People may wonder why the costs of an electoral area director are so much higher than those of the mayors and councillors serving municipalities. There are a number of differences between the support and pay available to a municipal board member compared to an electoral area director sitting on the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen.
As an electoral area director, I must drive long distances in the course of my work, which means that my expenses are high as I am reimbursed for my gas costs in attending meetings throughout the 2,122 square kilometer region of Area “G” and the 10,414 square kilometre RDOS as a whole. My base pay for being an electoral area director is $1,689.28 a month. Many of the expenses and remuneration are covering expenses which I am expected to pay out of pocket. Until February this year, I worked as a waitress to supplement my income- and working “on the side” is usually necessary for most elected officials to make ends meet.
In addition to representing the people of Area “G” at the RDOS, I have also been appointed by the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen to attend meetings of the Southern Interior Local Government Association and the Southern Interior Beetle Action Coalition. Both of these other boards cover areas spanning from as far west as Lytton and Bralorne, as far east as the Kootenays, as far north as the towns of Clearwater and Valemont, and south to the U.S. border.
These additional duties mean that I regularly drive in excess of four or five hours to attend meetings, and many of those meetings occur on the evening of our arrival and starting the next morning until around 3 p.m. These meetings require staying overnight in a hotel, eating out while on the road, and mileage costs.
It is through this representation that I have lobbied the BC Utilities Commission and Fortis on residents’ behalf over the two-tiered conservation system. It is through these boards that we as residents of the Similkameen have a better opportunity to have our voices heard in the Province of B.C., and where we are able to band together with other rural representatives and demand a better deal for rural B.C.
Unlike municipal board members like mayors, I don’t have any staff or secretaries to assign work to. Every phone call I make from my home (office) phone is a long distance one, unless I am calling Penticton. I do not bill the RDOS for this. If I want a document or report for a resident or group I print it myself, using the home office supplies which I was assigned by the regional district. Since I live in a remote community, there are times I purchase stationery, stamps and other office supplies rather than wait for the time delay of ordering things through the head office. When a project is time sensitive, I would rather pay for things myself and be reimbursed than miss a deadline or not have materials on hand for a presentation or meeting.
Telus: Cell Service is coming: 2013-2014
The RDOS board has issued its second letter of concurrence for the construction of a cellular monopole along Highway #3, as part of the plans for greater cell coverage throughout the highway corridor. So far, Telus has planned and engineered for two sites between Princeton and Keremeos which will extend the coverage along our most dangerous stretches of highway. It is anticipated that this cell service will be in place by sometime between the end of 2013 and 2014. Most residents along Highway #3 should expect they will receive cell service due to the erection of these two poles.
There has been a lot of controversy and misinformation about a cellular monopole proposed for the center of the town of Hedley. While most residents are in favour of cell service, the location proposed by Telus was received with diametrically opposing views. It is often a contentious issue for an industrial utility to site its infrastructure within a town boundary, so it is not surprising that residents responded the way that they did.
I have been working with the general manager of Telus to consider other options, and in the next few weeks engineers will be out in the fields looking at the possibilities of co-locating their hardware on existing sites that already service the town. In the best case situation, residents will be receiving cell service without the erection of a monopole in the downtown core.
At the RDOS board on Thursday, May 16, I did not vote to issue a letter of concurrence as urged by a local petition, as it would compromise the efforts I had made up to that date to create a better solution for all stakeholders concerned.
Hedley: Improvement District AGM held mid-May brings new Board of Trustees:
Chair Colleen Doherty
Trustee Lynn Wells
Trustee Simon Harris
Trustee Russ Stoney
Trustee Kevin Whittaker
Improvement District functions as a local government for the unincorporated area of Hedley town site, with trustees volunteering to sit on a board which provides policy and direction for the townspeople on issues concerning fire protection, water, and street lighting within the small hamlet.
Staff for the Hedley Improvement District include: Administrator Vickie Hansen, and Water Monitors Richard Tarnoff and Gary Ross.