Richard McGuire, editor, Osoyoos Times
Any day on social media, you’ll read comments attacking Osoyoos town council and accusing them of wasting money, corruption, taking holidays or whatever.
This past week someone accused them of “nepotism,” giving jobs or contracts to one’s relatives, which was a surprise to me. Admittedly, I haven’t traced the genealogies of all the council members.
Over the course of my career, I’ve seen some really bad municipal councils, including one with rampant nepotism that led to the province stepping in to take direct control.
Though some Osoyoos council members are more effective than others, this is one of the better councils of the 20 or so that I’ve covered.
Normally I defend them when I hear ill-informed attacks.
Every so often though, I shake my head at their debates and decisions.
The meeting – actually meetings – on July 3 was a case in point. As that meeting was held on a Tuesday due to the long weekend, and that’s the day we put the paper together, I had to listen to it after the fact on their Granicus video system.
Not counting a public hearing and special meeting on property matters, the regular meeting lasted nearly two and a half hours. By the time I’d taken notes from it, I’d pulled much of the hair off my head in frustration and disbelief.
After a bunch of housekeeping items, contracts and whatnot, they got into a painful 50-minute discussion of recreational cannabis retailing.
Fifty minutes later, council had made only one decision – to ban government sales of cannabis in Osoyoos and leave the market strictly to private vendors.
Despite receiving a fairly thorough 30-page report from administration, council couldn’t make any other decisions and they punted it back to administration for more information.
Some council members have first-hand knowledge of the cannabis issue, but their arguments appear to be based entirely on personal opinions that aren’t backed up with homework. They chose in March not to hold a public consultation, and I now believe more than ever that this was a serious mistake – given the controversial nature of this issue.
Also missing was any analysis of what other municipalities are doing, despite reference in the staff report to Vancouver’s current policy on illegal dispensaries.
Instead we got a couple of “rants” about senior governments downloading the issue onto municipalities – as if zoning isn’t a municipal issue.
But the discussion that brought the meeting to the point of ridiculous was about whether or not to help fund a study for the City of Penticton aimed at improving air service to Penticton Airport (see Page 3).
The use of modern planes that can land more reliably and safely is a huge benefit to Osoyoos. But council rejected the sensible staff recommendation to provide $4,000 and instead held five – yes FIVE – votes before arriving at a $700 “compromise.”
The silliest argument came from the normally sensible Councillor C.J. Rhodes who claimed that since the federal government runs the airport, we’re already paying and don’t need to contribute. And besides, we can get a free ride by letting Penticton pay for the study.
This is as logical as saying the town shouldn’t support public transit because provincial taxpayers already pay for highways.
Hopefully council does better next time.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
