What is an "Analysis of Section 7 of Bylaw No. 2166" ??
At yesterdays NORD meeting this 3 page document which purported to be a clarification of section 7 of the GVSC governance bylaw was presented to the voting members at the last moment. Much akin to the 'mysterious' last minute amendments that were referred to but not shown at the last 'special' GVSC meeting they only caused confusion and delay.
The net result of the 'debate' on bylaw 2166 is that the amendments including this new 'clarification Analysis' will be sent to all jurisdictions within NORD for further comment with the expectations of a final concluding vote on the future of GVSC at their next meeting, Wed. Sept 6.
The 3 Vernon reps were challenged by a board member to state their position on whether they would not only vote to have this bylaw and changes sent back to their council but would SUPPORT THEM and ADVOCATE for them at that council meeting.
Vernon's Mayor Lippert initially was not as forceful or resolved as he was quoted in the Rolke article on Sunday. He was conciliatory and indicated that the staff and especially his CEO who apparently had not even seen the 3 page analysis before the meeting would be given full opportunity to peruse this 'new' document and see if this would change their opinion, which was that section 7 was unnecessary, a position that the Mayor had indicated he backed in Rolke's article. Later in the meeting after Coun. Cochrane and Nicol spoke the Mayor became more forceful in his observations. The mayor observed that the rules for GVSC and the Electoral Areas were the same and if there was no problem with one than the rules should work for the other. He suggested the problem was not with the rules or procedures but with the personalities that had been involved at the staff level at GVSC and NORD.
Coun. Cochrane presented a calm reasoned argument opening with the statement that Section 7 does NOT have to exist. He requested that all NORD members be given a copy of a Consulting study done in 2004 called 'GVSC IN PRACTICE' He seemed to indicate that he was willing to listen to the debate back in Vernon Council but was not enthralled with the bylaw's Section 7 or its inclusion. Cochrane's articulation of this position was the spur that seemed to prod the Mayor to more forcefully state his objectives and concerns.
Coun. Nicol, the one Vernon Resident of the 3 on the NORD board stated that it was time to move forward and that he could live with what is in the amended bylaw especially with the inclusion and clarification of the 3 page analysis. He said that we should work with this with an open mind subject to NORD having an open mind to further amendments that might become necessary after the procedures were put to the test.
It should be interesting when this is brought back before the Vernon Council for debate. They have 2 meetings scheduled before the next NORD meeting. I don't expect it on this Monday's meeting as the staff does its 'comprehensive' review of the new analyzed and amended bylaw but we should see this debate on Aug. 28.
If I have mistakenly misstated the positions of any of the 3 Vernon Reps. please leave your comments and I will publish them as a amendment to this posting. or e-mail them to me at don.quixote@vernonblog.com .
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