Coquitlam prepares for an expensive by-election that it doesn't want to hold
Fin Donnelly's election as an NDP MP has created a costly headache for Coquitlam council.
The provincial government has refused Coquitlam's request not to hold a by-election to fill a council seat vacated by Fin Donnelly, according to a staff report to Coquitlam council.
As a result, Coquitlam council will vote on Monday (March 15) on a staff recommendation to appoint Kerri Lore as the chief election officer and Lauren Hewson as the deputy chief election officer.
The city clerk's department has recommended May 15 as the most practical date for the by-election.
Donnelly, a New Democrat, resigned as a councillor in November after winning the federal seat of New Westminster-Coquitlam, which was vacated by New Democrat Dawn Black.
Black quit to seek the NDP provincial seat in New Westminster, which she won last May.
Meanwhile, Coquitlam city clerk Jay Gilbert has written a report to council recommending it make a submission on the topic of by-elections to the provincial Local Government Elections Task Force.
Gilbert's report asks council to tell the task force that it wants the legislature to eliminate a requirement for councils to hold municipal by-elections in nonelection years.
Currently, council may only do this if a member resigns in an election year.
In a February 26 letter to Community and Rural Development Minister Bill Bennett, Coquitlam mayor Richard Stewart asked for an exemption from holding a by-election for the seat vacated by Donnelly.
Stewart wrote that the cost of the last municipal by-election three years ago worked out to $65 per vote cast after counting the cost of such things as municipal advertisements in local newspapers.
In a January 19 letter to Bennett, Stewart estimated that the cost of the 2010 by-election could reach $250,000.
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Comments
$250,000 for this election means that each person in Coquitlam has to pay $2 for this election. Coquitlam has a population of around 130,000 and 80,000 eligible voters!
In Coquitlam in the past 10 years, we have had around 10 elections. This will be our 11th!
- 2000 Federal Election
- 2001 Provincial Election
- 2004 Federal Election
- 2005 Provincial Election
- 2006 Federal Election
- 2007 Municipal By-Election
- 2008 Federal Election
- 2008 Municipal Election
- 2009 Provincial Election
- 2009 Federal By-Election
- 2010 Municipal By-Election
Andy Shen
http://andyshen.ca/
http://facebook.com/electshen/
I believe if a byelection is caused because of a councillor wanting to move up the political food chain, that councillor and the benefitting party should pay for any cost incurred in the forced byelection.
In this case, Fin Donnelly and the federal NDP should pay the City of Coquitlam and its residents the $250,000 it will cost to run the forced byelection.
Jim Van Rassel,
Jim Van Rassel
Coquitlam BC
Rod Smelser
$60M for a goalie or $6B for the Olympics, now that's worth it because games are important.
I wish we could just do away with this inefficient democracy once and for all. It's just too much money.
In Fin's defence--I know he was very frustrated with city council particularly after Stewart et al at the 11th hour dumped the Low Impact Development for Burke Mountain after spending $300,000 to move it forward. Fin had the courage to provide us with the inside documentation from the developer extolling the virtue of this--only to have it removed because of high cost--with a sneaky motion on the last day of council -- summer of 2007 (not the summer of 69). I know Fin is a virtuous person--and our judgement of this cost has to be measured in terms of his inability to to properly do his job.
"Just goes to show you that all politicians only care for one thing and that's themselves. This creep should be billed for the by-election as should every politician who leaves their job for another (excluding sickness, death, etc). This self-serving bull has to be paid by the creeps who leave their seat. Why should I pay for his social climbing ego????"
Well, since the transition costs of anyone leaving the private sector are born by consumers, from now on, anytime someone leaves a job voluntarily in the private sector, they should reimburse the company the transition costs (search costs, training, learning curve, etc) so that consumers dont have to bear them and retail prices wont have to rise.
Doesnt sound all that reasonable, does it ?
In a democracy, the electorate decides. If people perceived that Fin, or anyone else, was resigning position A to run for position B for his own interests, they dont have to elect him, do they ?
Except they did, with an even bigger margin than Dawn Black.
What I find amazing in our society is the amount of effort people are no longer willing to put into our democracy. It seems as if people would rather dream up all kinds of poorly planned schemes (making it illegal for politicians to break promises - the lawyers will love that one, as well as this particular suggestion) than pay attention and act proactively.
Ask yourself this, Mr. Taxpayer. Did you campaign against Mr. Donnelly ? Or did you just get mad after the fact ?