Kiss FM shows highlight mayor's races

Kiss FM News

Your Local First station is doing its part to showcase the upcoming civic elections.Kiss FM has lined up a series of open line shows featuring the North Okanagan mayoralty candidates.

Enderby will be featured November 5th, Vernon on the 7th, and Coldstream November 12.

Calls will be welcome with the shows starting at 11 am. Kiss FM News director Pete McIntyre will be the host. The call in number is 250-545-7557.

Rules get ratepayers riled up

By Jennifer Smith - Vernon Morning Star Published: September 05, 2008

The Coldstream Ratepayers Association says democracy is being muzzled. The District of Coldstream has denied the CRA from appearing as a delegation at Monday’s council meeting in Lavington. The reason is due to the topic of the CRA’s presentation – the dismissal of fire chief Leo Lecavalier. The district says the issue is in-camera (to protect the employee) and therefore no public opportunity to address council on the issue will be permitted. Written letters will be accepted and may be considered by council at an in-camera meeting. “This refusal of council to permit a delegation of ratepayers to present our concerns, along with council’s threat to ‘discipline’ any firefighters who speak out on the issue implies a concerted effort to muzzle public discussion on an issue all ratepayers need to be fully aware of,” said Steve Heeren, CRA’s new president.

The CRA had held a meeting on the issue of Lecavalier’s dismissal Aug. 21 and was hoping to present its resolutions to council. The resolutions, passed at the packed meeting, read: (1) that the fire chief be immediately reinstated, (2) that Coldstream council publicly provide an explanation for its decision to fire Leo, partly in order to restore his status in the community and squelch rumors swirling around the issue, and (3) that resolutions one and two be presented to council by a delegation from the CRA at its next meeting. Although the fire department has stated that public safety remains a priority, there are fears that the members may disband in protest. “What would the consequences for taxpayers be, if it should happen that our volunteers simply quit?” questions Heeren. “At a huge annual expense we would be stuck with a ‘professional’ firefighter squad, not likely to be any more qualified than our present volunteer firefighters.”

Therefore the CRA is urging all Coldstream citizens to attend Monday’s council meeting in Lavington, in the Lavington Elementary school gymnasium on School Road at 7 p.m. The CRA also invites the public to its next meeting Sept. 18 at the Women’s Institute Hall from 7 to 9 p.m. There the civic elections will be the highlight of discussions. “We need to start thinking and planning about getting councillors in Coldstream who are genuinely responsive to the concerns of the public,” said Heeren. “I’m not for in-camera, I’m for openness,” said Heeren in a previous interview with The Morning Star. “Democracy is our only hope.”

FOR THE RECORD

SOME OF THE LINKS ARE BROKEN AND I AM FINDING NEW ONES .



Friday, November 18. 2005
FOR THE RECORD
I went and saw Kay Stamboulieh's film, 'Vernon Under Siege' at the Vernon Auditorium last night. It was well produced and provocative but extremely fair. It basically suggested that the developers in our city had highjacked the agenda.
I was especially interested when the movie brought up the matter of the $2.3 million in DCC'S and stated that Sean Harvey had convinced the council to switch their previous decision of one week earlier costing the taxpayers $2,300,000 and only 2 councillors had resisted this decision. As I remember, the camera had panned to a picture of the council chambers and showed the faces of those two councillors who had stood their ground, namely Barry Beardsell and Jim MacGillivray.
This set of facts was correct but in the interests of accuracy Coun. Patrick Nichol was absent during the second vote and when I asked him afterwards back in October of this year he assured me that he would have resisted and reconfirmed his first vote, i.e no extension of the deadline. As that second vote was 4-2 to extend, his vote wouldn't have made the difference.
Greg Armour had been recognized earlier in the evening and had received a standing ovation and rightfully so. After the Screening the people from the audience took to the mikes to express their concerns and solutions and beefs. Most were constructive and informative and the responses that were attempted by some of the candidates present who chose to speak were supportive of changing how City Hall served the people.
Some of the crowd took the opportunity to take some verbal potshots at the incumbents and since Barry Beardsell was the only councillor present he was "slagged " by some audience members. It was suggested that it was his job as the self appointed watchdog to catch all the financial wrongdoings, raise the flags, complain loudly on the steps of city hall and even call in the cops.
I had stood up at the first forum at the Shubert centre and defended Mr. Beardsell and was the first candidate to publicly bring up the details of the $2.3 million DCC fiasco and and mentioned it again at the Arts Center Forum and I thought that was enough. I was silent.
I should have stood up and told the crowd some of the facts about the going ons at City Hall and the interconnections that brought us to the point where a citizen Greg Armour was forced to fight City Hall and achieved success only when he got the "right" media's attention.
This is the speech I should have given, (most of which was and still is available in many sections of my blogsite.)( I will try to keep it short and concise and provide some links to the point I am making.)
When the downtown revite was first proposed in 2001 (I believe) there was a meeting for the public and specified area owners and I asked the following question to Mayor Harvey (as a reporter stood beside the mayor writing on his always present pad.).
"As the taxpayers don't have a right of counter-petition, if I persuade the owners to turn down this idea will not that save $600,000 and help reduce the residential tax load? "
"Bob, you know that if that happens we'll find a way to spend that money. "
When that meeting was reported in the "newspaper" no mention was made of that flippant remark. For me, that day foreshadowed one man's regard for my tax money and the "reporting" style of that newspaper.
Anderson sub division: Jan 2003-Aug 2004
Most of the background can be found at TIME LINE RE ANDERSON SUBDIVISION BYLAW # 4739 . This link shows you the details and the various sections of the municipal act that were violated. I asked for a section 330 investigation of this matter in Nov. of 2003 and it took 2 lawyers and a set of accountants 7 long months until August 4 of 2004 before the report came back. http://vernonblog.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_vernonblog_archive.html)
and the quote from Sean Harvey "It was an expensive opinion but it's important when doing the public's business to do it in a transparent and open fashion," said Harvey. The only councillor raising shit about this use of taxpayers money was Barry Beardsell. His initial reaction is best found in the minutes of http://www.vernon.ca/council/documents/2003/minutes_031110.doc where Beardsell stated his opposition to this use of taxpayer money without regard to their consent. Later on when the whitewash report of my 330 complaint came out he once again spoke out about his opposition to its findings. Barry pursued it up to the Provincial government level and both of us exchanged letters with this level of government who refused to step in.
The MORNING STAR on at least 2 times was given the TIME LINE RE ANDERSON SUBDIVISION BYLAW # 4739 in writing and I also brought it up at the 2004 budget meeting until I was ruled out of order.If the incompetence of the City Administrator who is the legal guidedog for council had been put under public scrutiny we might not be debating today why his contact was renewed.
Beardsell and Spiers went internal and the local Newspaper ignored the story.
The $2.3 million DCC Fiasco:
The timeline for this nightmare can be found at Don Quixote presented the cost of slot machines to the Vernon Community The basis facts are that at the Dec 13/ 2004 meeting the council voted 5-1 to put the new DCC rates in effect. (this was 7 months after the developers had an input meeting about these rates on May 10/04). Mr Harvey was absent at this meeting and called a special meeting at 8 AM on Dec 20 and (with Councillor Nichol now absent) had the implementation date changed to March 1/2005. This was carried by a 4-2 vote with only Councillors Beardsell and MacGillivray opposed.
Beardsell demanded a report from staff of the cost to the taxpayer of this vote and a staff report was published on March 2/ 2005 and is available to the public. I published comment about this in my article The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight. DCC RATES IN EFFECT OR NOT???. I made this known to the local newspaper but they chose to ignore it.
Later on after I got hold of this report I used it in October to chastise the council about their right to make any decisions until after the election and with reporters from both newspapers present detailed the facts about the $2.3 million. Neither newspaper picked up on this story but the Daily courier published my letter in which I outlined the details. (The Morningstar has yet to publish this letter.)
I mentioned both the Anderson and the DCC $2.3 million at the first public forum at the Shubert centre and the Morningstar's comment was :Vernon Morning Star P.A10 Friday Oct. 28: Bob Spiers called for the city to take a tougher stand with developers and not to provide them with financial support. "there's been a couple of (questionable) decisions of council," he said
The The Daily Courier P.1 Friday Oct. 28: The topic of the charges was also on the minds of another prospective councillor with Bob Spiers suggesting the charges have cost city taxpayers $2.3 million as developers saved money after former mayor Sean Harvey called a special meeting of council and delayed the then-increases to development cost charges. The courier also did a detailed story on Page 1 entitled 'Watch dog' tells how city lost millions. at http://vernonblog.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_vernonblog_archive.html
Beardsell and Spiers went internal and the predominate local Newspaper ignored the story.
Conflict of Interest:
View the Media Release and Report from Lidstone, Young, Anderson Barristers and Solicitors. http://vernonblog.com/exit.php?url=aHR0cDovL3d3dy52ZXJub24uY2Evd2hhdHNuZXcvZG9jcy9wcjA1MDUwNS5wZGY=&entry_id=1072
This report that dragged on for many months was initiated by Mr Greg Armour and you can judge the result by looking at the report. Once again somebody had gone the internal route.
Expense Account Allegations:
Mr Armour did show these receipts to Mr Beardsell and was told to run with them. Internal procedures and looking to the local press had failed before. If this had gone internal again it would have moved into in-camera and the house cleaning that happened might have been just a dream.

Mr Armour and an investigative CHBC reporter set the proper wheels in motion and the world unfolded as it should. They are to be commended
However don't look to one watchdog councillor to be the one asleep on the job, look instead at the local "newspaper".
That paper is free. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

'Watch dog' tells how city lost millions

Monday, October 31. 2005
http://vernon.kelownadailycourier.ca/archive/2005/10/28/stories/585_full.php4?latest_date=2005/10/28
Coun. Barry Beardsell took the brunt of the criticism at Wednesday night's all-candidates election forum as he defended his self-proclaimed role as the city's "watch dog." Visibly upset, Beardsell went on the offensive and charged that the city lost about $3 million in recent development boondoggles. "I am the watch dog, I was the watch dog and I want to continue to do that," said Beardsell to a crowd of about 300 gathered at the Schubert Centre, It's not often a chartered accountant is a member of council, he added. He was asked by an audience member where he had been when former mayor Sean Harvey had been misusing his expense account.Beardsell said he had been the councillor who questioned in March why Harvey's expense account was $8,000 over budget. It took staff two months to come forward with the information after the story broke of Harvey's misuses, which Beardsell said could be due to the staff being intimidated."There is a record of me asking that question," said Beardsell.But if Beardsell asked the question in March, how was it he was quoted as saying "I'm shocked" when news of Harvey's misspending broke, asked another audience member.The councillor argued though there was an overrun, it still wasn't known why.Beardsell proposed the whistle-blower policy recently adopted by the city so there is a process in place where staff can report anything they have a problem with without feeling intimated.Some of Beardsell's competitors in the election race came to his defense, saying he wasn't the only member of council that was part of the finance committee. What the public doesn't hear about is the other dollars wasted on projects like the Anderson subdivision. Millions of dollars were lost on that project, he said."The public hasn't picked up on that because the media hasn't told them," said Beardsell. Beardsell later explained the city used its borrowing powers on a dozen land owners of the Anderson subdivision in order to assist them with providing infrastructure for commercial developments. The city is to be repaid over 15 to 20 years; only some owners balked at the infrastructure costs and a legal fight broke out, he said. To break the impasses the city used $1 million of taxpayer money for further assistance in providing infrastructure. Beardsell said the city shouldn’t be providing financial assistance now that the property is worth about $17 million, a major increase in value.He also said that in December 2004 council voted to increase development cost charges (DCCs) when former mayor Sean Harvey was absent. Coun. David O’Keefe a long-time opponent of such increases voted against the proposal, Beardsell said.At the next meeting Harvey was present and put through an amendment to defer the increases for 2 1/2 months. Beardsell said that he and Coun. Jim MacGillivray were the only ones to oppose Harvey’s change.The 26 developers got new DCCs at the “bargain basement” rate, saving them $2.3 million and costing revenue of that amount for the city development reserve fund.