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Davis motion asks for more city RDEK directors’ consultation
City of Cranbrook Councillor Angus Davis has concerns about how the city is being represented at the Regional District of East Kootenay board table.
Citing a lack of consultation by the city’s two RDEK directors, Mayor Wayne Stetski and Coun. Bob Whetham (Coun. Denise Pallesen has served for Stetski in his recent absence), on votes on issues important to the city, Davis Jan. 21 read a motion asking for the establishment of “a consultative process” with the entire council when there are topics “of significant interest locally” being voted upon at the RDEK board table.
His motion started a lively round-the-table discussion.
“For the sake of open government” the issue needs to be dealt with, Davis said.
The two specific RDEK votes he took exception to are: Dissatisfaction with the infrastructure funding levels provided by the federal government for municipal projects; and “the rejection of our two representatives of the creation by the province of the resort municipality of Jumbo.”
Davis said he had to deal with constituents upset with the city’s support for those items, in the RDEK votes, and had to admit he didn’t know what was up. “I don’t like to be caught flat footed,” he said.
“I know this is a difficult problem and I don’t mean to put anybody on the spot but it puts me in a spot when I hear or read in the paper about certain stands which have been taken on issues that are said on behalf of the city of Cranbrook. It’s a deep concern to me,” he told council.
Coun. Whetham replied the city’s RDEK directors must serve “with an eye to the regional impact of various things. The issue of trying to bring things to council is a difficult one as well, because the regional district is just the same as the city. It gets their agenda out about, maybe, about four or five days before the meeting,” he said, adding the discussion would be better held when the mayor returns.
That said, Whetham said he needed to speak to two points of Davis’ motion.
The federal infrastructure funding issue was debated at length by other august bodies, such as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and by the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) “and they were the subject of a workshop we held here at St. Eugene Mission- so these are not things that have come just recently,” he said, noting they are “things that have been certainly part of the wider discussion for some time.”
As for the Jumbo motion, which he and alternate director Pallesen voted on last month, Whetham said, “It was not about the creation of the municipality; that’s already been done. The issue is on the provincial government making appointments to the regional district board and that goes back to 2009 when the regional district, at that time, expressed opposition to the provision of allowing a non-elected representation from the Jumbo Glacier Resort Municipality to have a seat at the board table. And again, it was brought forward at the UBCM on a resolution from the Central Kootenay region where the question of representation on the board was again discussed and apart from perhaps, I think, a dozen people there was strong opposition from the entire UBCM on the province appointing people to sit on elected boards.
“So these are all things which I think have been on the general radar for quite some time,” he said.
Whetham suggested Davis meet with the mayor when he returns.
Davis said he would “consider that” but pushed his point again. “I feel there are some assumptions being made that haven’t been discussed, really, at the regional district at all” such as the federal funding matter.
“If a resolution comes out of the UBCM, that doesn’t mean to say that that City of Cranbrook has to adhere to it. The important thing is that this body has to have a little bit more information because all we’re doing is signing a blank cheque.”
Coun. Gerry Warner pointed out “it is a muddy issue” and said he is concerned that Davis’ motion “would fly in the face of the way democracy is normally practiced across the board, where you a free election, you elect people and to a certain degree you trust them to make decisions for you. And of course sometimes they will make decisions that you agree with, sometimes one you don’t agree with. And of course something like Jumbo, there is really strong opinions both ways on this.”
He suggested if Davis had a strong opinion about Jumbo, he should have brought it to the city council table for discussion and a vote and “that’s what would be passed onto the RDEK. Jumbo is one of those exceptional issues where that kind of thing would be justified, otherwise we trust the two people who go to the RDEK meetings to advocate on our behalf and that is kind of the way it goes.”
He agreed with Whetham that the motion be deferred until Stetski returns to action “and we can take a deeper look at it.”
Davis said he’d be happy to wait until the mayor returns “but I feel very strongly, when I read in the paper things have not been discussed here – it makes me wonder.”
Coun. Diana J Scott said Davis’ concern isn’t new, pointing out the City of Kimberley council went through a similar debate a few years ago.
“I struggle with this, too,” she said. “What I find problematic – and you can insert any two issues – what kind of say does a municipality have at the RDEK level? Because when you are on the RDEK, my understanding is you are not necessarily advocating for a city position, you are there as part of a regional board trying to make the best decision regionally, so the decision you make may not always be in the best interests of Cranbrook.”
She also noted the city’s RDEK directors could get an understanding of council’ position on a given topic but when they get to the regional board table, “they may hear something that we haven’t thought about that would change their opinion – so then what does that councilor do?”
Pallesen then made a motion to postpone Davis’ motion until Stetski returns, which was unanimously supported by council.
Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
