Advisory committee scrapped (Airport)

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: August 01

The City of Vernon is accused of muzzling user groups at the airport. The airport advisory committee was disbanded about two weeks ago, meaning that all decisions about the airport will now be made directly by council and city staff. “There was no explanation at the time of why this happened but in talking to the mayor I was told they were trying to control costs,” said Rick Thorburn, who flies planes and was the committee vice-chairman. The committee had six representatives from the aviation community, as well as Coun. Barry Beardsell and three city employees. Thorburn isn’t sure why the city has decided to scrap the committee, which provided input to council on a variety of matters. “Maybe they think they should run it by themselves,” he said. “It’s reverted to a single staff person running the airport and there is no user say.” Thorburn points out that both recreational and commercial interests at the airport pay service fees, and their interests should be represented. “They (city) are not listening to the users,” he said. Doug MacAulay, who lives next to the airport and was committee chairman, says the city has made a mistake. “The committee was a good ear for the tenants and we’d made some good inroads in promoting the airport,” he said. MacAulay believes it will be difficult for user groups to communicate directly with the city.“Without the committee, it creates a distance between the tenants and their concerns,” he said.

Mayor Wayne Lippert insists, though, that while there was previously a need for user groups to be actively involved in decision-making, that’s no longer the case. “It’s served a purpose and we’re now down to things that can be dealt with at the staff level,” he said. “We are trying to give efficient service and a lot of staff time was going into that committee.” Lippert denies that user groups will be ignored. “Input will come directly to council or through channels with staff,” he said. “We will keep communications open but there are other ways to do that beyond having a committee.” Beardsell doesn’t support suggestions that airport groups should have a seat at the table simply because they pay fees. “There are a lot of things where there are direct users and they don’t have committees. With parks and recreation, there is not a special committee for hockey users,” he said.