Penticton 2016: the year of the lawyer
In a year where school closures and Skaha Lake Park dominated much of the local news, far more happened over the past 12 months than what’s been highlighted in our year’s top 10 stories feature. In Penticton, 2016 was the year of the lawyer.
The City sued the Penticton Lakeside Resort over what they claimed were unpaid utility bills.The City, unhappy with an arbitrated settlement, sued its firefighters. Former fire chief Wayne Williams sued the City of Penticton. Save Skaha Park Society sued the City but later agreed to drop the suit. Nelson Meikle sued the City and will never drop the suit. Get out your scorecards! Michael Welsh was elected B.C. branch president of the Canadian Bar Association. Richard Thompson was appointed Queens Counsel, only the third time a Penticton lawyer had received the accolade. On the opposite end of the scale was Charlie Albas, a once prominent lawyer who found himself in hot water for writing himself into clients’ wills. Described as a “broken man,” he was suspended and fined by the Law Society.
It was also the year of the paid moderator. Okanagan Similkameen School District 53 paid $800 in expenses to a retired Prince George school superintendent to moderate a two-hour meeting on the potential school closure in Osoyoos. It worked out to $400 per hour because come 9 p.m. he denied a 16-year-old the chance to speak because of time restraints. Meanwhile the self-professed, cash-strapped City of Penticton found $500 to hire a moderator for a public forum on the new Skaha Lake marina agreement.
It was the year when we discovered nothing is forever, especially when you purchase a memorial bench from the City of Penticton. A local woman who bought one in her husband’s memory was surprised to learn that she had to renew.
Summerland, on the other hand, was working hard to keep the memory of its most famous son alive by establishing the Marginal Arts Festival in memory of famed playwright George Ryga.
It was a bad year for rural schools. Osoyoos Secondary, Trout Creek Elementary and West Bench Elementary were all scheduled to close on June 30 only to have the area MLAs ride up on white horses and announce additional funding which would keep the schools open for another two years — conveniently well after the next provincial election.
It was the year of dumb ideas, perhaps none more stupid than a light canopy above the 100 block of Main Street. It was floated as a tourist attraction, one that would enhance the quality of our festivals. Council finally came to its senses during budget deliberations. Saving money was the concern, never mind the dozens of pigeons that would have camped out on the wires firing bombs at visitors to the Farmers’ Market.
Equally head-scratching is a service road linking Martin and Main Streets behind city hall. It’s a good place to park snack trucks, one bureaucrat told council, perhaps unaware there’s already a large parking lot directly behind city hall.
It was a year of concerts and celebrity sightings.
Nicolas Cage, shooting a movie in the South Okanagan, was spotted at the Lakeside and in downtown Penticton. Billy Bob Thornton’s band played at The Mule. He didn’t punch anybody. Ron MacLean was in town as Hockeyville set up shop outside the South Okanagan Events Centre. He signed autographs. Concerts were also the talk of the town ranging from heaven (Don Henley) to hell (Meat Loaf). There was even a surprise appearance — Paul Rodgers from Bad Company joined Bryan Adams on stage for two encores.
The challenges for local journalists extended well beyond Max Picton’s declaration that he reads neither The Herald nor Western Advertiser. Scribes had to dig for stories because much of the information was censored from us thus requiring freedom of information requests.
The City of Penticton unveiled its economic “partnership” with the Penticton Indian Band, complete with 10 per cent of hosting revenues ($160,000 annually) going to the band. Nowhere in the press release was it mentioned the band threatened legal action against the City. Mayor Andrew Jakubeit felt it would have created tensions.
The City awarded an LED lighting contract for the South Okanagan Events Centre to a partner in Trio Marina breaking its own tendering rules by not putting the job out to RFP. Where are the old lights now? In Prince George, much to the chagrin of curling enthusiasts who could have used them at the Penticton Curling Club.
A freedom of information request doesn’t guarantee answers. When we inquired as to what former CAO Eric Sorensen’s job description and pay was, a document was returned with most of his job duties blacked out. Why the secrecy? Did the City feel it was none of our business or are they working in secret with the CIA?
There was also a constant revolving door at City Hall. After spending close to $30,000 on a headhunter, Sorensen quit after only 13 months. There were three communications officers in 2016. Planner Jules Hall abruptly parted company with the city.
Meanwhile, Jim Bauer, the city’s new chief financial officer, recommended that council endorse the information management and technology (IMT) strategy presented by BAUER Consulting.
As staffing changed, the head count went up by double figures, even though our population only grew by 440 people over the past several years. For the first time ever, Penticton dropped to fourth overall in population in the Okanagan Valley as West Kelowna moved into third spot overall. Among the new hires was an $85,000 engagement officer because council — notorious for not listening anyways — wanted to know what we think.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation which praised the City of Penticton in 2010 for its bold steps in reducing staff now panned Jakubeit for allowing costs to get out of hand.
The area’s only homicide victim this year was Tula McCarty, a popular 22-year-old Summerland man whose murder in West Kelowna remains unsolved.
We also said farewell to former Member of Parliament and World War II veteran Fred King from Kaleden; Margaret Tuck from Osoyoos who, at age 110, was Canada’s oldest woman; and Colin Parker, the inspiration of a month-long fundraiser at Parkers Chrysler for Pathway Addictions Resource Centre.
Also gone was a weekly newspaper in Princeton, the Similkameen News Leader, one of the last remaining independents in B.C. Cutler’s Jewelers in the heart of downtown for more than 50 years announced it will be closing. The Dream Cafe closed, reopened, closed and will reopen again but under a new model come Feb. 1.
Coming back from the dead was one-time mayoral candidate Benny Wolfe, reported missing for almost a year by RCMP only to be found sleeping in the woods near Hope and anxious to start a new life there as a tour bus operator and karaoke host.
There wasn’t an election at any of the three levels of government but there were several important votes. Manfred Bauer of Keremeos beat Jakubeit for vice-chair of the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen; Chad Eneas knocked off two-term incumbent Jonathan Kruger for PIB chief; Tarik Sayeed bested Toni Boot for the NDP nomination in Penticton; and Casey Brouwer topped Penny Duperron in a by-election for Osoyoos school board trustee. The later is presently under appeal because a second advanced poll was never held.
From the “it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it would be” file, Slide the City went off without a hitch, the only thing missing were large crowds, warm weather, and promotion that extended beyond social media.
The hottest discussion on social media dealt with two gay men who stated they were turned away from a campground because of their sexual orientation. One guest who motel management likely wished they turned away was a 25-year-old man who had a six-hour standoff with police at the Lakeside Villa when he falsely claimed to have hostages and a shotgun.
Although not nearly as bad as other years, 2016 was without its share of tragedies. The August long weekend was again a deadly one on the water. The Highway 97 turn, near Doc’s Golfland, continued to be a dead man’s curve. We avoided fire season except for a fire in the hills near Okanagan Falls which resulted in minimal damage after it was quickly contained.
Two stories that should have been bigger than they were involved Syrian refugees and the PIB election. As families arrived in the South Okanagan, sponsoring organizations didn’t want to formally introduce them to the local media once they arrived. At the PIB, we tried to contact the candidates and explore the issues but they preferred to remain more in-house.
While most of the controversies had something to do with city hall, there were many contentious issues that were being addressed publicly in a variety of forums: fentanyl, a record number of homeless, and teenage anxiety and suicide.
But really, there was far more good than bad this year.
Penticton city council showed its social conscience unanimously approving a second Discovery House for recovering male addicts. The Province also provided funding for more low-income housing.
The sod-turning at Penticton Regional Hospital was a historic moment for the city.
Philanthropist David Kampe of Peters Bros. Construction fame has donated $6.5 million to date to the hospital as well as his continued work with the Penticton Peach Festival, the Penticton Vees and many other causes. Penticton won the bid for the Scottie’s Tournament of Hearts as well as the Western Canada Cup.
We welcomed 1,800 athletes and coaches, along with their parents, to the BC Winter Games in January, traditionally one of the slowest months of the year for tourists.
Princess Margaret Secondary School was chosen the most outstanding school in the province by BC Sports.
The Penticton Farmers Market was ranked No. 1 in B.C. for city’s our size.
Jett Klyne, a tyke from Oliver, was the title character in the hit horror movie The Boy, and was later given a part in the Nicolas Cage movie.
We also had some stellar elected officials in 2016 — Dan Ashton, Michael Brydon, Richard Cannings, June Harrington, Bruce Johnson, Karla Kozakevich, Sue McKortoff, Tom Siddon, and all of Summerland Council quickly come to mind.
So there it is, 12 months condensed into a five-minute read just prior to New Year’s. 2016 — that was it? James Miller is managing editor of the Penticton Herald.