Responses to Questions from Mayor Cook

I recently had an opportunity to send a lengthy email to Mayor Cook on the following:

1) Lack of WL Council consistency on how late items are added to WL Council's Meeting Agenda

2) Inconsistency of appointing the City of WL CRD (Cariboo Regional District) Director to the CRD Board

This is the answer I got:

Hi Steve

We are dealing with the late item issue. Thanks for the reminder

In addition to that answer, she copied the CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) of the City on the email as well

Quite frankly, I was disappointed with her response on various levels

1) She has no experience at the CRD Board (either observing or being appointed as a former CRD Director or Alternate, when she was a City Councillor (1996-1999)

2) She didn't apologize for not ensuring that Council actions are consistent with:

i) Local Government Act & Community Charter
ii) Council Procedure Bylaw

3) She has been Mayor for 1 Year and the process for including late items on Council Agendas have been the same since mid-2004

And while I'm at it, she has cc'd (carbon copy) a lot of my emails to City Staff, even those that were directed at her personally. Sometimes, it is appropriate, such as in this case, to refer emails to City Staff for clarification. But when an email is sent directly from a member of the public to an elected official expressing an opinion, said elected official should respond in kind to the public's concern without Staff assistance.

I have high hopes that things might be different in 2010, with Mayor & Council - City of Williams Lake....then again, I won't be holding my breath on that one....