Among of the first things students of public administration learn in their study of organizations are the priorities that their owners develop. Accordingly they are: 1) Survival; 2) Expansion; 3) If possible, more profits; 4) In the public sector more people means more space — more available space leads to excuses to fill it.
I notice in a recent Nelson Star that the Regional District of Central Kootenay is in stage 2 or perhaps even stage 4, since by their nature public bodies are incapable of making a profit, or perhaps even saving taxpayers money. Much of the district has rejected the idea of “planning.” Failing the plan, the district now sees a need for a “planner” to plan their space!
My understanding is that when Premier W.A.C. Bennett and his government established regional districts they were simply to carry out and organize financing for functions that other governments could not handle, or were overlapped. They were not empires to be built.
Another organizational truism is that elective positions are often used as springboards to higher elective office.
Let the taxpayers of RDCK beware of these tendencies and knock them in the head where they start by electing different directors. Or by returning to older ones. I recall former directors who stood bravely at the fiscal gates in his day.
More to the point, let your director know that you don’t countenance the board’s apparently expansionist ambitions.
Maurice Rhodes
Nelson
Correction: An earlier version of this letter incorrectly stated that regional districts were created under the government of Bill Bennett.