OSOYOOS TIMES-October 27, 2010
So another volunteer-led task force met for the first time to help the Town hammer out its pending water-zoning policies after a proposed water zoning bylaw sank earlier this year due to public opposition.
This group joins the ranks of other volunteer committees and task forces set up by the Town or Osoyoos council to deal with hot-button or controversial issues such as council’s remuneration or affordable housing needs in the community.
At first glance, one might feel that the efforts of council and the Town to include the community in decision-making processes are great.
There is certainly nothing wrong with a government being in touch with its community and involving them in the day-to-day operations of administration.
Considering what seems like a large reliance on volunteer committees and task forces in the past two years in the context of the pending review of the Town’s operations casts the situation in a new light, however.
Let’s consider the new task force focused on regulating the lake.
After the Town decided to abandon its proposed water zoning bylaw, council set out to create a task force that could help it find ways to regulate water usage on the lake while addressing the concerns of lake users and property owners.
The proposed bylaw, which received first reading, was shelved after public meetings where a number of residents voiced opposition to the bylaw.
It’s now hoped that by including community members that would be affected by water zoning in the process of creating new regulations, such concerns can be addressed.
Again, get the public involved; nothing wrong with that.
But, we, as taxpayers, are currently paying our council and mayor, including water councillors, a combined total of $89,530.32 a year.
Council decided to give first reading to the water zoning bylaw, learned after the fact that the public weren’t in favour of it and so scrapped the policy.
If council doesn’t have the confidence to make decisions on its own and needs volunteers to guide them, then maybe some of that $89,000 and change should go to the volunteers instead of into the pockets of councillors.
Now it could be argued that maybe council didn’t get the best information on the potential repercussions of the proposed water zoning prior to the fact and that’s why it went ahead with first reading before having to abandon the draft regulations.
Isn’t it the job of Town staff to go out and get that kind of information, to learn the needs and concerns of stakeholders affected by any proposed policy before council makes a decision?
Again, if we have to rely on volunteers to do that work for us, then why are we paying out close to $1.5 million in salaries and wages to Town staff?
Getting community input is great but in a case like the abandoned water zoning bylaw, creating a reliance on a volunteer task force to fix whatever problems came up when the draft regulations were before council earlier this year suggests our council is not quite confident in its decision-making abilities and suggests Town staff didn’t do their homework in preparing the draft bylaw.
Our council and Town staff do great things for this community, but at a time when the possibility of trimming some fat from the administration is a very real thing, having another volunteer organization come to the plate to help deal with a controversial issue makes one wonder if we really are getting full value for our tax dollars.
