City officials lobby minister

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: September 18, 2008

The City of Vernon has made the case that the North Okanagan Regional District botched governance changes. Mayor Wayne Lippert and Councillors Jack Gilroy and Patrick Nicol met with Community Services Minister Blair Lekstrom Tuesday to discuss NORD’s repealing of governance authority for the Greater Vernon Services Committee. “We believe they (ministry) didn’t have all of the information so we’ve asked them to take a look at it and hear our side of things,” said Lippert of the meeting, which took place in Kelowna. In August, all 13 members of the NORD board voted on repealing GVSC’s governance authority. Vernon’s three representatives and Coldstream’s director were opposed. The city claims it should have only been a stakeholders’ vote among Vernon, Coldstream and Areas B and C, and that with two-thirds of the partners opposed, any move to scrap GVSC should have been defeated.

But NORD officials have insisted that repealing a bylaw is a corporate vote, meaning all directors are involved. The regional district had also separately approached the jurisdictions of Vernon, Coldstream, Area B and Area C, and only the city wouldn’t support the GVSC repeal bylaw moving ahead. Gilroy stands behind the city’s concerns about NORD. “It should have been a stakeholders’ vote instead of a vote of everyone,” he said. Nicol is confident Lekstrom and the ministry will take the matter seriously. “He’s doing what you should do and listening to all points of view,” said Nicol. “He wanted to hear what we had to say.” Lippert doesn’t believe Greater Vernon’s governance authority had to be removed from overseeing water supply and parks and recreation. “That structure was one everyone was familiar with,” he said. “We didn’t need to get rid of it until we know what the new structures are like. With the new structures, they are removing the authority of the stakeholders.”

GVSC has been replaced by an advisory committee that provides recommendations to the regional district board for consideration. Most issues will be handled by the stakeholders, according to NORD. Stan Field, Area C director, says the city was within its right to meet with Lekstrom, but he believes it’s off track. “They can state their case to the minister but everything done by the regional district was legal and proper,” he said, adding that it’s time for the city to move on. “Their whining and crying should come to an end soon.”

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Morning Star Editorial Sept 18 City should stop whining

City of Vernon officials travelled down to Kelowna Tuesday to meet with Community Services Minister Blair Lekstrom, but the session wasn't worth the inflated price of gas. In fact, one has to wonder why three council members found it necessary to complain about the North Okanagan Regional District's repealing of governance authority for the Greater Vernon Services Committee? First off, it's likely NORD did follow appropriate procedures when it came to the necessary bylaw. It was the full regional district board that granted GVSC authority to handle some issues, so why wouldn't it take the whole board to remove it? Secondly, GVSC under the former structure wasn't working and the proof is that most jurisdictions were trying to get out of various functions. In the case of Vernon, it threw GVSC into chaos by deciding to withdraw from water distribution. If the city was so committed to GVSC, why did it want out?

And thirdly, significant time is being spent on a matter that most Vernon residents could care less about. As long as critical services like water and parks and recreation are still provided, who administers them is irrelevant. It should also be pointed out that the city is wasting substantial dollars on lawyers' fees over a fight it's going to lose. Lekstrom likely only met with Vernon council Tuesday because he was in the region and he felt obligated to do so after receiving a request for a meeting. NORD's repeal bylaw has received formal approval from the ministry and it's highly doubtful that Lekstrom will do anything to overturn that now. With so many key issues facing the city, including an upcoming municipal election, there must be better things for Vernon's politicians to focus on?