Manipulator Macnabb

Ever the contrarian, Greater Vernon Advisory Committee director Mike Macnabb knows better.
Or should anyway.

He routinely "stirs up" the monthly meeting pot at RDNO, desiring perhaps as much to cement new alliances to his ideas as he is to creating chasms among peers who express divergent points of view.

Mike Macnabb's years-long, public and virtually automatic opposition to anything that Coldstream councillor and GVAC director Gyula Kiss states regarding the Master Water Plan has been witnessed by virtually everyone. 


The latest Macnabb salvo arrived at Thursday's GVAC meeting when stakeholder advisory committee details were still being discussed, while calls for applications have been in the Morning Star newspaper for several issues. 

Macnabb said "The group (CCMWP) has put forward the name of an individual they want and that's biased to some extent." 

For the record, what Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan stated was:

"We believe that someone such as Don Dobson who is a professional engineer with considerable knowledge and experience in water supplies in the Okanagan--or someone similar--would be a credible independent source of information and expertise to assist the Stakeholder Advisory Committee.  We strongly believe that the Master Water Plan review process needs an individual with an arms length relationship to the existing plan, to assist the committee by providing GVAC with independent advice.  We respect the involvement of RDNO staff and the input they can and have provided to the process, but it is important that the SAC have an independent consultant so that the review process can proceed without any claims of bias."

In other words, exactly the opposite of what Macnabb was implying to his peers.
Or to be less than succinct, to not consider a complete illiterate in the educated and professional world of water consultants.  
Or to rely on GVW's choice--Macnabb--who heads RDNO's "water committee" for an unbiased representation to the stakeholder advisory group.

The attempted manipulation by Macnabb fell flat at his feet, as his counterpart directors, first Fleming and then Chair Cunningham reiterated "they aren't saying this has to be the person...it's just one name to consider..."

Exactly!

To end on a decidedly tongue-in-cheek example--and to show that Murphy's Law is alive and well--the letter to Chair Cunningham by CCMWP Chair Terry Mooney had a circuitous delivery route...by the time of the meeting, Chair Cunningham hadn't received it, despite it having been hand delivered to reception during the last week of July.  Paddy Juniper--who issues all communication and delegation requests for the advisory committee at RDNO -- hadn't seen it either, but quickly saw to it that a copy was obtained and advisory committee directors received theirs.

Turns out reception at RDNO--rather than holding the letter for Chair Cunningham for the upcoming meeting at RDNO--sent it in the internal mail system to the City of Vernon (where Chair Cunningham is a councillor).  Without a council meeting scheduled ahead of the RDNO GVAC meeting, Councillor Cunningham had not received her mail at City of Vernon by the time she chaired the GVAC meeting at RDNO.  (Aaaargh!)


"It takes sleet or hail for the postal system to prevail," grins Kia.
 

Apparently.