OPINION A decision foretold three months ago

Kamloops council last week made a decision foretold in this column on April 12. Imagine how much could have been accomplished in the past 13 weeks (and longer) had council simply cut to the chase back then and made the decision that was predicted on this page and likely expected by many others.

Last week, council decided to kill standing committees (which are created by the mayor under provisions of the Community Charter) and proceed with select committees (which are created by council under provisions of the Community Charter).

Standing and select committees are essentially the same as they are subcommittees of council created to focus on specific issues — finance, civic operations, community, protective services and so forth. These subcommittees then report to the entire council with recommendations.

While standing and select committees include some members of council — 50 per cent of standing committee members must be council members, while select committees must have at least one council member — only the entire council has the power to enact recommendations from the committees.

When Mayor Reid HamerJackson appointed councillors to the five standing committees earlier this year, all seemed well.

In March, however, everything exploded when the mayor made unilateral changes to the committees.

Exercising his right as mayor under the Community Charter, Hamer-Jackson stripped three councillors of their positions as chairs of standing committees and appointed nine residents, one of whom worked on his election campaign, two of whom donated money to his election campaign and some of whom are his friends.

The eight councillors were miffed and, exercising their right under the Community Charter, voted to create a select committee to determine the terms of reference for standing committees — in other words, how the committees will be run.

Alas, rather than change how standing committees are run, council on July 12 decided to kill them — a decision that could have and should have been done months ago.

Consider this ridiculousness: there has likely been more discussion by a select committees on the fate of standing commit- tees than there have been standing committee meetings.

As I wrote on April 12: “Both sides appear to be prepping the battlefield so they can each blame the other side for the inevitable stalemate, while the prevailing faction (the eight councillors) may ultimately do what it could have done long ago … councillors could have simply resigned their positions on the standing committees, thereby dissolving said committees based on the fact the Community Charter dictates that at least 50 per cent of committee membership must include elected officials.

“Council could have then created select committees to address the identical issues addressed by standing committees, freezing out the mayor in the process and bringing recommendations to council, where the eight councillors and their majority votes could implement whatever they wish, mayoral opposition be damned.

“But the eight councillors have chosen the circuitous route, ensuring voters see they have taken pains to work with the mayor — until, that is, trying to work with the mayor becomes untenable.”

Further confusing the issue is Hamer-Jackson’s insistence that council’s decision to scrap standing committees somehow contravenes the Community Charter. It doesn’t.

Section 141(1), which the mayor is fond of reciting, states “the mayor must establish standing committees for matters the mayor considers would be better dealt with by committee and must appoint persons to those committees. At least half of the members of a standing committee must be council members.”

Hamer-Jackson appears to believe the provincial legisla - tion states he “must” establish standing committees. In fact, it states he “must” do so only if there are matters he feels need more scrutiny, Furthermore, without 50 per cent council participation, standing committees cannot exist, per the Community Charter. editor@kamloopsthisweek.com

So, here we are in mid-July, nine months since the civic election, and precious little has been done on the committee front.

Drilling into specific issues to expedite decisions on crucial issues for the entire council has been sacrificed for nearly a year of nonsense.

On a brighter note, there are only 39 more months until the next election.

Twitter: @ChrisJFoulds

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