The Okanagan’s four largest cities are demanding that any governance changes be taken out of the hands of the existing regional districts. The mayors of Vernon, Kelowna, Westside and Penticton decided Tuesday to ask Community Services Minister Ida Chong for third party scrutiny of governance options for the valley. “We want an independent review to give a cost-benefit analysis,” said Wayne Lippert, Vernon’s mayor. Chong recently received a report from a task force that considered governance. The document was drafted by the administrators of the three regional districts. Because of that, Lippert doubts changes will occur. “How can a regional district truly review itself on restructuring? How can they look at it without bias?” he said.
The task force has proposed a single regional district or creating issue-specific authorities, such as transportation and water, under the three regional districts. Lippert and his three colleagues, though, oppose forming authorities. “It will just cost more and they will be less accountable because they will have have their own bureaucracy to run it,” he said. While the City of Vernon favours a single regional district, Lippert says there was no consensus among the other mayors on that option, and further review is required. “There are other models across the country that work well.” The four mayors met in Kelowna Tuesday. “We discussed the common interests that we all share and we looked at the figures,” said Lippert. “We pay more than 50 per cent of the three regional districts’ budgets and participate in most of the functions. Eighty per cent of the people are paying most of the cost.” Task force members point out that three of the large city mayors were part of the group. “The major cities were at the table and participated in authoring the report,” said Jerry Oglow, task force vice-chairman. But Oglow agrees an independent review may be beneficial. “It (governance) is a significant issue that needs to be looked at from as many perspectives as possible.
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Don Quixote Note: It is my understanding that the four Mayors may go to Victoria to present their demands for "an independent review to give a cost-benefit analysis'. Hopefully they will see the costs involved in leaving our cities leaderless for a period of time as they embark upon this junket and simply FEDEX in their demands and save the taxpayer money.
All the expenses of this operation into Governance is costing a lot of money and although the Province may be picking up the tab for all(?) expenses the taxpayer has lost the services of valuable politicians during budget season and this extra workload may have caused some bad decisions to have been made around their respective Council Tables. The majority of these Mayors are the leaders of their Councils and their leadership is needed.
Mail your objections and get back to the people's real business. The Silly season is over !
1 comment:
If 80% of the people are paying 50% of the cost, then they are getting a GOOD deal!
Mayor Lippert should ask his staff to do some fact-checking...
The populations of the 4 municipalities (Vernon, Kelowna, Westside and Penticton) comprise 66% of the population of the three regional districts combined, not 80%.
Through requisitions, the four municipalities contribute approximately 20% of the total revenues of the three regional districts, not 50%.
66% contributing 20%, or 80% contributing 50% - either way you look at it, it seems that rural residents should be the ones crying out, the ones that have the most to lose, not the big cities.
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