The City of Vernon won’t agree to the regional parks and recreation function ceasing to exist. On Monday, council voted unanimously not to back a proposal from Mike Macnabb, BX-Silver Star director, that calls for all four participants to wind down the service by Dec. 31, 2011. “We need to focus on the good things we need to do like the sports complex at the college and Kekuli Bay (boat launch parking),” said Coun. Patrick Nicol. “The public has not asked us to change this. It has really worked.” Macnabb has suggested that the current service needs to end because the participants can’t agree on restructuring. He envisions a new service being formed to administer mutual interests. However, city council insists the present function can continue if firm operational contracts are in place and individual jurisdictions take over neighbourhood parks. “Our council is supportive of the function,” said Coun. Mary-Jo O’Keefe. Officials are adamant that the current structure must remain in place if a referendum for a sports complex is going to be successful. “On the one hand, we’ll be asking residents to borrow $7.8 million but on the other hand, the participants are saying the service will be done. That could be a hard sell,” said Coun. Shawn Lee.
A majority of council has also decided that the voting structure at the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee should be the same as at the North Okanagan Regional District board - one director, one vote. Presently, Vernon has three votes at the NORD table based on population and Coldstream and the electoral areas have one each. But at GVAC, Vernon has three while Coldstream has two and the electoral areas have one each. Some representatives from Coldstream and the electoral areas have expressed concern that Vernon may get an additional vote based on the next census, and the city will be able to veto initiatives. Coun. Bob Spiers believes the concerns are realistic. “We could ram something through that they don’t support,” he said, adding that a solution to the problem would be requiring a two-thirds majority vote on major capital items. Lippert says there is no guarantee the census will change the voting structure, and even if that occurred, he denies that will block co-operation. “Vernon has been outweighed (at GVAC currently) but we’ve got along,” he said.
1 comment:
I guess Vernon City Council is unaware that the current service is required to be terminated prior to any new replacement service being established?
I mean, it's in the LGA, all they need to do is look it up.
And all NORD needs to do is advise that some new service will be established and agree to beginning the negotiations for the new service in order to get the ball rolling.
But in order for a service to be terminated, notice of the termination is required in advance (also in the LGA).
If these yahoos don't get this, then it is time to think about electing local representatives that understand the process and are willing to do the hard work necessary to hammer out an agreement that represents their constituents.
Get on with it.
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