Council Backs Three Year Terms But Not Recall

Peter McIntyre Tuesday, 10 August 2010 09:42 107.5 KISSFM

Vernon council has rejected an idea to allow citizens to recall municipal politicians. The plan was proposed by councillor Bob Spiers who felt it would make the system more democratic. Spiers told KISS FM earlier, "If they're going to change the term of office from 3 to 4 years, then it should be the right of the local people to have the same right of recall that they have for their MLA's." Spiers would like it to apply to mayors, councillors and school board trustees.However, councillor Shawn Lee was in the majority (2-5 vote ---Spiers and Patrick Nicol in favour) who felt it could be unproductive. Lee tells KISS FM, "Local politics can be pretty volatile. You can get groups of people who get on a one issue thing and they're not particularly informed on all the issues involved, and they can get mad and really be disruptive to council."

Meantime, the city will write the BC government calling for the current three year terms for municipal politicians to continue. A provincial task force is recommending it change to four years but council says that's unnecessary. Councillor Nicol was the most vocal opponent of the proposed change, calling it a total waste of time. "There's no need to change any aspect of this. I've never heard any public comment in respect to this. It's completely generated from within government." Councillors Lee and Mary Jo O'Keefe were opposed to the motion to keep the terms at three years. Lee says he likes the idea of four years cycles. "It gives council and the councillors time to plan effectively and take something to completion. Lee, who is in his first term on council, uses the example of the redesign of Polson Park. "We have a council that's 100 percent for it and pushing hard with the regional district to get it done, and we're barely going to get it done in three years. That's what government is like"