Thapar denied 2013 UBCM attendance

At last night's Special Quesnel Council Meeting -- the outcome from the dismissed John Stecyk lawsuit reached the floor of Quesnel Council Chambers

It first started with Quesnel Councillor Mike Cave taking great issue with those who have initiated lawsuits against the City during the 'Invocation' or Opening Prayer

Then Councillor Sushil Thapar, during consideration of appointing Byron Johnson (Quesnel City Manager) as Approving Officer for the City of Quesnel, took a shot at Mr. Johnson over his role during the 'Mike Gook' lawsuit affair a few years ago.  That court case was ultimately thrown out saying that City of Quesnel officials of the day did nothing wrong

Next up - Quesnel Council agreed to receive a request from Councillor Thapar to attend the 2013 Union of BC Municipalities conference in mid-September.  Councillor Thapar then put a motion on the floor for formal permission for himself to attend UBCM this fall but his motion failed to draw a seconder

Finally - Councillor Cave expressed (and rightfully so) outrage that Councillor Thapar chose to go to the media first (again) and suggested strongly that Thapar's colleagues lied to the public when they said Mr. Stecyk had resigned for personal reasons - read more from the Rush/Wolf here while the rest of Quesnel Council chose to focus on the 'positives' like this weekend's Skyfest (more information on Skyfest here.  More information from last night's meeting from the Rush/Wolf here

Steve's take on last night's meeting:

1) I agree with Quesnel Mayor Mary Sjostrom when she said:

"You don't have to like us (Quesnel Council members) but you need to respect the office."

As an Alternate Director - there are Directors I don't agree with on issues from time to time however I respect them as fellow Directors when I get the privilege of attending a Cariboo RD Board meeting but what we discuss at the Board table, I leave there and treat them as 'friends' outside of meetings

2) I did discuss briefly with Quesnel Councillor Scott Elliott how Councillor Mike Cave did the Invocation at last night's meeting and was assured that it was addressed and I thank him for that and I'm satisfied that it won't be repeated.  A invocation is meant to inspire the proceedings of a meeting and not to go 'on the attack' against one's opponents but I sympathize with Councillor Cave on the whole situation and understand why he was mad....

3) Quesnelnews.com has published the affidavits filed in the John Stecyk court case - read here however in reading the various affidavits for the lawsuit - Councillor Thapar's actions, even in the guise of 'open and transparent' local government, can not be seen as 'defensible'. The vast majority of those in the Cariboo-Chilcotin who are a Mayor, Councillor, Regional District Director/Alternate Director understands that - yes, we want transparent/open local government - but there are some things like staff, legal and other issues that the 'public interest' requires that they be kept behind closed doors and when appropriate, the local government will release the information in due course

But I don't expect that last night's meeting outcome will stop Thapar and his small group of supporters in Quesnel from continuing to do what they've done to date especially with 1 year to go before mandatory local government elections in the Fall of 2014

Also - I've been noticing that former Quesnel Councillor Peter Couldwell has been attending Quesnel Council meetings when I'm in attendance.  Is Mr. Couldwell thinking of coming out of retirement? Time will tell.... but should he, Mr. Couldwell would be, in my view, a very welcome sight on Quesnel Council, once again..

-- SBF