There’s one thing that people don’t like in their elected officials, and that’s laziness. Yet it seems some members of the board of trustees here in School District 69 (Qualicum) have forgotten that.
Earlier this week, in their first regular meeting of the new school year, trustee Ross Milligan made a point of offering up a so-called protest, and voted against the first three readings of the board of education’s annual capital budget bylaw, worth an estimated $700,000.
On the surface, that’s no big deal. Passing this bylaw doesn’t require a unanimous vote.
What did require everyone to give their assent is reading the bylaw three times in a row — again not unusual, but most bylaws spread out this voting pattern over a meeting or three. It seems the board wanted it done all at once.
But Milligan prevented that — almost, that is.
By voting against the bylaw, he would have pushed the steps leading up to eventual adoption (as long as the rest of the trustees voted the same way) ahead a month or two.
He stated he did so because he wanted to be better informed about what projects were in the budget. Plus, he wanted trustees to be better informed as well.
The question is: why aren’t they? And why isn’t Milligan?
It’s their job to be informed. We elected them to do that job, at least. Or to at least read the information district staff hand to them to read.
Simply passing bylaws because its a housekeeping item smacks of laziness.
In the end, the whole thing was moot, as Milligan was convinced to change his vote that night and join the club.
Not standing by his convictions on this subject? Giving in without so much as an extra review of what had him so concerned in the first place?
Now, that’s lazy.