Members of Qualicum Beach council aren’t the only ones eager to get to work. Members of their committees also want to roll up their sleeves.
A decision to put the appointment of councillors on hold until March isn’t helping them do that, said one member of the recreation and parks commission.
Speaking at Wednesday’s council open house meeting, commission member Frank Horner said the move is causing some concern with his group.
“When the e-mail first came in to the recreation and parks commission, there was a rumbling of almost revolt,” Horner said. “We are already stuck with a meeting schedule of once every two months. By banning the January meeting, we’re looking at several months since we had a meeting. That’s no way to run a ship.”
Horner’s concern had earlier been raised prior to the November election by former councillor Jack Wilson, who said the sparser meeting schedule was insufficient to effectively carry on a flow of work. The January and February hiatus, Horner said, just made the situation worse.
In response, Mayor Teunis Westbroek noted that council voted at their inaugural meeting to defer the appointments of councillors to the various town committees until the Feb.13 council meeting, but stressed an upcoming strategic planning session next week should clear things up and allow them to clarify the situation at the February meeting.
Coun. Scott Tanner noted the Regional District of Nanaimo’s District 69 Recreation Commission are in the same boat, with no meetings until February, while the various RDN appointments are made.
That was small comfort to Horner.
“Our Recreation and Parks Commission is full of people who are ready, willing and able,” he said. “There’s a pretty strong feeling about this.”
The Recreation and Parks Commission used to meet every month, but in an attempt to save staff workload, a plan was launched to have the commission meet on a quarterly basis. Meeting once every two months was a compromise.
news@pqbnews.com