Sacha Peter

This was the first meeting that I attended that had the newly elected board. Six commissioners were present, with Commissioner Toews absent.

During the December meeting (which I was out in Asia at the time), there were six commissioners and they could not decide on who the chair and vice-chair as the votes were deadlocked 3 to 3 (Commissioner McCrea and Commissioner Skonberg were nominated for chair). They eventually agreed to draw a random name out of a hat and that commissioner would be the temporary chair for the evening’s proceedings. It was a rather unique way of proceeding, but it at least allowed the board to get on with the business that was before it.

In the January 11th proceedings, there was again a 3-3 vote for chair (Commissioner McCrea and myself were nominated). Seeing that this result would not change if there were subsequent votes, I moved a motion identical to the one that was carried in the December meeting; to draw a random name out of a hat for a temporary chair for the evening. The reason was simple: the board had business before it that needed attending – this is one of our primary functions as commissioners. This motion was defeated 3-3 (McCrea, Payeur and Shanks voted against).

We went to a second vote for chair. This again was tied 3-3. I made the same motion as I did previously to draw a temporary chair out of a hat, with the same result (3-3 against; McCrea, Payeur and Shanks against). McCrea moved a motion that the (permanent) chair be decided by coin toss, and this was defeated 3-3 (Hall, Skonberg and myself against) for the simple reason that the board and not a coin toss should decide its chair and vice-chair. McCrea also moved a motion that the CAO chair the proceedings of the board business and then we will subsequently vote on chair and vice-chair. I don’t believe this actually got to a vote for obvious reasons – accepting this motion would be like having the Mayor of Chilliwack give up the reigns in council chamber to the Chief Administrative Officer!

There was yet another vote for chair and vice-chair, with the same result (3-3) and finally the board agreed that the vote for chair and vice-chair be moved to the end of the agenda, and a temporary chair for the evening be selected at random. The whole board agreed to this (finally!) and Commissioners Hall, Payeur and Shanks oped out of the temporary chair vote. Commissioner McCrea‘s name was selected from the hat and he was chair for the day.

This charade took half an hour before we got to our first item of real board business.

After the regular part of the meeting and the in-camera session, the board once again considered the matter of the vote for chair and vice-chair. This was around 10:40 in the evening. The vote was deadlocked again, 3-3.

Commissioner Hall made a motion that the vote for chair and vice-chair be moved to the next board meeting. This was subsequently defeated 3-3 (with McCrea, Payeur and Shanks against).

I moved that the board recess for a couple minutes and this was carried by the whole board. During the recess, Commissioners Skonberg, Hall and myself left the meeting at around 10:45pm and went home. While I do not know the rest of the story, I am guessing the meeting had to be adjourned (as four commissioners are required for quorum per our bylaws).

I am guessing that Commissioners McCrea, Payeur and Shanks wanted to keep voting until we ran out of paper, but at a certain point the plug needed to be pulled.

I hope this is not a sign of the future; we were elected to make the park a better place instead of playing petty games. It is not good for the community, the stakeholders of the park, the staff, or anybody except perhaps Paul Henderson of the Chilliwack Times, who I noticed was in the gallery and will have plenty to write about from the dysfunction he witnessed.

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