Divvying up the spoils.

It is a most frustrating experience sitting through a Greater Vernon Services Committee (GVSC) meeting and listening to the politicians arguing about how to split the spoils (your money and mine) among the various jurisdictions. Difficult, because I know that my ever increasing water fees. that rose two and a half times since 2002, produced absolutely no benefit to me and to most of my fellow Coldstream residents.

Directors representing the City claim that the overhead and yard costs agreed to in their contract (which never have been signed) is way below what their staff calculated. They conveniently forget that they (or at least their developers) are the only beneficiaries to date of the "Master Water Plan" (the biggest boondoggle ever produced). Don't they have any shame? The fathers of this fiasco should find a hole in the ground and hide instead of having this public argument about an unsigned contract.

Of course, we should be used to the ludicrous actions of our politicians. The Chair of this illustrious Committee tried to circumvent his taxpayers by requesting the Land Commission to approve the change of use of the Spicer Block for the ill fated plan of putting there a sports complex. The Commission reminded him that this was an issue for Coldstream Council. Council then voted on the issue of sending the request through proper channels. A large number of protesters convinced the majority of Council to reject the plan. However, he brought brought the issue back to Council for another vote and convinced Council to go to referendum, spending anywhere from ten to thirty thousand bucks (about $30,000 represents 1% of taxes). We know the results of this referendum -- defeated.

His other action of extending the sewer line 1.5 kilometers along Kalamalka Road for the primary benefit of a single development took $665,000 out of the pockets of the existing sewer customers. Then they took a further $265,000 out of the same pockets to buy out said developer from his latecomer fee collection obligations.

The City Directors are following similar routes. They tried to sneak through an expenditure of over $30 million for the construction of a Civic Complex via the "alternate approval" process. When that failed by a huge margin they also went on an expensive campaign to have the plans approved via a referendum (expenditures on the failed project is estimated at around $250,000-$300,000).

It seems all of our politicians have a misguided belief that money grows on trees. At least the City has some reason for this belief as they are now selling some of the cottonwood trees produced by the spray irrigation trials. But for the rest of us money comes from our taxes and fees. We need some accountability from our politicians!

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