By Jason Luciw - Kelowna Capital News Published: November 25, 2008
A surprise announcement was made at the Central Okanagan Regional Board table Monday night. Mayor Rosalind Neis announced she will not return to the regional board as one of Westside’s two directors on the 12-member organization after the new Westside council is sworn in. According to Neis, who was expected to keep her CORD position, incoming mayor Doug Findlater will instead appoint Coun. Duane Ophus to the board. Findlater would not comment about the appointment, other than to he will make decisions based on the needs of the District of Westside. Last year, Findlater was appointed to the board by Neis because he was the top vote-getting councillor in the first Westside civic election. Findlater said at the time that Westside had adopted Kelowna’s policy for appointing people to the CORD board, .
The mayor and the councillor with the most votes in the municipal election are appointed to the board, unless they decline the offer, he said. Because of the vote totals, Findlater was appointed to the regional board in 2007 despite the fact another councilor, David Knowles, had served five years on the board as a Westside regional director prior to incorporation. Before his appointment to represent council, Findlater had served on the regional board for six months as a part-time alternate director. Knowles expressed interest in sitting on the board again this time around. He has attended several meetings in the past year as a matter of personal interest. When reached late Monday night, Knowles said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the regional board appointment because the mayor-elect had made no official recommendations to council yet. Council will also need to ratify the mayor’s recommended appointments during the Dec. 1 inaugural meeting, Knowles added.
Meanwhile, Ophus could not be reached for comment Monday, given the late hour at which the news came to light. Neis was expected to be re-appointed to the regional board because she was the top-vote getter in the councillor race in the Nov. 15 civic election. With 4,961votes, she finished 562 votes ahead of Ophus, who placed third. Neis made her impromptu departure announcement to the regional board Monday night, as directors said goodbye to retiring Kelowna representatives Colin Day and Barrie Clark, as well as retiring Peachland Mayor Graham Reid and defeated Central Okanagan East rural director Patty Hanson. Neis said Findlater offered her an alternate position on the board, which Neis said she declined. “I am an all-in or all-out individual,” she said. Board chairman Robert Hobson thanked Neis for serving as a director and told her she would be missed. “You asked a lot of fundamental questions that we probably should have been asking,” Hobson told Neis. Westside’s outgoing mayor was known for going over budget details with a fine-tooth comb. On Monday night, she questioned why the board was being asked to approve $99 million for the new ambulatory care tower at Kelowna General Hospital without a line-by-line review of the budget.
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EDITORIAL: Neis deserves her CORD chair back again
Vote tallies should not dictate who does what when it comes to assignments for municipal councillors. The best person for the job should be rule the mayor follows when assigning positions on boards, committees and other municipal-related bodies. Having said that, this week’s revelation that incoming mayor Doug Findlater plans to dump outgoing mayor Rosalind Neis from the regional board now that she’s a councillor seems more vengeful than pragmatic. Neis topped the councillor poll, easily outdistancing herself from the other five councillor candidates (including four incumbents) who were elected. In the past, council has opted to appoint the mayor and the top vote-getting councillor to the CORD board. But not this time. Regardless of Neis’ vote total, she should have been re-appointed to the regional board because she has proven herself there, has defended Westside’s interests and, quite frankly, the continuity will help. Hopefully Findlater’s decision is based on more than past disagreements Neis has had with her fellow council members, or we could well see more wasted opportunities like there were in the last year on council. It’s time to put the past behind us and move on.
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