Away from the bright lights of the TV cameras at the afternoon meeting,city council was busy opening a can of worms at the morning meeting.Council voted unanimously, with Coun. Patrick Nicol absent, to oppose the pay increase for regional district directors and voted to suggest that municipalities pay their own representatives directly.
News of the decision surprised North Okanagan Regional District chairman Jerry Oglow. He said the district is already reviewing its government structure and the city’s vote appears to open up a much larger issue. If municipalities paid their representatives directly, where would it stop? Would each jurisdiction pay for all services directly, bringing about the end of regional taxation? Under such a scheme municipalities could pick and choose what regional services they want, as if they were picking through a buffet table.Paying directors straight from the municipalities could set up a dangerous precedent and open up the regional system to even more squabbling.
However, Vernon city council appears adamant in its opposition of NORD’s 300 per cent pay increase, which is retroactive to the beginning of 2007.The increase will cost taxpayers more than $250,000 and several city councillors have said it’s too large an increase to swallow all at once. With such strong opposition on Vernon council, there were few options but to continue to make waves on the issue even though it appears to be too late. But as Oglow says, this is about more than just politicians’ remuneration. By continuing to push this issue and the review of services, Vernon seems to be making an attempt to direct the course of its involvement in the regional district. Council is looking to the district to show them costs and benefits of participating at the regional level.
The answers to the city’s questions won’t be coming anytime soon. The consensus at the regional district is that the review may take years, not months. In the meantime Vernon will likely continue to pressure the district. All of this is set to the background of a push from the Central Okanagan to unify the Okanagan regional districts. As this debate grows, it appears Vernon council’s decision is just one more component of the discussion.What is unclear is whether for all of the reviews and debates, taxpayers will be any better off.
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