Hanson running to keep her seat on regional board
Rep for Ellison-Joe Rich rural area hasn’t attended board meetings for almost a year, but still collected salary
A controversial politician who has missed all 12 regional district board meetings this year is running for re-election. Patty Hanson, who has described herself as being bullied by the other regional board members, has been on sick leave since last fall from her position as representative for the Ellison-Joe Rich rural area east of Kelowna.
She has been paid her $20,000 yearly salary despite not attending any board meetings since Oct. 12, 2017.
Hanson did not respond to several phone and email messages left for her on Thursday asking why she’s running again if she is unable to attend board meetings.
So far, Hanson’s sole challenger in the Oct. 20 election is Mark Bartyik, whom she appointed in 2014 to be her alternate representative at regional board meetings. Bartyik has filled in for Hanson at all the meetings she has missed, earning $92 for each session.
“I thought I was going to kind of be Patty’s backup goalie, replacing her once in a while,” Bartyik said Thursday. “But it turns out I’m in all the games.
“So I just thought I’d run against her, because I kind of feel it’s my duty as a resident and taxpayer of Joe Rich to try to give us some stable representation on the board,” Bartyik said. “I don’t really know why Patty’s running again. If you’re not able to do the job, maybe it’s time to step down. But that’s not for me to say.”
Hanson was the Ellison-Joe Rich representative on the regional board for two terms, from 2002 until 2008, when she was defeated in a re-election bid. She made a political comeback in 2011.
In 2012, she called for the resignation of then-board chairman Robert Hobson, a Kelowna city councillor, and the regional district’s planning director, saying they were improperly stopping the ill-fated Kelowna Mountain development from going forward. Her board colleagues subsequently censured Hanson and forced her to write a letter of apology.
Unopposed in the 2014 election, Hanson was accused by other board members in 2015 of leaking details of an in-camera meeting. She was removed from some regional board committees, and again was ordered to write a letter of apology.
By the fall of 2016, Hanson had missed five straight board meetings, an absence that according to provincial law might have resulted in her being removed from office. But she produced a doctor’s note, saying she was ill because of stress. Hanson has complained of being bullied by her board colleagues.
“Sarcastic comments at the board level,” she told Infotel.ca in October 2016. “I can’t take it anymore. That’s why I’m on stress leave.”
Last fall, Hanson presented another doctor’s note “excusing her from attending all meetings with the regional board until further notice,” according to minutes of the Oct. 23 meeting. She has missed all 15 meetings since then.
By virtue of the doctor’s note, Hanson could conceivably win election next month, still not attend any board meetings and continue to receive her salary, one-third of which is tax free. In 2017, Hanson also claimed expenses of $9,904.
Today is the last day for anyone interested in running in the Oct. 20 civic election to submit the necessary paperwork.