Mayor goes to developer, others to cover her $34,000 auction spending

By Steven AddisonStaff Reporter Oct 24 2006 http://www.peacearchnews.com/
White Rock’s mayor is scrambling for donors to bail her out, after running up a $34,000 bill on the city’s dime Thursday. Meantime, councillors and city staff are still waiting for an explanation from Judy Forster after her lavish spending spree at a charity auction. In one report, Forster said the purchase made her “feel a little like Goldilocks and the three bears...” “There’s an explanation that needs to happen,” said Coun. James Coleridge, in Victoria this week at Union of B.C. Municipalities meetings. “The actions by the mayor have made us a bit of a laughing stock,” he added. “Everybody seems to be coming up and telling bear jokes. The city doesn’t look good.” Forster dropped more than $34,000 on three fiberglass Kermode statues Oct. 19, committing to pay $14,000, $11,000 and $6,000 for the seven-foot bears. The items – the fourth, fifth and sixth most expensive sold – were among 23 locally painted statues auctioned to raise money for B.C. Lions Society and Easter Seals. The mayor outbid a number of prominent Peninsula business people, driving up the bid on several items. She stopped chasing a fourth statue only when the bid topped $15,000 - it eventually sold to business magnate Ralph Berezan for $20,500. “I knew there were a lot of people in the community who wanted these bears to stay in the community,” Forster said, claiming she had approval from city manager Peggy Clark to spend $5,000.
“I asked (Clark) if I could do that and she said ‘yes.’ The City of White Rock is not going to spend any more than $5,000.” The city was, in fact, invoiced more than $34,000 Friday by B.C. Lions Society. Forster is going cap-in-hand to corporate sponsors to beg the balance, and claims to have raised “$20,000, at least.” She wouldn’t say whom she’d asked for the help, nor who had chipped in to cover her bill. She confirmed EPCOR – White Rock’s private water utility – has anted $5,000, while Bosa Properties committed $11,000. That amount is what Forster paid to lay claim to the aptly named ‘Bosa Bear’ painted by White Rock’s Elizabeth Hollick and stationed this summer at Hillcrest Plaza. Hillcrest will be flattened in the coming years to make way for Bosa’s four-tower development, a plan still before council. Clark, who took over as city manager in August, denied giving the OK to spend city cash. She said the mayor had no authority to do so.“I would not authorize it because I did not have authority to authorize it,” said Clark, noting only council can approve such spending.