Seeing as I lead this horse out on the track in the first place, and it’s been well beaten yet not yet dead, I had best lead it back to the stable and put it to rest. What?? Yes, the ‘expensed rides home for Town employees from a Town sponsored function’ issue.

I was much impressed by both, the class and grace, evident during a recent visit from a current town councilor so that I might review the proposed revision to the policy on expensed rides home.  This was in truth a ‘sneak peek’. I liked what I saw and since I kicked up a fuss when it first was reported, I feel obliged to relay my current feelings on the issue.

When I first read of the proposed policy, the article definitely stated that the opportunity for an expensed ride home applied to Town hosted events AND any event where a Town employee was attending as a representative of the Town of Oliver. This was misreported,  apparently never the case. To name the media source is of little value now. The actual, original proposal was for Town hosted events only! That eliminates a huge potential for transportation costs. When municipal employees are attending functions far and wide that are not hosted by Oliver, they are to make their own way back home or to wherever they are staying for the night. Pretty big difference from what it initially appeared to be.

The revised proposal also covers very specifically what kind of events may be considered  and allocates a portion of each attendee’s admission costs to a transportation fund established for the sole purpose of getting ‘people in need’  a ride home. Bottom line here is, that the objective is to create a self-funded policy that will not come out of ‘yours or my’ (tax payers) pocket. What started out sounding like a “party free” policy (to quote a recent critic) has morphed into a “party responsibly” policy. Nice work and nice listening, council.

Neither Osoyoos nor Penticton have anything like this on their books, (Penticton has a ride home from the Xmas party fund that the employees contribute to themselves). Maybe we’re just a little more proactive and progressive here in the Wine Capital.

 

David Badger,

Oliver