Honorariums next to go?

By Scott Neufeld The Vernon Daily Courier 12/18/06
http://www.dailycourier.ca/
Honorariums for members of the Vernon Land Corp-oration could soon be dumped if city council approves a recommendation from the finance committee.“The recommendation from the finance committee is that there would no longer be honorariums,” said Coun. Juliette Cunningham. “Thatrecommendation will be coming to the next (council) meeting in January.” Since the inauguration of the Land Corporation in 2004, its citizen members have received $6,000 per year for their efforts, the only city committee to receive a stipend. Coun. Patrick Nicol was the lone councillor of the three on the financecommittee to vote against the motion but Coun. Barry Beardsell said he expects the motion to be approved by council. “That decision has really not been made but my expectation would be that there won’t be remuneration for the year 2007,” Beardsell said. Cunningham said the committee has recommended that the Land Corporation receive their payments for 2006 and the two newest members receive partial honorariums. She said it’s too late to try and block this year’s payment. “The honorariums were not exactly a secret,” she said. “If we didn’t want to pay it we should have made a decision sooner.” Council also revealed that they have renamed the Vernon Land Corporation and Vernon Regional Airport Corporation and are now calling them committees. Coun. Barry Beardsell said the previous council was told that setting the two bodies up as corporations was the best way to go. However, the corporations were never completely self-reliant raising issues of liability. "they never truly used the corporate setup as a truly independent body," he said. Beardsell said the airport manager would carry on in the same capacity and would become an employee of the city and the airport board. Residents will be happy about the changes, Cunningham said. She said it will lift the secrecy surround the corporations. "In my opinion there were too many questions around it," Cunningham said. "I don't think anything sinister was happening but this will help push away questions surrounding that." With the newly re-christened civic bodies losing some autonomy some members may leave, Cunningham said. Existing board members will be given the first opportunity to join the two committees and any vacancies will be open to the public, she said.