First, we (the board of directors of SMRPOA) want to apologize for being so tardy in getting this message out.
After the December 10th Council meeting (where they voted down the SMEMP/SMEMS) we were all hoping to have a quiet Christmas. Sadly, in a shocking move, the Mayor and Council reversed their decision the following week (Monday, December 17th).
We were surprised and didn't know what to make of it. Therefore we requested a meeting with the Mayor and councilor Braun (more on that later in this blog post) to find out what happened.
Before we get into that, here is some background...
Back on December 10th, Council voted against the Green Community Plan, of which the SMEMP/S was one part. The SMEMP/S was officially finished, which is why many of us on Sumas Mountain had cause for celebration. For details click here.
But no sooner had the dust settled from Council's decision than, one week later, they reversed it in a stunning flip-flop.
Our first reaction was:
- Why would Council reverse their decision?
- Why was there no notification given to the public?
- Why was the item not even posted on the City's official agenda?
- Why did Council reverse their decision in such a rush, right before Christmas when the public wasn't paying attention?
In fact, we felt the matter was so serious that we asked to meet with the Mayor and councilor Braun before we took action. The meeting took place on Monday January 7th at 4:00 pm, with Jay Teichroeb attending as well.
Here is what we said to the Mayor and councilor Braun:
We expressed concern about Council's flip-flop, that it seemed an effort was being made to roll-back Council's decision in a dubious manner --- since it wasn't published on Council's official agenda, no one had any notice that it was going to happen, and it was pushed through a week before Christmas.
The Mayor responded by saying he used something like an "executive privilege" to ask Council to reconsider their vote. Why? Because staff had told the Mayor that there would be serious fiscal consequences otherwise. What consequences?
Staff told the Mayor that...
- the City might have to pay-back tens of thousands of dollars to whoever underwrote the Green Community Plan & SMEMP/SMEMS in the first place
- the City might have to repay millions in gas-tax money it received
- the City might be ineligible for millions in gas-tax money in the future
We responded by asking the Mayor if he had asked staff to provide proof that any of these consequences would actually happen? His answer: No.
In fact, there was no request for an expert or legal opinion. It was simply the opinion of certain members of staff that all these dire consequences "might" happen unless Council reversed their decision immediately.
Contracts weren't examined, documents weren't brought forth to validate these supposed consequences. And yet, the Mayor and Council took the extraordinary move of flip-flopping. Was their decision driven by emotion or reason?
We also questioned the Mayor as to whether it was proper for Council to reverse their decision without providing at least some notice to the public that they might be doing so, by publishing the item on their agenda as they normally would. The way we read the section 131 of the Community Charter, it seems to us that the matter ought to have been published as an agenda item prior to the 17th. But it wasn't.
All that being said, the phrase that was repeated several times during our meeting with the Mayor and councilor Braun (and Jay Teichroeb) was that the Sumas Mountain Environmental Management Study/Plan "is dead".
But is it? The study/plan still exists (it hasn't been run through the shredder). There are members of Council (and members of staff) who desperately want it to live, and who are actively working to try to resuscitate it. Patricia Ross has cast herself as the champion of the SMEMP, and therefore the opponent of our property rights.
Therefore, in the opinion of the board of directors of SMRPOA, we don't believe the SMEMP is dead, nor do we believe we've seen the last of it. The enviro-visionaries and radical cheerleaders of SMEMP are maneuvering politically to enlist public support. Meanwhile, they are trying to buy time. That is precisely what the December 17th meeting accomplished --- buying time for the other side.
But here is the good news: the fact is, the SMEMP/SMEMS has not actually been brought to Council, despite the optics.
Thanks to the efforts of certain right-thinking staff, Council has been prevented from officially considering the plan/study. Rather, Council has (so far) only received public input and an overview on the "study".
- But will the study/plan be brought to council at some point in the future?
- Will it be covertly reintroduced?
- Will it be quietly implemented at the planning level, by some other name?
- Will it be used as a blueprint for the OCP revisions for "Area H" in 2013?
The answer to all those questions is "Yes" depending on to the extent to which Patricia Ross and her allies hold the balance of power at the committee level. Sadly, they are committed to pushing their agenda through, whatever the cost to taxpayers or property rights.
