Councillors once supported land negotiations

By RICHARD ROLKE Morning Star Staff Sep 12 2007 http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/

Two Coldstream politicians who oppose a sports complex raised their hands earlier this year to pursue the sale of agricultural land for parks use. On Monday, the municipality made public a Feb. 12 motion that shows that council supported negotiating the outright purchase and acquisition of Aberdeen Road property for parks purposes without the requirement for consolidation of any Coldstream Ranch properties. The Feb. 12 motion was unanimous among council, including Bill Firman and Jim Garlick, who have taken an active role against plans for a sports complex there. “Council made a resolution to negotiate but that doesn’t mean councillors can’t change their mind. They are within their right to do so,” said Mayor Gary Corner.

Coun. Glen Taylor asked Monday that the resolution be taken out of in-camera. “It was a unanimous decision from council. It was the direction of council and it was fully supported at the time,” he said, adding he is not questioning the actions of Firman and Garlick. “They can change their decision at any time but this is the history behind it. It wasn’t the mayor going on his own. It was a decision of council,” said Taylor. Garlick defends his actions, saying that information about the Aberdeen site was presented to council at the last minute. “It didn’t seem that threatening — that we would do an investigation of purchasing. And then what came back was a solid offer,” he said. Garlick insists the motion only called for negotiations and he didn’t consider it a green light to actually buy the land.

“That’s my ignorance I’m afraid. Now I’d be a lot more careful about what I would support,” he said, adding that there was no plan in February about what would be done with the Aberdeen site. “Not much thought was put into where this would lead.” Firman claims the issue of the motion relates to wording. “My view is this was a negotiating process to see where it would go. I did not want to say no to a negotiating process,” he said. “The motion was written in a fashion that we support the outright purchase but that’s not so.” Coldstream council was expected to decide Tuesday if it would refer plans for the sports complex to the Agricultural Land Commission. Results were not known at press time.