where is the discussion about Kathy Moores trip? Did the admin take it down and if so WHY?

@DWDealWithIt  Say that to Bentwhatsisname... he's BentOutofShape about Leaker-shaming.

While you're talking with me DW, why did you say Kathy got caught with her hand in the cookie Jar?

• a) this usually means stealing
• b) she was not "caught"... she emailed City Council and Staff her plans a week before leaving April 3.

Janice sensibly warned her "the optics" were bad. 
But her plan seemed Covid-safe for us, including 14 days quarantine here, so she left.
Because "at the time she travelled to the States she didn't actually break the rules", as the ethics prof said. Then he said our entire council should resign, anyway!

Jeez lighten up @Bentobox.

Is that really your first or last name?  If so I regret playing with it lightly and calling you

@Bentwhoever  and  @BentMyWordsToMeanSomethingDifferent 

No idea you were such a sensitve person... you come across so tough.

"Angela - perhaps if you don't like the 'anonymous' people on here....you shouldn't be on here. "

"My name in 'Bentobox' not the false and vitriol names you spew As an attempt to insult. "

False names are not good suddenly?

Call me @ Confused ;-)

Maybe you should take a break Angela, clearly comments have "struck a nerve" with you.

The reality, however much you try to skew it, is what it is and they will likely be a welcoming committee for Kathy with the ministry when or if she ever decides to return regardless of what council "feels". 

Elected leaders are and should be accountable to their governered voters/citizens or all is for nought. 

To quote from V for Vendetta

"People should not be afraid of their goverment,goverment should be afraid of their people"

Hey @ d3m0n5.. how do you pronounce your fake name?  
Dee-three-em-zero-en-five?  Demons? Pretty creative moniker. 

 I just played with a fake name to make a point:  @BentMyWordsToMeanSomethingDifferent

How does this ''dismiss... the reality of truth from the citizens of rosslands mouths' ?

Signed: @ WTFRUreeferN2?

''This issue aside,... we Councillors are unanimous in appreciating Mayor Moore’s past leadership and her long standing contribution to the good governance of our city. It is our considered and shared opinion that resignation by the Mayor, and the resulting by-election, would be a significant disruption to the functioning of our operations, add additional expense to the City and deepen division in the community"

Thank you @Milty and Council for this balanced view.

Angela, thanks for putting some lightness and fun in this. I just lmao.... I posted way back (on page 1) myself because I think it is ok to share opinions. I did mention that forgiveness is also important. What's done is done. No one could be more upset about this than Kathy I would imagine. 

Bummer.

I usually sign my name- my bhubble name is just an email. I agree that (especially mean) posters would be limited if everyone had the balls to own their comments. 

Love the creative user names...keep em coming!

Gwen Ziprick

Angela,

I am from a generation that was told NOT to disclose personal information online or very bad things could/would happen. You "playing" with our online personas is harassment, taunting and internet bullying.  Effectively, you are a troll on this thread only here to taunt and raise discord.  (none of which help your "argument"  but only make you look really bad)

I have actually met you a number of times and thought you were very kind.  I even recommended people to stay with you at your B&B.   Unfortunately, after this conversation, I would rather my friends and family stay in ANYWHERE else than with you.  I personally don't think this is an appropriate way to discuss or debate for a local business owner and it's making ALL of Kathy's supporters look really bad!

Good Day

Angela I think the issue might be Kathy isn't owning it.  I recognized a long time ago I could never win an argument with Kathy because she always has a long winded reason why she is right, no matter the facts.

@Angela why does it matter who contacted the media? Kathy was in the wrong and should be held acc. from the sounds of things multiple people were told she had left the country and multiple people notified the media. koodoos to them for calling her out and not pushing it under the rug 

Okay, hold on a minute.
This is escalating into a witch hunt. The kind of inflammatory language being used, in my opinion, is far exceeding that Kathy did (which I agree, was wrong).

A couple of examples:

"destroyed our society" 

"Maybe it's time for a protest outside her home......if she ever comes back....."

Destroyed our society? For heaven's sake, if any society is so fragile that it can be destroyed by one person's mistake, it's weak beyond hope. 

A protest outside her home? 

I don't want to get all biblical here but I'm put in mind of "he who is without sin, cast the first stone." I know people, good people, kind people, who have kind of skated past the protocol a few times, justifying to themselves that they have been very, very careful, have had good plans in place, have washed their hands beyond belief and worn masks but just had to get together with family "this one time." Some of them are my friends and I knew they weren't strictly adhering to the advisories. This are morally confusing times. 

And leaving the pandemic out of it, can you look in the mirror and say you never did anything that you regret? Never made a rash decision? Never endangered anyone by driving too fast or under the influence, never cut someone off in traffic thinking you could make it, never thought to yourself, "Just this once, no one is going to get hurt and I really want to"?

I beg of everyone to take a moment and breathe. We're all fed up with pandemic protocol. We all want to see our loved ones and some of us have lost loved ones to COVID-19. It makes it easy to flare up but the moment that turns into self-righteous anger is the moment we become a mob looking for someone to pay for all of our sacrifices. 

No matter how firmly you believe you are absolutely right to be outraged, please, take a step back and look at the myriad of examples of horrible behaviour perpetrated by people who absolutely believed in their right to outraged. 

Decisions made in anger can go horribly wrong. I'm not asking this for Kathy, I'm asking it for our community. Don't let's whip ourselves up into mob-thinking, egging each other on, justifying it because we fed up with our restrictions. That kind of thing could damage Rossland far more. 

I note the next special meeting on the Mid-town Development is scheculed for 11 am tomorrow. 

This is bad news for those taxpayers with jobs who would have liked to attend. On the bright side, it slots in just before our mayor's lunch break (on Arizona time).

@Mondegreen

Is "witch hunt" not inflammatory language?  You've cherry picked two examples.  What about all the people who have kept it respectful and are mainly just disappointed?  Yes, a protest outside her home would be way too far and I hope the cops would be called.  A protest outside city hall though could be justified in times when gatherings were allowed.  Most people I've chat to about this topic are disappointed, they don't want to punish Kathy as an individual and make her life misery, they are simply holding a publicly elected leader responsible.  

And again I'm sorry but for the Kathy defenders who want play this down as a rash decision or a flippant mistake,this was a calculated decision that required planning.  They are different.  And yes, everyone makes mistakes, I'm not saying Kathy should be guilty for the rest of her life or anyone should hold it against her as a person, run for Mayor again in 18months for all I care,  but right now I want our Mayor to be held accountable for her hypocritical decision making.  And again, Kathy, if you want the so called "witch hunt" to be over, you know what ya need to do.  And no another, insincere apology full of rationalizing and excuses will not be sufficient.  

'Special Meeting' to approve $15+ million Mid Town Development Project tomorrow,Tuesday May 11th

Mayor & Council Give Citizens of Rossland a Big Middle Finger 

A C T I O N / I N - A C T I O N Mayor & Council sprang into action scheduling a special meeting to approve the $15+ million Mid Town project on the heels of the uproar about the Mayor's US trip against Public Health Orders. How does that feel? A gut punch. Meanwhile, the Mayor remains obnoxiously mum since her public 'apology' & Council said some nice words to cover up their decision to ignore it.

Is the timing a coincidence? NO. It appears Rossland staff (no doubt on direction from the Mayor & Council) quickly put together (May 7th) a request for Council to approve the $15+ million project and scheduled a 'Special Meeting' four days later. This is astounding. 

Sadly, this tarnishes the project and alienates City Hall. Who would want to be a part of this crew in the future? What is wild is Kathy thinks the project is her legacy. Instead, the scandal will be. No matter what comes next people, projects, etc. are going to start distancing themselves from Kathy Moore. There was a high road and a low one.   

This exceeds everything I've seen occur in politics in this community for the past forty years. A new low.

Yep, gotta love the timing of the "special meeting", especially when the rest of us working folk are trying to hold down a job. I got the sense Kathy wants to fast track her pet project to retain her "legacy" and parting "gift".

@Mondegreen not holding Kathy accountable for her actions leads to a public erosion in the fabric of trust placed on an elected official, society is built on trust and accountability. 

Wondering....Northport packages. Maybe Kathy could pick those up for us on the way back up. 

@ JMK
You're right; I shouldn't have used "witch hunt."

I didn't mean to imply that everyone was saying things like that. Many people have made more reasonable objections. I think you and I are on the same page, at least I agree with everything you said in your post. 

Nobody should be harassing Kathy at her house or doing any other crazy things to harass her. That is definitely taking things too far.

But she needs to step down. And turning around on the heels of nationally embarassing our community and pushing through her misguided pet project to build a million dollar shiny new city hall is just bullshit.

Somehow this community needs to stand up and put a stop to this.

I notice the original estimate for the City Hall portion was $2.8–$3 million, but unless I am reading it incorrectly, the current estimate is $3,286,576.

https://rossland.civicweb.net/document/12509. 

 @dj2074 You can read the meeting agenda at the link I posted.  It's an update on the costs from Cityspaces Consulting.   I assume the increase is related to the increase in materials we are seeing everywhere.  And actually the timing seems to be inline with that of the project.  It doesn't look sneaky to me, but I read all of the agendas as they come out.    

@Lajamie  - Thanks for that. 

Take the time necessary to watch, and listen to, today's meeting regarding the City Hall project as it should clarify some of the most recent questions here on Bhubble ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ErbCNvSd7A 

@LM   - Thanks for that link. I found it helpful.

Watching that link made me sad. Really disappointing to watch Council with a total disregard to concerns raised by folks that had the time to attend. I had the same responce when asking questions from Council regarding specifics for this project. I read the available info and contacted Council directly and was simply given a condescending brush off from the Mayor and no answers. They clearly have the power to simply ignor concerns and that is exactly what they are doing. Yes we have trusted them with this power and to proceed with this project without going to the people through a referendum is clear abuse of that power. This project clearly met the threshold for referendum and if it was presented from the start that way we would not have gone through all the fighting and division that has fallen on our community. It really comes down to what is the point in participation with this Council. They can't produce operation costs but are approving the project. Even if they did produce an operation cost number I'd be very surprised if they accounted for disruptions of service due to the logistics associated with the building.

Maybe as Spooner suggests when all is said and done the City might be in the black after 75 years not sure on this but what I am sure of is this a bad project by the way it has been facilitated and the loss of trust for Council and the division it has driven into the community. 

Let,s move on.  Think we.ve exhausted this one

A big no to moving on, if people don't want to read this thread they're free not to. The citizens of Rossland currently have no legal nor voting say in the matter so public discussion is all we have for now. 

Kathy Moore has made an incredibly asinine and selfish decision, far from a forgivable mistake given the position of trust a majority of citizens granted her. That trust has been irrevocably broken and, based on the majority of comments here and elsewhere, it is clear the majority of concerned citizens would like the mayor to resign. The sooner the better. As for the elected council members, as a group they have failed their electors trust in this matter as well by not collectively forcing their leader's resignation. I suspect the fear of repercussion in legal terms (ie: Ms Moore sues the city) is the core motivation for failing to show her the door. In every other jurisdiction in which a similar situation (elected officials vacationing internationally during COVID) has presented itself the offending party has either resigned or, failing that, been dismissed. By what reasoning does Ms Moore deserve such extraordinary and exclusive treatment? 

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

One thing that Kathy Moore's term in office has taught us is that we need to look more closely at Rossland's civic constitution.

It is pretty apparent that there is something wrong with the normal checks and balances. Once elected Rossland's mayor and council seem able to ride roughshod over the electorate. 

Perhaps we need a mechanism whereby if enough cicitens feel strongly enough about an issue they can force a binding referendum. Or if the mayor does something epically stupid and/or immoral there is some way of arranging a recall vote to see if people want her/him to remain in office.

We need a council and mayor that are answerable to the electorate between elections, rather than a tinpot dictatorship - which the current set-up seems to allow.

@rosslandskibike - as has been posted before, don't assume that what is said on Bhubble is representative of the majority of Rossland voters. It might be; it might not be. There are a lot of people who have never even logged on to Bhubble. There are a lot of others who use it strictly as a buy/sell/looking bulletin board and don't get involved in online discussions. 

I know I am reluctant sometimes to post anything because of the level of anger in a lot of the posts.

I agree with rosslandskibike and pronto.

Can someone help me out here? What course of action as Kathys constituents do we have to hold her accountable for her acrions?

The fact that she is carrying on business as usual from Arizona where she visits with family is even more of a slap in the face than ever.

How do we go about initiating ACTION to hold her accountable? How do we find out if the majority wants her to stay in office for the next 18 months? And does it even matter? Do we have any recourse? I honestly do not know, so I am hoping someone does.

Start a petition? How is that legally done? Does it even have an impact?

Write to our local West Kootenay MLA voicing your concerns.

https://katrineconroy.ca

The current system gives Council power to make the day to day decsions required to run the city. This is necessary to get anything done. The system fails when that Council does not have the wisdom to recognize when a project is exists clearly outside of the day to day business of the city and meets a threshold to go to referendum. Just the cost alone, now at $3.3 million moves this project to that threshold. A number of other risks associated with the project enforce that principle.

A petition will do no good. They have the power to ignor it and they have demonstrated more than once that they will do just that.

Contacting Katrine Conroy will do nothing. She is a career politician that knows as long as she stays out of trouble she will get elected. NDP in a strong union based part of BC. The abosolute worst person to be in charge of the Forestry portfolio during these challanging times. Guarantee she will not get involved in this.

It really comes down to trust and respect. The way Council has forced this project on to the community is appauling and shows no respect for people and the spirit of process.

As to Pronto thoughts I agree. Perhaps with the Community Plan work that is going on there is an opportunity to develop specific guidelines to ensure this abuse of power and persuing personal agendas paid for out of the public purse does not happen again in Rossland.

Imagine if you will........At the next Council meeting a statement is made that recognizes the concerns of the community regarding the Mid Town Mixed Use Development Project. The increased cost, now at $3.3 million combined with other concerns raised by the community and the uncertain economic times the City has decided to postpone this project for 6 months. During that time 4 public meetings will be held to provide information on the project and respectfully investigate concerns of the community. At the end of this period Council will make a decision to proceed, go to referendum or cancel the project. 

To go this route would restore much needed trust and show respect for the residents of Rossland.

If enough of us contact Katrine Conroy Katrine.Conroy.mla@leg.bc.ca surely she must hear us and act on it? I've sent an email voicing my concerns. I suggest you all do the same. As many we can move mountains!!

Be sure to include your full name, post code and phone number, as she will not reply to non west kootenay constituents. 

Let's flood her inbox to tell her we are angry and have lost confidnence in our local govt.

@roamryder   My comment above was about Kathy remaining in her position as Mayor despite travelling to the US for an extended family vacation in the midst of the pandemic and breaking all government health protocols. 

What power as her constituents do we have to initiate her removal from office, if any?

I expect on the short term we as constituents have no power. On the long term you have the power of your vote but very few options in Rossland elections.

Kathy has an interesting and forecful leadership style that I believe has tremendous influence on the group we call Council. Dispite best intensions they are doing harm in the community and Kathy's recent actions only highlight the issues.

Her moral conscience is the only thing that can lead to a respectful decision. We will have to wait and see how that goes.

To change things on the long term I guess running for Council is an option but to be the lone discenting voice in a populist left wing group is just not worth it. Form a team for the next election. We need a complete change of slate.

Bump

Let us not forget the actions of our Mayor, who is now deeply involved in the planning of Rosslands future.

Kathy needs to resign and remove herself from OCP proceedings. Instead, she is pretending like she is not still on an extended family vacation in a different country during a pandemic. She doesn't care what anyone here thinks. She believes she did no wrong.

It is unfortunate that business has moved on as usual. It shows how much Kathy, the City and Councillors think of residents. They don't. 

Can she leave town now for good?

http://www.bhubble.com/discussions/node/149642

@shredred2009 get a life and maybe a hobby or two.