[quote=“Old major”]Another day, another explosion on Mount Todd
thenorthernview.com/opinion/210169551.html[/quote]
I’m not even a Rice supporter and this Hamilton fellow is really getting on my nerves. Perhaps he should listen to those such as RT Burke and Alora Griffin who have publicly expressed their displeasure with his attacks on Rice. I agree with them. And now he has the nerve to demand an apology from Rice? I’m glad the View is free because they’d never get a cent of mine.
[quote=“Old major”]Another day, another explosion on Mount Todd
thenorthernview.com/opinion/210169551.html[/quote]
Wow! Rice must resign?! Too funny! 
What are this man’s credentials?
His sentence structure leaves a lot to be desired and
his grammar is no better…would you like to buy a conjunction Todd?
His editorials read like a teenager’s opinion piece.
[quote=“hitest”]
[quote=“Old major”]Another day, another explosion on Mount Todd
thenorthernview.com/opinion/210169551.html[/quote]
Wow! Rice must resign?! Too funny! [/quote]
I’m pretty sure he means resign from council, which he mentioned in his latest letter Ms. Rice did not address in her reply.
Yes, that was a rather spectacular eruption of Mount Todd, with much flaming and some hyperbolical blasts directed at our rookie MLA-elect Jennifer Rice, who he says, “… continues to collect thousands of Prince Rupert taxpayer dollars and cheats voters out of their right to cast a ballot to reinstate the full representation they deserve on city council …”
Actually, councillors are paid according to attendance. By my count Ms Rice attended one council meeting and missed another since the election. She hasn’t collected “thousands”. That statement is not hyperbole, it’s wrong. As for cheating the voters out of their “right” to cast a ballot, there is no such right. A council member has a right to stay on or to resign; it’s entirely up to them. Ironically, Ms Rice is accused of obfuscating. Kettle black etc.
Ms Rice is also alleged to be have been sexist towards the Black Press publisher. That’s just too tedious to discuss. Another one of his strained analogies is a comparison with Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto. Did he smoke crack? Is there a video of him doing same? The video, if it exists, may be ‘gone’. As for a guy associated with the video, he’s apparently gone as well, as in dead. What does any of this have to do with Ms Rice? Nothing, other than that things may not be so bad here as we sometimes think, all things being relative.
So, take some clippers to all of the verbiage and hack and slash a bit and there’s not much left. I’m not one of Ms Rice’s supporters, by the way. In fact I didn’t vote for her.
She really should not have bothered writing. It would have been better to let it go; treat it as just so much editorial flotsam and jetsam, not worth responding to. It’s better for an MLA to write letters to the editor about issues that affect all of us, not just them; LNG for instance.
We should not overlook a very good article by Shaun Thomas that reports that Ms Rice’s council colleagues have some serious concerns about her staying on for much longer. < thenorthernview.com/news/210170491.html >.
The council is a pretty shy and reclusive lot, not given to taking positions (except of course when fish are a topic of discussion), but on this occasion they offer some truly thoughtful, even heartfelt advice about Ms Rice’s current situation.
Councillor Kinney suggests that conflict of interest is a problem and questions whether she can hold both posts. The Mayor adds that staying on council would be very difficult in view of an MLA’s committee work around the province. Councillor Ashley comments that managing two elected offices would be tough in view of the time commitments.
The council does not appear to have the inside track on when councillor Rice will step down. The Mayor suggests that a by-election could be held in September or October. There are costs, yes, but they appear to have reconciled themselves to that, while councillor Ashley also talks about the advantages of having a full complement of council members, including to avoid tied votes.
Ms Rice has said that she will step down from her council position at an “appropriate” time. Hopefully she will soon shed some light on when exactly that will be. She won’t be doing herself, council, or her consituents a favor by leaving that issue up in the air for much longer. Patience will eventually run out at a constituency level and on the part of her council colleagues.
That should be of much greater concern to Ms Rice than recent volcanic activity on Mount Todd. The NDP MLAs will be sworn in on the 12th.
Penticton seems to be working around any hesitations for a by election
Mr. Traven is incorrect when he says that City Council Members are paid by attendance. They are paid as long as they hold the position.
I think that when Crispy “Chickens” Rice is sworn in and on a much better payroll ($101,000 per annum) she will resign. (She never did show much class in Council chambers so it is probably unrealistic to think that she would show any class as an MLA and I doubt she has stepped down from her day job either. I have never seen any indication of her ever being embarrassed.)
While I find Hamilton a bit strident, it is refreshing to see someone use a public forum to speak against the NDP.
ok word to the wise whether you voted for her or not, like her or not, but calling her crispy chicken rice does not help your arguement. and for the record I didn’t vote for her either and think she should resign from council, stick to the facts and leave name calling out of it, makes your point alot better
I very much agree with you.
Thank you for this post. Let us keep things civil, folks. Nothing is gained by insulting people.
[quote=“Pantagruel”]1) Mr. Traven is incorrect when he says that City Council Members are paid by attendance. They are paid as long as they hold the position.
[/quote]
Thank you very much for that.
The council, unfortunately, is not very forthright in disclosing their pay arrangements. By law they are required to disclose to the public a Statement of Financial Information that shows, among other things, the honouraria and expenses each council member was paid during the preceding year. Their practice is to bury that in the agenda package for the meeting where the SFI is approved. (Other municipal councils are more forthcoming.)
I’ve also never heard of this council approving their pay rates at a public meeting, by bylaw or in a formal policy approved by resolution. I’ve checked. Perhaps these are issues that the council decides at closed meetings as “personnel confidential” matters, which raises other questions. Short of doing an FOI, forensic analysis seems to be necessary.
The 2009 Statement, which was presented at the June 07, 2010 meeting shows that councillor Kinney was paid a bit less than three other councillors who held the position as long as he did < princerupert.ca/images/edito … Agenda.pdf > (scroll down to pg 31). If attendance does not account for the variance, what does? Or did the council change their policy sometime after that such that they pay themselves regardless of attendance?
Now if I’m wrong and you’re right - and on this point I would happily stand corrected - you will have raised a new issue. We shouldn’t be paying a councillor who is not participating. Liberal MLA-elects elsewhere are on record that they will forego their municipal pay until they resign.
But what is your source for saying that councillors are paid whether they attend or not?
But what is your source for saying that councillors are paid whether they attend or not?[/quote]
Well, I have no available source (being the weekend, Rob Grodecki’s office is closed) but I will hazard a guess. A councilor’s job is more than just attending meetings so I don’t think that missing a meeting or two would be a problem. In one of the articles from down south, I recall one councilor/MLA-elect who was intending to stay on until January needing to attend one out of every four meetings (or something like that) to ensure that he was not removed.
The difference between Nelson and the other three councillors is 1/52 of a year. Perhaps, they are all paid by attendance but it seems like quite a coincidence that all councilors were paid exactly the same meaning that Nelson was the only one who ever missed a meeting and just one at that. Total speculation but perhaps Nelson was away from the city for completely personal reasons and asked for a leave.
Regardless, Ms Rice should step away from council once she has been sworn in as MLA. She indicated after her provincial win that she thought it inappropriate to hold both positions. The mayor and two councilors agree. Potential conflict and the onerous tasks of representing different people (while she is the MLA from the North Coast as a critic of ferries or social services etc. she has to consider other regions as well) and trying to be in two places at the same time is too much for most people.
The only issue is the timing. She can resign resulting in an automatic by-election or she can try the Christy Clark leave ploy, or she can stay on council but only do the minimum of work until January when she would resign. The latter two will save on the costs of a by-election. Again, while Ms Rice can make up her own mind on this issue and do whatever she wants, I think she should listen to her council colleagues. Anna has said she wants a by-election. Nelson and Jack mentioned costs but didn’t state an opinion.
One last thing to consider. Assuming that Ms Rice (and council) feel that a by-election is too costly, part of the savings will be lost if Ms Rice is paid for the remaining six months of the year if she chooses to stay on for that reason. However, if she doesn’t get paid, the city will save an additional $18000 for the year and half we go without a councilor.
[quote=“DWhite”]… A councilor’s job is more than just attending meetings so I don’t think that missing a meeting or two would be a problem. In one of the articles from down south, I recall one councilor/MLA-elect who was intending to stay on until January needing to attend one out of every four meetings (or something like that) to ensure that he was not removed.
The difference between Nelson and the other three councillors is 1/52 of a year. Perhaps, they are all paid by attendance but it seems like quite a coincidence that all councilors were paid exactly the same meaning that Nelson was the only one who ever missed a meeting and just one at that. Total speculation but perhaps Nelson was away from the city for completely personal reasons and asked for a leave.
Regardless, Ms Rice should step away from council once she has been sworn in as MLA…[/quote]
The 2011 Statement of Financial Information shows that the councillors were paid the same except for those leaving office at the end of the year < princerupert.ca/images/edito … Agenda.pdf > (page 142 in the June 11, 2012 agenda package).
The 2010 Statement of Financial Information shows that the councillors were paid the same < princerupert.ca/images/edito … Agenda.pdf > (page 58 in the June 27, 2011 agenda package).
Leaving aside councillor Kinney being paid equivalent to one less week in 2009, that suggests that the councillors are paid the same regardless of attendance, as Pantagruel commented.
Council remuneration is shrouded in mystery.
The June 24, 2000 minutes refer to a “Council Indemnity Bylaw” with reference to a resolution about the Mayor’s pay. One would expect that a bylaw like that would specify whether council members were paid a flat rate or by the meeting. Curiously, there is no mention on the City’s bylaws and policies page of such a bylaw; nor do the minutes indicate that it was ever repealed or amended. A bylaw would seem to be in force but for some reason it has not been published.
At one time the council budgeted in the Annual Financial Plan for paying ‘indemnities’ to the mayor and councillors but that practice ended in 2008 for reasons unknown.
Perhaps these issues are discussed in closed meetings. They can talk about “© labour relations or other employee relations” in closed meetings (section 90(1) of the Community Charter), but elected officials are not employees and describing them as ‘labour’ does not sound right either. Council remuneration (‘indemnities’) would be more appropriately discussed in public meetings, which was the case up to Don Scott’s tenure as Mayor, but apparently not since then.
I agree with DWhite that we are probably not too concerned if councillors miss a meeting or two. As for the councillor/MLA-elect down south who will attend one meeting in four until January so that he is not disqualified, that is permitted by section 110(1)(b) of the Community Charter < bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws … section110 >.
Whether Ms Rice adopts that approach or not, it certainly could be cause for concern if she lingers in office, apparently to save the City the cost of a by-election, but cancels out much of that savings by continuing to collect the same pay as those council members who have good attendance records. One Liberal councillor/MLA-elect described that as ‘double dipping’.
Liberal councillor/MLA-elects have been been quite open about their thoughts or intentions. Hopefully Ms Rice will be equally forthcoming in the near future.
…
As a by the way, the council has not yet made public the 2012 Statement of Financial Information. That is usually released at the same time as the audited annual financial statement for the previous year, which was presented and accepted at the May 13, 2013 council meeting. The council is required by the Financial Information Act and Regulation to release a statement of elected officials remuneration and expenses within six months of the end of the year (ie by June 30). There is a similar obligation under section 168 of the Community Charter.
Cigars and cognac at Hamilton’s tonight!
thenorthernview.com/news/210945771.html