In a lead-up to re-examining District of Squamish costs, council has decided to defer replacing the environmental co-ordinator position left vacant when Peter Woods resigned late this summer. And the decision has many residents, and at least one councillor, riled."For me, it's an attempt to cut low-hanging fruit without any sort of real understanding or implications throughout the whole organization," said Coun. Patricia Heintzman. "If we just indiscriminately go 'Oh, this person resigned, and so let's just not fill this position,' I kind of a cop out in my mind in terms of real planning."Details of the decision are difficult to come by for the general public since it was made in-camera, citing personnel matters as the reason for the closed-door discussion.However since the decision was made not to hire for budgetary reasons, it can be disclosed that council decided to leave the position vacant, and will review its very existence, during budget deliberations.The Squamish Environmental Conservation Society (SECS) sent a letter to council this week stating the vacancy creates a concern that the newly passed riparian zone bylaw, which gives the district a means of protecting fish and their habitat from encroaching development, cannot be enforced."While leading edge in its design the bylaw will be nothing without enforcement," wrote SECS president Catherine Jackson, also a council candidate in the upcoming municipal election.Other functions such as emergency response to pollution spills and contribution to land conservation deals with benefactor organizations such as Ducks Unlimited could also suffer, she said. Heintzman said she fears the vacancy may actually lead to increased costs, citing the provincial government's new policy for municipalities to cut greenhouse gas emissions."You have to be able to balance that on, is it going to cost you more to hire consultants? Is it going to really put the work of the district behind?"Coun. Greg Gardner said in-camera discussions can't be disclosed, and public budget deliberations have yet to begin. However he did say that council will discuss what personnel needs will be "in an environment where the economy is slowing down and presumably real estate development is slowing down as well." He said there's no formal means for the public to provide input of staffing issues, but acknowledged the environmental co-ordinator is a "very important position." Mayor Ian Sutherland, who was not present during the discussion, said he agrees that district staff is needed to address such things as the allocation and disbursement of CN Rail funds for Cheakamus River recovery following the derailment of 2004."I think people in the community are quite right that we have to ensure that we have the proper people at the table for when all those discussions take place." He added it's a good time for residents to let politicians know how they feel."I think it's always important that people, in this time of year, talk to the existing members of council and people who want to be on council and make sure that we understand how you feel on issues that are important to you."
