Who controls city council?

Dear editor: We refer to Ron Seymour’s article “Public input squeezed from council agenda” (Daily Courier, Feb. 26).

West Kelowna Council is (and has been if you read older articles) falling under the use and direction of developers and is less and less working for the citizens who voted them into power.

West Kelowna is only 10 years old and, in part, we voted for incorporation to take control of our own destiny for the whole community (the people of West Kelowna) and to get away from being controlled by the RDCO and/or as many West Kelowna citizens considered, the Kelowna government.

What was the point of incorporation if we who live here cannot speak to our own city council that we placed in power?

The developers are controlling our city council and hence controlling our ways of life.

Developers (many of whom do not even live in West Kelowna) own a great deal of property in West Kelowna and want to build their developments as inexpensively as possible to gain them the most profit.

They will do whatever they need (including using old zoning, old public hearings, old official community plans, and working the city staff and the city council) to enable them to maximize their company profits.

This comes at the expense of all of us citizens who live here and voted for incorporation.

If our council votes in favour of disallowing the citizen’s right to free speech we citizens then fall under a corporatocracy government (economic and political system controlled by corporations or corporate interests) and have lost our own right to vote for self-government.

We have lost our own right to live in a community that we want. Our own municipal government will then be under the control of big-moneyed developers.

This is the first step in a slippery slope to losing control of our lives and community.

“The Local Government Act does not require a local government to give notice of the intent to issue a development permit. Any issues or concerns regarding form and character or other development permit guidelines should have been addressed during the public consultation and public hearing processes that are required as part the relevant statutory requirement of the adoption of an official community plan. If council does not believe the OCP guidelines are sufficient in meeting their vision, amendments to the OCP are the method of managing expectations for DPs.”

The above mentioned old guideline the council is considering can be changed at the city council’s discretion.

(That is why West Kelowna voted for incorporation.)

It says the council’s OCP is a method of managing expectations for development permits. So why not enforce our own OCP and stop developers from taking control of our government.

We incorporated to enable we the people not we the developer. Richard McLeod

West Kelowna