Big shakeups at regional board
Kelowna city councillor Loyal Wooldridge is stepping down as regional district board chairman, a decision which means he’ll give up the $51,000 annual salary that goes with the position.
Wooldridge, a two-term city councillor, hopes to be named as the NDP candidate in the riding of Kelowna Centre in the provincial election set for later this year.
In a little publicized decision he announced at the end of the April 25 regional board meeting, Wooldridge said he would step down as board chair in the interest of “transparency and integrity”.
“Voluntarily, I’m going to step aside as chair as of May 22, prior to our next board meeting, because I am pursuing a provincial nomination to run in the provincial election this October,” Wooldridge said.
“So voluntarily, though it’s not required legislatively, I am going to step aside as chair just for transparency and integrity purposes,” Wooldridge said.
Unlike some other forms of local government, the regional district does not have a code of conduct that states a board member must give up their position if they are running, or intending to run, for higher office.
Wooldridge remains as a city councillor, but he has said he will take a leave of absence after the provincial election officially begins in September. He has said he will return to his council seat if he is defeated in the riding of Kelowna Centre.
In his short resignation speech, Wooldridge said it had been a pleasure and an honour to serve as board chair since being elected to the post by his fellow board members in 2021. He was re-elected last year in a 8-4 vote among the 12 members of the board.
Kelowna is represented by six city councillors, a position of dominance on the board that reflects the fact the city accounts for about three-quarters of the regional district’s population of 222,000.
As chair, Wooldridge was paid $50,626 in 2022, the latest year for which board member salaries, which they set themselves, are available.
The other board members appointed from Kelowna, Lake Country, West Kelowna and Peachland made $17,300 that year, in addition to the salaries they drew as councillors from their own municipalities. All board members received an inflation-linked salary increase on the first day of January in 2023 and 2024.
It’s expected that regional board members will vote for a new chair at the May 23 meeting.
The current vice-chair is Kevin Kraft, who is the directly elected board member representing the unincorporated communities of Ellison and Joe Rich east of Kelowna.
However, unlike neighbouring regional districts that usually hand the gavel to a rural area representative, Kelowna has always used its dominance on the board to elect one of its own as chair.
West Kelowna city councillor Stephen Johnston, who has been named as the BC United Party candidate for the riding of West Kelowna-Peachland, has also announced he is giving up his seat on the regional board. Like Wooldridge, he too will stay on as a city councillor until the provincial election campaign begins.
Shortly after Wooldridge’s announcement, Kelowna city council changed several of its representatives on the board.
Ron Cannan, Gord Lovegrove, and Mohini Singh were removed as city appointees to the board.
“I was surprised,” Singh said Friday. Cannan and Lovegrove did not have immediate comments.
The three had expressed their opposition in March and April to a plan to raise councillor salaries from $43,000 to $58,000. They thought it was excessive and indicated they knew what the salary was when they ran in the 2022 election.
In a statement, Mayor Tom Dyas said he wanted other councillors to gain experience on the regional board.
“Our role as council demands a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of governance, budgets, bylaws, and the operations of the regional district and neighbouring communities. Rotating through different committees enables us to achieve this goal effectively,” Dyas said.
The decision to remove Cannan, Lovegrove and Singh came at the end of a long council meeting on Monday that began at 9:09 a.m. and ended at 4:25 p.m.
At the last item on the agenda, Mayor Tom Dyas made reference to a long list of new or continuing councillor appointments to 17 committees, including the biosolids advisory committee and a task force on performing arts. Then Dyas indicated he wanted to revoke the appointments of Cannan, Lovegrove and Singh to the regional board.
The vote was 6-2 in favour of replacing Cannan, Lovegrove, and Singh. Cannan and Lovegrove voted against; Singh was absent for that part of the meeting.
The new appointees are Luke Stack, Maxine DeHart and Rick Webber. They join Dyas, Wooldridge and Charlie Hodge. Singh remains an alternate, meaning she only attends a meeting and is paid $90 if someone is absent.
In an interview Friday, Hodge said the council item happened so fast, he didn’t have time to respond as he wished he had.
“Why didn’t I raise my hand? I guess you could say I screwed up,” Hodge said. “In hindsight, I should have voted different. I made a mistake in the fact we should have had a debate about it. It should have been discussed.
“But it all happened so quick,” he said. “I regret the fact there wasn’t a discussion about it, or a rationale to it. The more I look at it, the more I don’t understand it.
In his statement, Dyas said: “These changes (to the regional board) aim to strengthen our council’s capacity to serve our constituents and uphold our commitment to transparency, accountability, and effective governance.”
Stack, DeHart, Webber and Wooldridge did not respond Friday to requests for comment from The Daily Courier.
Former mayor Walter Gray said he couldn’t recall ever replacing council appointees to the regional board outside of the appointments that were made after elections. “I don’t recall that ever happening,” Gray said.