Voted down
By a four to three margin, City of Powell River councillors voted to not proceed with a delegation from Arthur Richards regarding Israel Wood Powell.
At the April 5 committee of the whole meeting, councillors voted on a motion to remove the delegation from the agenda, with councillors George Doubt, CaroleAnn Leishman, Cindy Elliott and Maggie Hathaway in favour, and mayor Dave Formosa and councillors Jim Palm and Rob Southcott opposed.
Richards was advised by Elliott that the appropriate venue for the presentation was the possible name change joint working group, which is comprised of City of Powell River and Tla’amin Nation elected officials and residents, and of which she is a member.
The city reached out for a legal opinion on whether the written submission to the city by Richards constituted hate speech. Chief administrative officer Russell Brewer said the legal opinion was that it was not deemed to constitute hate speech.
During question period at the end of the committee meeting, Richards said his point was to ask council if it would be willing to put money aside to have an historian look at the question of Israel Powell.
“Was Powell a bad person or was he a good person?” asked Richards.
Elliott said the question should be directed to the joint working group.
Two appointments
City of Powell River council will consider two staff appointments. The first is that Jessica Lefort be appointed as the deputy corporate officer to fulfill the duties as set out in the Community Charter in the absence of the corporate officer.
The second item for council’s consideration is the appointment of Mallory Denniston as deputy chief financial officer to fulfill the duties as set out in the Community Charter in the absence of the chief financial officer.
Terms outlined
Council will consider the appointment of three directors of Powell River Community Forest for three-year terms effective on April 12. The recommended directors are Ron Fuller, Rod Tysdal and Mark Anderson.
Also, council will consider acting mayor Rob Southcott be confirmed as the duly authorized representative for the city as the sole shareholder, in order to vote at the annual general meeting of the community forest, scheduled to be held on April 12.
