Monday. The other focus of the debate was the society’s claim that the consultant conducting the study will act independently on his work and will not give a preordained outcome to target. “To pretend they will have no influence on who they will hire is naive,” said Coun. Juliette Cunningham. That was countered by Coun. Barry Beardsell, who stated, “They won’t hire a puppet to appease their egos.” As someone who has followed studies and reports over the years, I subscribe to the philosophy that you get what you pay for. The society will be establishing the terms of reference for the study and hiring the consultant, so there will be direction given to the process. While the society has promised not to influence the consultant, Borden also states individual members may express their personal opinions to the consultant. While there may not be an official position from the society, a consultant may take views from his individual employers very seriously. If the society is truly interested in having the process seen as an independent evaluation of Governance, it would establish the ground rules, hire the consultant and then walk away. Its only other job should be to accept the consultant’s report once it’s done and then pass it on to local jurisdictions and the provincial government.