Sunday, September 28, 2008

Citizens shell out for letters -- Jennifer Smith.

On July 3, 2007 I indeed requested an Audit as per Section 172 of the Community Charter. Instead of an Audit the Director of Finance (DoF) received a confidential letter from C. S. Murdy, solicitor for the District (a copy is provided), advising her that based on information provided by the DoF legally speaking the District acted within the law. In fact, the Auditor never appeared before Council this year, a notable departure from previous years.

The legal advice was way too late. We should have asked for a legal advice before putting up the utility’s money for the construction of the sewer line. The question should have been: is it legal for the Municipality to request the developer to connect to the sewer line at his own expense? The answer would have been a resounding yes from any solicitor. Had they done that I would not have had to ask for an audit this time.

The District awarded a huge density bonus to Coldstream Meadows (CM) in 2005 with the requirement that they must connect to community sewer. The nearest community sewer was located at McClounie Road. In order to comply with the requirement CM would have had to connect at that point. CM would have been able to arrange a latecomer contract and could have recovered part of its cost in the following 10-15 year period from householder who needed to connect.

Those customers not needing to connect (which appear to be most households along the new line) did not have to pay. As it is now all properties along the new sewer line pay an annual tax of $97.00 even thought hey opposed the sewer line. In addition, the utility (the existing sewer users) had to contribute $665,000 to provide cheaper sewer connection for CM.

The direction Council of the time chose in this instance may be legal but a Council working for the benefit of the whole community would have chosen the alternative less costly for the community.

Next time I will elaborate (again) on the stupidity of the 7% principle.

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I have been a resident of Coldstream since 1976. I have had 15 years of experience on Council, 3 years as Mayor. As a current Councillor I am working to achieve fair water and sewer rates and to ensure that taxpayers get fair treatment. The current direction regarding water supply is unsustainable and I am doing all I can to get the most cost effective water supply possible.