By ROY WOOD

Councillor Dave Mattes received a bit of a Civics lesson this evening when a financial oversight proposal of his was labelled outside council’s jurisdiction and sent back for more information.

At issue was a Notice of Motion proposed by Mattes and former Councillor Maureen Doerr last month. The motion directed town staff to create a policy that would see “all budgets for joint service with the RDOS or other organizations” be presented to Oliver council “for discussion, change (if necessary) and approval.”

Chief administrative officer Cathy Cowan was the first to tell Mattes that such oversight is outside the powers of the town. “”Council really doesn’t have the authority to amend other budgets,” said Cowan. “The RDOS doesn’t need to come back (to council) to get approval of their budget.”

Councillor Petra Veintimilla, who is the town’s representative on the RDOS board, quoted a letter from former town CAO Tom Szalay, who pointed out that provincial legislation stipulates that “a municipality cannot legally change how regional budgets are adopted.”

Szalay added that not only can council not oversee regional budgets, but is similarly powerless over how the town’s RDOS municipal director votes on matters at the board table.

He noted that the responsibility of the town’s representative is to think regionally and to act in the best interests of their community. “While appointed by council, their community is the municipality they represent, not the council who appointed them.”

Said Veintimilla: “It’s not the role of council to send the representative off with marching orders.”

The joint services budgets the motion was aimed at include Frank Venables Theatre, Parks and Recreation, the Heritage Society and the regional landfill.

During discussion, it was noted that the only organization among them that doesn’t include a town council representative is the theatre.

Mayor Martin Johansen said he couldn’t support the motion “as written” and suggested the town doesn’t need to add unnecessary policies.

In the end, it was clear the motion as presented was not going to pass. A decision was deferred and the matter sent back to staff to “bring forward more information on RDOS budgeting protocols.”

Town staff was also asked to find out if it’s possible to get a council member on the Venables theatre governing body.