Massive pay hikes at the North Okanagan Regional District has the City of Vernon demanding action. The city will ask NORD to allow each member jurisdiction to pay their own directors instead of the regional district paying politicians to sit at the board table. “There’s money going out of the window every which way and we need to streamline things,” said Coun. Barry Beardsell, who raised 
the issue at council Monday. On Aug. 8, NORD increased the base salary for the eight municipal directors from $1,523 to $6,240 a year, and the salary for the five electoral area directors from $5,994 to $6,240.
“That kind of amount going out is amazing,” said Beardsell, pointing out that the City of Vernon provides 70 per cent of the funding for the regional district. “The increases are not reasonable. We pick up more than our fair share of these costs.” Beardsell believes allowing each community to determine what their NORD representative is paid will provide for more control of taxpayers’ dollars. He pointed out that in 2006, $508,000 was spent
on meetings by Vernon, Coldstream and the regional district. “That’s the kind of money coming out of the public’s pocket and it’s too much,” said Beardsell.
Beardsell garnered unanimous support from his council colleagues. “I’m thoroughly disgusted with the (increase being) retroactive to Jan. 1 and having sat at NORD, the base pay is not realistic,” said Coun. Pat Cochrane. “Some increase is overdue but it should be realistic based on the workload.” Jerry Oglow, NORD chairman, was caught off guard by council’s actions Monday. “I would like to think about it and consider the implications. It’s an interesting notion,” he said of allowing each jurisdiction to pay for their NORD director.
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