They're Sending a Message....Albeit the Wrong One

...and voters have long memories...even lasting four years.

The Morning Star today, in their feature entitled "Civic officials send a message", effusively lauded that "Greater Vernon's business leaders are being told that local governments are working together."

Somebody forgot that Chamber of Commerce members are residents--and water users and taxpayers--here too.
Not a mention of one (if not THE) most pressing items on folks' minds:  the Master Water Plan review, ostensibly begun yesterday at the GVAC meeting at RDNO.

Begun...and almost finished, all in one fell swoop.
More on the water review later.

So what did the hobnobbing politicians convince Chamber of Commerce attendees they were doing "for the betterment of the region and its citizens and businesses"?

Are you sitting down?
Might be an idea to do just that.

"Collaborate with other jurisdictions on the proposed twinning (ice sheets) of Kal Tire Place, constructing a new museum and art gallery and looking at ways to help the Okanagan Indian Band service land for development....bolstering the economy with a supply of employment lands and an abandoned rail line."

Huh?

When the biggest thing to hit the North Okanagan in 10 years--public demand for an independent master water plan review--was supposedly to be uppermost in politicians' minds, if only to attempt to prove that bureaucrats are NOT the tail that wags the dog.

Maybe politicians have forgotten that the public voted against the $70 million borrowing referendum for the 2012 Master Water Plan's projects a short seven months ago, leaving the plan without funding.

"We're heading back up (economically)," gushed Vernon Mayor Mund, "seeing recovery in residential construction."  Will someone please tell Mayor Mund that reducing the downtown vacancy rate to less than 10 per cent isn't going to be achieved with residential construction!  Commercial business properties are For Sale, For Lease, For Rent.  How does residential construction help that?

Also gushing, Coldstream Mayor Garlick, stated that agriculture is "on the upswing" with one major cherry grower selling his cherries for $32 a pound in world markets...a juxtaposition occurred one newspaper page later--in a letter to the editor by Harold Rhenisch that stated, in part "...millions produce cherries shipped out of the country as luxury products for China, it's pretty clear that contemporary water management strategies consider the industrial use of water to create export products to be more valuable than providing water for Greater Vernon homeowners and farmers supplying the local market to produce their own food...that's hardly ethical."

Ahem...

Almost all the politicians present at the Village Green are members of the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee--or its Board--where two special meetings were called:  one on June 10th, where they adjourned to In Camera.  That meeting was deemed closed to the public, after which its topic was removed from In Camera.  Turns out that an official from Interior Health was present.  Who coached whom isn't known, but obviously a solidarity strategy when facing the public about filtration issues at Duteau Creek was formulated.

Rather than going to RDNO, the IHA official's time could've been better spent at the Aberdeen Plateau...railing mud-boggers and dirt bikers with a megaphone, to remove themselves from on-going damage of our sensitive water collection area.

Then, presto, yet another special meeting was called:  June 11th, where the Agenda was:

"Master Water Plan Review
-Master Water Plan List of Assumptions dated June 5, 2015
-Stakeholder Advisory Committee Terms of Reference.

That it be recommended to the Board of Directors the Terms of Reference for the Stakeholder Advisory Committee to review the 2012 Greater Vernon Master Water Plan be endorsed, and further that staff be instructed to initiate the process to form the committee as outlined in the Terms of Reference for the Stakeholder Advisory Committee to Review the 2012 Greater Vernon Master Water Plan."

(Blog author:  Bureaucrats must've been burning the midnight oil as the List of Assumptions was finally made available as pages 3 of 6 (LofA) Terms of Reference as pages 7 of 12 at this June 11th meeting link), albeit a day after the meeting.
 So much for transparency.

A First Blush on bureaucrat-penned (via candlelight overnight?) Terms of Reference for the "stakeholder committee" (which, in itself, proves nothing has changed and bureaucrats remain in charge of GVAC officials):

"...a diverse group of GVW customers will be brought together

with no prior involvement in the development of the MWP..."

(including the review of 10 Technical Memoranda!)

Without going so far as to suggest that technically-bright people need not apply, let's see which type of individual this "diverse group" may contain:

2 from agriculture, 2 from non-domestic high water use, 2 from non-domestic "sensitive" customers (hospital, etc.), 1 major Industrial, 3 residential users, 1 developer (but if developers have all left town, it's recommended a rep from the Urban Development Institute will do...a list of their Board is here), 1 local special interest group, ostensibly the Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan, and 1 rep from a local service group.  That's 13...over-weighted by the 3 residential users who haven't a clue about technical memoranda--then or now--other than their water bills are way too high.

Plus:  RDNO's engineering manager, GVW manager, GVW staff, Interior Health (now that they know what to say to the diverse group), and, saving the best for last...AECOM, the author of the thoroughly flawed 2012 Master Water Plan, which replaced the 2002 Master Water Plan.  Obviously--as with Coldstream's Ag Committee, and the Drought Management Committee--will "lead" the committee.
By the nose.

And there's no indication if there's an application process to join the diverse "appointed" group.
But bureaucrats hope to scare many folks with their stated pledge for members to:  "invest time and energy in learning about the GVW system (from bureaucrats), water treatment and distribution (from bureaucrats, actively participate in 6 meetings (July to December) and work constructively and collaboratively with committee members to achieve the (as-yet not fully stated)  committee purpose.  Prospective members will even have to commit to giving a month's notice if they are quitting...after they themselves find a replacement!

 
Stuck in the thick bureaucratic process:
The committee is modeled after the "Drought Response Team"...(and Coldstream's Agricultural Advisory Committee, which was a sham) to "work on the Master Water Plan to receive and consider information and provide feedback to politicians and staff."

Huh?
How can at least 12 non-technical people "consider information and provide feedback to politicians and staff?"

Bureaucrats must already be laughing at how many tails they can now effectively wag.
And intimidate.

Here's a question to bureaucrats who have created the List of Assumptions.
Shouldn't that be called List of Facts if it is indeed intended to inform/educate non-technical cold people on an appointed committee?

"There's a saying," says Kia, "that assuming something makes an ass out of you 'n me."

So that would put us all halfway there.

Good luck to the appointed Group.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall during the closed selection process...


A note to bureaucrats and politicians: at least one of your 13 hand selected appointees must be a technical member from Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan.

By the way...whatever happened to the group's Number One request to hire an independent technical consultant to review the 2012 Master Water Plans?
Seems RDNO/GVW bureaucrats don't want a consultant to participate...he might see through their smoke 'n mirrors.

Voters are watching!

Anyone wishing to read GVAC's "Adopted Motions" can access "The Failure Path, Monday June 8th blog post.