Mayor Garlick's Betrayal of Councillor Kiss

...that's what it is.

Things were apparently fine for a long time, despite Coldstream Councillor Gyula Kiss being a thorn in the side of bureaucrats whose plan to further the 2012 Master Water Plan kept moving along...that is until the public rejected the $70 million Greater Vernon Water borrowing referendum in November of 2014. 

Councillor Kiss has always acted on behalf of the majority of his constituents who are domestic water customers and domestic sewer customers.  And he continues to do just that.

His common-sense proposals, springing from an analytical, scientific mind during his seven-year tenure on GVAC and even longer service as councillor weren't welcomed by bureaucrats at GVW and long-serving elected officials who abandoned the 2002 Master Water Plan and approved the 2012 Master Water Plan.

He is one man with ideas frequently contrary to those held by the political and bureaucratic majority in a region so deeply fractured in its governance structure that it's even been called dysfunctional by one or two incumbents and newbies vying for seats in election campaigns.

As long as Kiss remained an island, the bureaucratic and elected bullies at Greater Vernon Advisory Committee meetings felt no compunction to withhold their ridicule of his proposals--indeed, the man himself--during open meetings.

Fast forward to January 2016.
The grassroots group Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan passed its one year anniversary, having obtained ~1,000 petition signatures from the public that demanded an independent review of the MWP.
The Stakeholders' Advisory Committee--entering its last phase of the MWP "review" following denial of the petition request for an independent professional consultant's review--comprises 18 individuals who were interview-screened by bureaucrats at RDNO for their acceptability quotient.  

Then at the regular Monday January 11, 2016, Coldstream Council meeting the machinations of the decidedly dirty side of politics were enacted, as explained on Councillor Kiss' blog entry the next day:

"Further to my earlier comments on GVAC issues here are the newest developments:

Above are the recently re-discovered Terms of Reference for the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee. As it turns out we have been carrying on business in contradiction of that Terms of Reference. Only two people were eligible to be on the GVAC and the RDNO Board of Directors. In Coldstreams' case it was only the appointed Director and his Alternate could sit on both bodies. Thus, effective today I am out of a job as the Director on GVAC and am only appointed as an alternate, in case the two appointees are not able to attend.

It appears that only Coldstream is affected by this strange rule. Four members of Vernon Council are eligible for Directors of RDNO each of whom are eligible for directorship on GVAC.

Another wrinkle of the RDNO rules is that neither the RDNO Director nor his alternate can advise Coldstream Council of any discussions or decisions made in camera at the RDNO in-camera meetings unless specifically authorized by the Board. 

So as a result of these rules I am afraid I cannot represent your interests on the GVAC. I can sit in at the meetings but I cannot vote unless one of the two Directors are absent.

I wanted to let all of you know before you hear it from the Media. I guess it is fair from RDNO's point of view but I am not so sure it is fair for Coldstream. It all depends on whose ox is being gored!

Cheers!" (end of Councillor Kiss' quote)

The 2015 list of directors and alternates is here.  The new list is not yet posted, which will reflect Coldstream Mayor Garlick's betrayal of Councillor Kiss.  Willing to sacrifice his community's weight at GVAC, Mayor Garlick has rejoined the RDNO mob that wants rid of representative Kiss.  Or else it wouldn't have happened!

How effective on GVAC were alternates Dirk and Enns?
See Kia's reply.

"About as effective as teeth on a tree," Kia says.

Mayor Garlick buckled under the weight of all that dirt.
Some of which he flung himself.

I wonder what Mayor Garlick will see when he looks at his face in the mirror while brushing his teeth.