ROTHENBURGER – Coun. Sarai’s astonishing plan to silence criticism from non-profits

Just to make sure there’s no misinterpretation of Sarai’s remarkable proposition, here’s the rest of what he said:

“I think it’s only fair that council addresses funding requests from non-profits that are neutral during council terms. They can go out and solicit or promote their candidates during election time, which everybody does, but it’s very uncomfortable during council term when your minutes or your council decisions are being called out and I think that’s a little bit, uh, it makes me feel uncomfortable how, in allocating money, how it’s going to be played out in the public.

“Is it pressure to approve because you don’t want to get tarnished by a brush or do you go against it based on your morals and what you think?”

“Uncomfortable” was the word of the day for the councillor during his discourse. It would seem, judging by his next comment, that some of his colleagues are uncomfortable too.

“So I think when this comes back to our council for approval, and I’ve talked to other councillors, we would like to see the groups’ affiliations and what they’re doing in their community engagement and promoting their messages. Is it steering against councils that don’t vote in their favour, which I think is a very slippery and dangerous output to put us in, and so I’d like that to be included in the report coming back to council so we can all see who’s who and who the players are.”

Coun. Nancy Bepple, who chairs the committee, didn’t buy it. “I think that would be quite difficult because community groups are usually representative of certain goals, and they may or may not align with the goals of City council on one item, but they might on another,” she said.

Sarai then jumped back in to make a motion or tried to before giving up on the wording.

“I’ll put a motion forward that when this comes to City council for deliberation,” Sarai began, “that we get a report on what groups are affiliated and are actively swaying their members or being politically….” At which point he broke off and looked to CAO David Trawin for help.

“I need to know the wording, maybe CAO Trawin if you can help me out here, I just feel really uncomfortable voting on things when it’s come to our attention that certain groups use that against you if you don’t agree with them to the extreme. They can all be affiliated when it comes election time but a lot of these groups that are in here do not go out every time there’s a vote here and question our voting strategies or what we vote on and I feel uncomfortable when we don’t agree with a group that we get called out on it and that funding…”

This is when Bepple interrupted the ramble with an “OK.” Trawin declined to write Sarai’s motion for him, preferring to wait and see if it had a chance for a seconder. It didn’t. Bepple wouldn’t second the motion, which never did get completed, and neither would the third councillor on the committee, Stephen Karpuk.

The latter suggested the committee instead ask for an outline of criteria used for determining which groups are eligible for grants. But Bepple pointed out such criteria already exist.

Finally, the committee approved a motion recommending that the list of grants be forwarded to council for decision.

Basically, Sarai’s reasoning seems to be that if groups applying for grants are allowed to criticize council, the council might fear being criticized if it doesn’t approve them.

Let’s see if we can unpack the logic. Only vote on grants for groups that have played nice or kept quiet. Disqualify the critics from consideration, and the rest will self-censor? So can we assume those who come to praise Caesar, not to bury him, will be exempt?

Sarai didn’t name any particular group whose criticisms he’s uncomfortable with but one on the list of funding applicants is Transition Kamloops, which is clearly uncomfortable with Sarai’s discomfort. The group is being recommended by staff for a grant of $1,640 for Repair Café events aimed at diverting waste from the landfill.

Transition Kamloops and an affiliated Citizens for Climate Action group were critical of a council decision last September to back a FortisBC request for support in a controversial application to the BC Utilities Commission on the use of “renewable” biomethane natural gas in new homes. Several municipal councils refused that support, but the Kamloops council voted in favour of it.

Three councillors (Bepple, Dale Bass and Katie Neustaeter) wanted to wait until they got an updated report on the Kamloops Community Climate Action Plan to see if the FortisBC proposal fit, but the other six members voted to support Fortis.

That prompted a comment from Transition Kamloops at the time that “Kamloops City council voted to approve Fortis’ request despite having received approximately 100 letters urging them to say no, and before giving the many members of the public who made time to attend the council meeting a chance to speak.”

Gisela Ruckert of Transition Kamloops heard what Sarai said at this week’s committee meeting and states in response, “We believe that grant applications should be evaluated on their own merits, on how well the projects would advance the City’s priorities and on the organizations’ capacity to deliver on their commitments. To deny grants to organizations which critique a council decision is undemocratic and raises questions about the true purpose of the grants.”

Though maintaining that council should have voted against the Fortis letter, she said many of Transition Kamloops’ programs are closely aligned with the City’s climate action plan.

“Regarding Coun. Sarai’s comments, we expect that calmer heads will prevail….” She pointed out that Vancouver dealt with the exact same issue last year and the conclusion was that “local government officials must be open to critique of their actions and decisions — this is a core tenet of democracy and political life.”

The issue promises to come up at a full council meeting but Sarai — and any other councillors who might agree with him — should stop worrying about trying to stifle criticism. Stick with the merits of grant applications rather than with “affiliations.”

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER – Coun. Sarai’s astonishing plan to silence criticism from non-profits

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