I Don't care what you call it, whether Commission, Committee or Committee of the Whole or NORD Board, the decision on who taxes the people to pay for the service involved should be the prerogative of those who participate in the function and have to pay for it and no one else.
This is accomplished in a Regional District by a Stakeholders vote as described in the B.C. Governments Booklet: Introduction Regional Districts: Communities in Partnership
Stakeholder Vote. Stakeholder votes are used to make decisions related to the administration and operation of regional district services. Only Directors representing jurisdictions that participate in the service in question are entitled to vote. All stakeholder votes are weighted votes; as such, each participating Director receives a number of votes that is proportional to the size of the population he or she represents.
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In a recent Morning Star article that Jerry Oglow denies NORD will dictate how Greater Vernon activities are handled and it will largely be Vernon, Coldstream and Areas B and C voting on them because they fund the three functions. “The vast majority will be stakeholder issues,”
Now if I can get a clarification of what 'vast' means and a concurrence that any vote on a function that involves a money vote (one that could affect my tax level -up or down.) (with the exception of the annual financial plan which is by definition a Weighted Corporate Vote.) will ALWAYS be a Stakeholder Vote (always weighted) then I have no objection to the final dissolution of GVSC in its present emasculated state.
I dislike some of the tax levels imposed by NORD on behalf of the Parks and Rec. Function (especially the building up of future reserves for capital replacement of Multiplex and Performing Arts without taxpayer referendum or counter petition concurrence) but these decisions on money matters must only be voted on by those Directors who participate and pay for the function.
If Weighted Stakeholder Votes is the way all votes of this nature will be held in the future then let's put the GVSC out of its misery!
If not, and people that have no tax ramifications continue to vote on money issues affecting me , then Vernon should take over its own Parks and Rec. Function and run it in cooperation with any other municipality or Area that wishes to join it.
4 comments:
Regional Districts don't arbitrarily decide what type of voting should be used. Voting rules are mandated by the Local Government Act. Those who choose not to understand the voting rules do so at their own peril (not to mention the waste of taxpayer dollars as we revisit the same issues over and over again because some directors chose not to understand the voting rules!)
It should be mandatory for all municipal councillors appointed to the Regional Board to demonstrate a basic understanding of these voting rules.
Perhaps these same councillors could also review the reasons Regional Districts exist in the first place: to provide basic local government services to residents of the electoral areas, to provide the framework necessary for combinations of member jurisdictions (ie municipalities and electoral areas) to collaborate in the provision of sub-regional services, and to provide regional services (e.g. garbage collection and recycling) to their broader regional communities.
In conclusion, here is a definition of partnership for Councillor Beardsell as it appears he is experiencing some difficulty coming to terms with his City's commitment and responsibilities as a partner of the Regional District:
"A relationship between individuals or groups that is characterized by mutual cooperation and responsibility, as for the achievement of a specified goal".
I have a comment from a blogreader who has a point of view of what is the real reason for some of the Councillors of Vernon's objection to NORD. He thinks it is electioneering.
Would have posted comment BUT when anyone makes reference or comparison to Notorious dictators etc. then I exercise my right to delete the comment.
This is a family blog and I don't have enough of a legal team to go down that path.
Feel free to resubmit your comments without the provocative hyperbole and I will gladly post.
Excellent judgement not to post that crap...
'CRAP' did you say?
AND 'Judgment'??
Quite so!
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