At last night's WL Council meeting, a couple of things took place that should worry residents:
Editor's Note - the full meeting can be watched on Shaw Cable - Channel 10 at 8:00pm tonight and 7:00am Thursday and Sunday
1) Debate Conduct - Local Gov't Leadership Academy
During debate on this item - Councillor Rathor was attempting to explain for a 2nd time why he could not support Mayor Cook going to the Local Gov't Leadership Academy with only 9 months to go before the election in November, when Councillor Zacharias attempted to have the question on the motion called forthwith by raising a "Point of Order" which usually refers to when an individual believes that a procedure of a governing body (local government or other) is breached and at that point, the presiding officer (Mayor/Chair) rules whether or not the Point of Order is valid or not. It is not supposed to be used to subvert the democratic rights of individuals like Councillor Rathor to speak. If Councillor Zacharias wanted the question called forthwith, the proper procedure was to wait until she was recognized by Mayor Cook then move a motion of "That the question be now called" and if she received a seconder, then and only then Mayor Cook would have to put the motion forthwith as it is not debatable. If it passed, then the previous question (send Mayor Cook to the March Local Gov't Leadership Academy) would then be put to a vote.
This is not a question of rookie mistakes - Sue Zacharias has now 5 years of local government experience - 3 as the CRD Director for Area 'D' and 2 years as a Williams Lake City Councillor. One would think that she would know how to get things moving, from a procedural point of view
2) Reconsider Per Diem Rate Increase
Also at last night's WL Council meeting, Mayor Cook used her power as Mayor under Section 131(2)(a)(ii) of the Community Charter to have Williams Lake City Council revisit their decision regarding the per diem rate increase (meals). Section 131(2)(a)(ii) of the Charter says:
(ii) within the 30 days following that meeting"
During the ensuing discussion, it was revealed that Mayor Cook & Councillor Tom Barr were both contacted by John Dubé, Shop Steward for the City's Unionized employees and Mr. Dubé suggested that the current $60 per day per diem penalized his fellow employees when they were away on mandatory courses and when they pay for HST on meals when away and he didn't think it was fair for them to be out of pocket for mandatory courses to keep their specialized training. However, it should be pointed out that everyone is paying for HST on their meals but yet the general public is not getting compensated for HST on their meals. Council made the wrong decision last night, but the right one on January 25th
In a related matter, Councillor Rathor suggested at last night's meeting that the $125.00 per day that members of Williams Lake City Council receive to attend conferences like UBCM (Union of BC Municipalities), FCM (Federation of Canadian Municipalities) and NCLGA (North Central Local Gov't Association) be removed. Unfortunately, he was unable to get Council support to refer to the 2011 Budget Process. Councillor Tom Barr (Finance Chair) called Rathor's proposal "ridiculous". I tend to agree. If Councillor Rathor's idea have come to fruition, it may put a chill on those running for Council in the future because they would have to consider the impact of taking time off work at 100% "no compensation" to attend these very important conferences and that would be a step backwards for having qualified people come forward to serve on Council. With November approaching and rumours abound that Councillor Rathor being approached to run for Mayor - this ill-advised and poorly thought out idea of eliminating the $125 per day to attend conferences should be reason enough to allow Councillor Rathor to make the appropriate and right decision to run only for Councillor for a 7th time. If he runs for Mayor - I believe his days at 450 Mart St as an elected official would be over and that would be a sad day for Williams Lake as Council and this community would lose 18 years of local gov't experience
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