Ron Seymour 2009-08-25 Kelowna Daily Courier:
Alternatives to the so-called alternative approval process will be considered by Kelowna city council. Mayor Sharon Shepherd on Monday won council‘s backing for her suggestion to have staff propose other ways the public‘s input might be solicited on controversial topics. Shepherd mentioned that a statistically valid opinion poll and use of an electronic voting process might be tried somewhere down the road, if the provincial government can be persuaded to change the applicable legislation. Under the alternative approval process, a contentious city project must be put to a referendum if 10 per cent of voters, or 9,200 people, sign petitions asking for such a vote.
On several occasions, Shepherd has decried what she sees as the underlying “negativity” of the AAP, in that it is a tool used by people who are against a specific project. The only current alternative to the AAP is a referendum, which city officials have rarely used, most often citing the cost of $70,000. “There must be some other solutions out there” for getting public input, Coun. Charlie Hodge said. But Coun. Andre Blanleil pointed out that it is fairly rare for a city proposal to attract anywhere near the number of signatures that came in on the recent pontoons-to-pier idea. Just over 3,000 people signed the petitions, far below the number that would have been necessary to put the now-abandoned idea to a referendum. Most city projects that require the use of either a referendum or the AAP to get voter assent draw no signatures, or very few. Such projects typically relate to infrastructure upgrades, such as new water intake pipes or enhancements to the sewage treatment plant. “Most of the ones we‘ve done, we never hear from anybody,” Blanleil said. Council will bring a report back to council suggesting alternative public input
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