City of Powell River qathet Regional District directors George Doubt and Cindy Elliott will be able to maintain their positions on the regional board.
At the July 31 special city council meeting, mayor Ron Woznow made a motion to replace Doubt and Elliott after they finish serving two years in their positions in the fall of this year.
“At a previous meeting, councillor [Earl] Almeida had suggested that we come in August and discuss the process to do this,” said Woznow. “Since we are not having any meetings in August, we thought we would put this in place, and if there was a consensus, we could set a council time in September or early October, where individuals on council that wish to be considered for regional directors could put their names forth.”
Doubt said council, in its first meeting of November 2022, elected he and Elliott to be regional directors for a term of two years, and alternates were named.
“I don’t see any reason to change that,” said Doubt. “If council wants to, it could change that, but rather than set up a program to talk about it in September or October, they could do it now.”
Woznow made a motion that council change the directors from the city at the end of the two-year agreement that council had passed. The motion was seconded by councillor Jim Palm.
Woznow said council as a whole has a lot of expertise and he added there was merit in council deciding whether or not new members as regional district directors would bring some additional expertise to that organization.
Elliott said the two-year term was coming to an end, so council needed to make a decision. She said it would be good to make any decision at the special council meeting.
“The city’s best interests and the regional district’s best interests are not necessarily served by switching all the people at once,” said Elliott. “If we were going to rotate, we would only want to rotate one at a time so you always have a seasoned person on the regional district board. I know when I was new there, I had training I had to take, and there is quite a bit of it because the regional district is considerably different than the municipal place. It helped me a lot to have councillor Doubt there who had already learned a lot of what was required.
“It would be hard for the city to make sure they are stacking up well against all area representatives in protecting the interests of the city when everybody [from the city] is new all at once. Changing everyone all at once is not a great plan.”
Elliott said she was willing to continue to serve on the regional district board.
Woznow asked for a show of hands of councillors who had served on the regional board, and councillor Rob Southcott and Palm indicated they had previously served. Woznow said they would have a limited learning curve if they were to serve as directors again.
Doubt said having new directors every four years to coincide with municipal elections was the better way to go rather than having frequent turnover.
“I like being on the board, I provide a useful role there and I’d like to continue,” said Doubt.
Woznow amended his motion that council change municipal directors at the expiry of a two-year term by appointing Southcott and Palm to the qathet Regional District board, with councillors Trina Isakson and Almeida as alternates. Palm seconded the motion for discussion.
Woznow said the experience of Southcott and Palm was excellent and it was an opportunity for the two new council members to learn about interactions that take place between the city and regional district.
Palm said it was premature to appoint anybody at this time and since no one will be changed until November if council voted to do so, he didn’t want the members of the board, who are doing good work, to be lame ducks. Palm said he appreciated the original motion to visit the matter at the appropriate time near the end of the two-year term.
Isakson said she didn’t support the amendment or the original motion, and she wasn’t interested in changing representation at this time.
Southcott said he has confidence in the two members sitting and he is interested in remaining as an alternate, so he didn’t support either motion.
Almeida said he didn’t want to serve in an alternate role, given his occupational and family pursuits.
“I have learned in life when to say no,” said Almeida. “I have no interest, desire or capacity at this point to be even an alternate. Making a change for the sake of change is not necessary.”
Woznow said the appointments for regional district directors had been revised and it appeared there was no appetite for change. He asked for the amendment and the motion to be removed, but was advised that defeating the motions was the best way to proceed. Council defeated the amendment and the main motion.
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