Council to Cooperate with SFGNA

DON QUIXOTE UPDATE:

The Society For the Future Governance of the North Okanagan got a 6-1 vote backing from the City Council who promised full cooperation with the new Society. Only J. Cunningham had reservations and voted against the motion.





Governance study stirs debate
By RICHARD ROLKE Morning Star StaffJul 23 2006 http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/
A request to provide a governance study with assistance is garnering some debate at Vernon city hall. Council will receive a letter Monday from the Society for the Future Governance of the North Okanagan. It wants to study North Okanagan governance and is seeking information and input from politicians and administrators. However, Coun. Buffy Baumbrough says the issue isn’t just as simple as endorsing the request, and the scope of the details wanted and staff time must be considered. “How much time will it take? How demanding will it be?” she said.
That is also the view of Coun. Juliette Cunningham. “I won’t support spending staff time on it unless they’re compensated. Staff are already over-worked,” she said. Coun. Pat Cochrane is prepared to rally around the society. “I fully support what they are trying to do and I hope council will be supportive of providing the information and making staff available,” he said.
In the letter, the society states that the consultant hired to do the governance study will need the co-operation of the city. “Our consultant, once chosen, will require information and input from elected officials and staff,” said Pat Lett, society member. “This will not be a time-consuming process and our selected consultant will probably be well known to most administrators and elected officials in the North Okanagan.” Beyond the request for information, the society is also generating considerable discussion within city council. “I’m not totally supportive of a group like this. It’s hard to tell what the motivation is,” said Cunningham.
“It’s the nature of the beast, governance is complicated. I don’t know how simple we can make it. Okanagan Landing is a good example of where amalgamation is not great.” On the other side, Cochrane welcomes the study. “Maybe it takes something removed from politics to get information to the public. It could be an eye-opener about how much duplication there is,” he said.