The story of the week, it seems, is the Vernon Land Corporation budgeting 30,000 to give itself honorariums. They’ve received the cheque since 2004. That revelation has given some Vernon residents a jolt harsher than a strong cup of black coffee. But what’s jarred us is this: At least two of the Land Corp members(Pat Lett and Jack Borden) are also spearheading the Society for the Future Governance of the North Okanagan. Now follow our logic here for a moment – the society to which they belong has been raising money to study the way the North Okanagan is being governed, in an attempt to identify overlapping services and then streamline municipal and regional governance to eliminate waste. In otherwords, trim the fat from local government to save taxpayers money. Yet, two of those members are collecting about $6,000 each – per year – for belonging to what the public perceives to be a voluntary position on a city committee. You connect the dots. We have no problems with honorariums, which, according to the trusty Oxford dictionary, are a payment for professional services rendered nominally without charge. However, as far as we know (and somebody correct us if we’re wrong on this) no other city committee is being paid an honorarium. So it strikes us as unfair that one elite group of “volunteers” would be paid while others, who work just as hard, do not get a cheque. Now council has the unenviable job of deciding to cancel the honorariums, or not. Our vote is, of course, to stop the cheques immediately. One could argue that if the money stops flowing, these skilled and qualified volunteers – which they obviously are – may quit the corporation. But if they did quit over the loss of their honorarium, they would be poor sports, indeed.Thursday, November 16, 2006
Musings on the Land Corp
– Managing Editor David Wylie Nov 16 http://www.dailycourier.ca/
The story of the week, it seems, is the Vernon Land Corporation budgeting 30,000 to give itself honorariums. They’ve received the cheque since 2004. That revelation has given some Vernon residents a jolt harsher than a strong cup of black coffee. But what’s jarred us is this: At least two of the Land Corp members(Pat Lett and Jack Borden) are also spearheading the Society for the Future Governance of the North Okanagan. Now follow our logic here for a moment – the society to which they belong has been raising money to study the way the North Okanagan is being governed, in an attempt to identify overlapping services and then streamline municipal and regional governance to eliminate waste. In otherwords, trim the fat from local government to save taxpayers money. Yet, two of those members are collecting about $6,000 each – per year – for belonging to what the public perceives to be a voluntary position on a city committee. You connect the dots. We have no problems with honorariums, which, according to the trusty Oxford dictionary, are a payment for professional services rendered nominally without charge. However, as far as we know (and somebody correct us if we’re wrong on this) no other city committee is being paid an honorarium. So it strikes us as unfair that one elite group of “volunteers” would be paid while others, who work just as hard, do not get a cheque. Now council has the unenviable job of deciding to cancel the honorariums, or not. Our vote is, of course, to stop the cheques immediately. One could argue that if the money stops flowing, these skilled and qualified volunteers – which they obviously are – may quit the corporation. But if they did quit over the loss of their honorarium, they would be poor sports, indeed.
The story of the week, it seems, is the Vernon Land Corporation budgeting 30,000 to give itself honorariums. They’ve received the cheque since 2004. That revelation has given some Vernon residents a jolt harsher than a strong cup of black coffee. But what’s jarred us is this: At least two of the Land Corp members(Pat Lett and Jack Borden) are also spearheading the Society for the Future Governance of the North Okanagan. Now follow our logic here for a moment – the society to which they belong has been raising money to study the way the North Okanagan is being governed, in an attempt to identify overlapping services and then streamline municipal and regional governance to eliminate waste. In otherwords, trim the fat from local government to save taxpayers money. Yet, two of those members are collecting about $6,000 each – per year – for belonging to what the public perceives to be a voluntary position on a city committee. You connect the dots. We have no problems with honorariums, which, according to the trusty Oxford dictionary, are a payment for professional services rendered nominally without charge. However, as far as we know (and somebody correct us if we’re wrong on this) no other city committee is being paid an honorarium. So it strikes us as unfair that one elite group of “volunteers” would be paid while others, who work just as hard, do not get a cheque. Now council has the unenviable job of deciding to cancel the honorariums, or not. Our vote is, of course, to stop the cheques immediately. One could argue that if the money stops flowing, these skilled and qualified volunteers – which they obviously are – may quit the corporation. But if they did quit over the loss of their honorarium, they would be poor sports, indeed.
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