Ensign appears to be a target

Dear Editor: Doug Findlater, the mayor of West Kelowna, is quoted by reporter Ron Seymour on Dec. 14 as saying “The councillor (Rusty Ensign) made a request to the CAO to intervene with a city employee’s decision to restrict access to city property by the councillor’s company vehicles as part of the construction process.” (Herald, Dec. 27).

“A change to the city employee’s decision may have resulted in a financial advantage to the councillor's company.”

This sounds like the conversation with the CAO for the city was immediate and at the time of the work. On Dec. 17, Ensign clarified that they, as subcontractors, worked with the employee’s ruling that a councillor’s work truck could not be used at the city works, even though they were the low bidder.

He further clarified that the conversation was a month after the fact, and in no way would they have received a “financial advantage.”

In fact, the city employee’s decision apparently was a financial cost to Ensign’s company.

This is another case of the city providing incomplete and misleading information to the public, and clearly shows the bias of the mayor and council toward a councillor who does not always agree with the lead of the mayor or follows with the majority of council.

This censure is political correctness carried to the heights of silliness. Surely, council has more important issues to spend time and resources on than whether Ensign pointed out a month-old, poorly thought-out employee decision to the CAO, or whether Ensign made the call from his company phone or from the councillor’s phone number.

The correct answer should have been that city employees should ensure all contractors are treated equally, no matter the name on the side of a truck.

It is not their responsibility to arbitrarily prevent a contractor from any approved city work.

Ensign’s company should not be at a financial disadvantage just because he serves the community as a councillor.

The mayor should apologize to Ensign, his company and to the public for the misleading public statement he made to a reporter.

Doug Waines West Kelowna