Up coming Election changes for people running for office

Changes to Local Government elections were talked about on the last day of the BC Electoral Area Directors  meetings. A joint committee was made between BC & UBCM consensus decisions were made from all the input that was given to them. The feedback was; 10,374 opinions and 920 written submissions; to what changes to election act should be established. Local Governments(LG), BC wide business groups, area associations, labour, election experts, academics, school trustees and the official opposition; had all put in their opinions on how to change the elections act. There were 31 recommendations most focused accountability; such as Campaign financing and a separate act for local campaign finance  dealing with transparency rules, Expenses and limits on candidates, elector organizations and 3rd party advertisers,. Transparency  rules for 3^rd party advertiser and disclosures and having sponsorship information on advertising. Changes to sponsorship must now have the name of sponsor, authorization contact information has to be on the signs including last previous election signs. Anonymous contributions will be prohibited, passing the hat is ok but it must record contributor information. There must be also be discloser of contributions over a 100.00. An anonymous contribution received has to be turned over to Local Government and a disclosure form filled out on how you handled that contribution. Campaign finance disclosure statements must be provided in 90 days at the end  that time LG staff notifies those who have not filed. 30 day grace period after the 90 days. So long as it is accompanied by the 500.00 late filing fees!

Role of elections BC

-          Certify publish/keep finance disclosure statements

-          review finance  disclosure statements

-          Manage enquires, complaints, investigations regarding finance disclosures

-          Local CEO’s continue to enforce rules during campaign & receive campaign finance disclosure statements.

Expense Limits-Have to be high enough to work in different communities that they should have neutral effect, so people will run. Reasonable limits are considered to be a “base plus per capita formula” and higher amounts for mayoral candidates.

Guides will be available in late spring/early summers- votes, candidates, elector organization& advertising, and supporting a candidate guide. Last election signs would have to value with some depreciation but included in the cost of running an election. Social Media and its effects on the election process, things like blogs; they are personal opinions not considered to be election advertising.

Work continues- develop legislations, prepare guidelines and education materials. For more information go to the Website; http://www.localelectionstaskforce.gov.bc.ca/

Oh Great! more FRESWH snow to play in

EAD meeting SCADA Systems

SCADA

                The Environment and Engineering Dept. provided an update and demonstration of the new SCADA system (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) which is a means to monitor and control processes remotely. The CSRD's Water Acquisition Strategy identifies SCADA as a critical water system upgrade. In 2009 Area C and F Directors were approached for funding through their community works fund to complete SCADA upgrades on the Saratoga, Eagle Bay and Cedar Heights water systems as well as the main office, with their support it was brought to the board and approved. At the time all other CSRD water systems had upgrade projects underway that would include SCADA.

This upgrade allows CSRD staff and operations contractors to access information through a remote computer (located anywhere) that previously was only available with a site visit(flows, pressures temperatures, chlorine dose, turbidity, pumps on and off, alarms, etc). This system also allows changes to be made over the computer for example if a high chlorine alarm calls out the system operator they can adjust the chlorine dose through the computer without leaving their home. This allows better monitoring of CSRD water systems at a reduced cost, for example at Saratoga the operator used to attend the site 3 to 4 times per week with SCADA this has been reduced to a single visit. This is a powerful tool to not only help the operators monitor and control the systems but also to help keep costs down. 

Looking inside out

A CSRD Board retreat in the last two days had 10 of us discussing relationships between the Board members and how can we improve them (the relationships- improving the members would be a lot more difficult!). In looking at relationships with each other, questions arose; are we a team or we something else.  The way the Regional Districts are set up (by legislation) insists that we do not work together as a team. In the end we do work together and do get things done (sometimes) but it is not necessarily in a team setting.

                Regional Districts could be better described as a loose federation where we do work together for the betterment of the CSRD but we have our own areas self interest at heart. This is different than a municipality where the council and mayor would not have a variety of community self interests. In general they would all have the municipalities’ best interests at heart.  Regional Districts are more like an orchestrated model than a team sports model.

                Words of Wisdom for local government representatives were; “Never make assumptions”, “Never attribute malice to another person’s actions or words.  A majority of the time there is misunderstanding or stupidity that appears to be intended malice”. “

Very few people understand how regional districts work. This would include; the Province, municipalities and the residents in Regional Districts”. It was agreed amongst all the Board members that the CSRD work harder to bring understanding of the CSRD to all residents.  

                We were reminded that we cannot keep everyone happy with the delivery of services. As well when at the Board table every yes signifies a “NO” to something else when making decisions. It all costs money and if you give money to one thing you cannot give it to all good the projects that come to a Regional Director.

                Sitting, talking and chatting in the beautiful wood setting of the Quaoout Lodge with the other Directors  was a welcomed way of taking off the edge of our typically business rapport.  

View from Quaaout Lodge- blue icy day

More on Political logs

                Blog conversation is your coffee shop talk on steroids. The anonymity of blogs allow people to make comments with impunity; that has it’s good and bad side. Blogs should require people to identify themselves, when dealing in a community context. In this coming fall election most people running will likely be using blogs to garner votes. CAO’s are likely to be nervous about politician’s blogging but cannot stop it from happening. It can be quite destructive if distinction between corporate and personal viewpoints is not clarified.

There are 1000s and 1000s of people are coming on every day to the web/ internet/blog connections. There are many issues this brings up; one is how much can you absorb every day. A Psychologist named Dunbar developed from his studies a theory  called; “Dunbar’s number”.  Dunbar's number states the number of people one knows and keeps social contact with and also likely depends on memory size. Primates only have a limited ability to make 150 genuine connections. Humans are really a subset of the primates in some way, and in that how many people we can effectively relate to within a day to day relationship is 15.

Advisory Planning Committee

The Advisory Planning Committee (APC) meeting supported an ALR application to split a property so the 2 owners  can leave the property to their heirs without the unneeded hostility that could be created when two parties own the same property. The property is in Magna Bay near Ross Creek flats. 

Brian David from the Skmana X Country  Ski Club was supported  to receive $3,000 to help replace the exhausted machinery to help the ski trails. The Skmana cross country ski trails fell on hard times due to a lack of support and volunteers . It has a new breath of energy has lifted  it out of the doldrums and is creating, not only an improved cross country ski trails but also snowshoeing , biking, hiking  and possibly a touring snowmobile trail. They are going into a fresh direction and need help to get them over this hump. The advantages for the North Shuswap is of course is access to the snowshoe/ski trails within less than ½ hour from Scotch Creek; as well as possible economical spin offs, improved life style that could attract people to the area (bringing in doctors nurses and other professionals) and access to improved  health sport choices.  To see what the trails and organizations like go to: http://ski-skmana.com/  .

Two applications were not supported; one the BC Lake Stewardship Society and the North Okanagan Shuswap Brain Injury Society. Though both of these societies do good things and likely are useful to some of the North Shuswap, they are not directly involved in Area “F”. It becomes more nebulous with those societies that are more wide spread and not localized near the North Shuswap. It is a hard line to divide how monies should be handed out to different benevolent societies when they are mainly based outside of the area. Once we go down that steep & slippery slope of giving funds to the many good will groups that “could” help the North Shuswap, funds will quickly be depleted from our Grant In Aid.    

I also introduced my new Alternate Steve Rivett to the APC group. Other discussions were: the need for a new Regional Director, Special Events, changes to the Fires Services Bylaw,  the Celista /Magna Bay/Anglemont ground water report, Subdivision Servicing Bylaw changes, Noise Bylaw and the Soil Bylaw(a bylaw dealing with illegal gravel pits & illegal dumping).