Mayor Greg Gardner has become the second person in recent days to decline an appointment to the board that will help steer the future of Squamish's Oceanfront development.
As of Thursday (Nov. 10), Gardner handed in a two-month notice of his intention to resign from his new appointment to the Squamish Oceanfront Development Corp. (SODC) board.
"The reason for me resigning is that this is a very large project. And for me to be of assistance in moving it forward I would need a strong mandate from council," he told The Chief.
Gardner's announcement follows a split District of Squamish council vote on the new SODC board two weeks ago. Included at the board's table were newly appointed directors Drew Stotesbury, Coun. Paul Lalli and Mayor Greg Gardner. While councillors Rob Kirkham, Doug Race and Corinne Lonsdale argued a smaller board, made up of directors with marketing and business planning expertise, was needed to move the project forward, councillors Bryan Raiser and Patricia Heintzman said council's appointments didn't achieve that goal.
Controversy continued to spin outside council, as former SODC director Tom Bruusgaard questioned the wisdom of appointing outgoing council members to the board. Last week, Stotesbury, who was a former SODC CEO, announced he would not accept the appointment. Now, Gardner is following suit.
"A 3-2 vote is not a strong mandate," he said.
Council knew there would be questions asked about the optics of appointing council members to the board, but most of council was willing to move forward with that decision, Gardner said.
"I was prepared to accept an appointment to the board given that I thought it was in the best interest of the community," he said. "But given that perhaps optics have been given a higher priority than good governance, resulting in this less-than-unanimous mandate, I am not going to be effective as a member of the board. So I don't think I would be doing anyone a service by continuing."
The Oceanfront project has been moved forward successfully so far, Gardner said. A Sub Area Plan has been completed and the project is currently going through a rezoning process.
Council had been working to select a new SODC board since May. Gardner said he is concerned that after the Nov. 19 municipal election, a brand new council, which won't have the background knowledge of the current council, will have to make the board appointments in a limited timeframe.
"It took council some time to come to decisions and now a new council will be forced to do that all over again and in a compressed time," Gardner said.
He would not speculate as to whether he would accept an appointment to the SODC board under the new council.
