Possible changes to the Capital Regional District’s committee voting structure will have to wait while more studies are done. The CRD has been pondering whether to move the present voting system to a Committee of the Whole system where every board member would have a vote and a say on decisions being considered at the CRD level.
Juan de Fuca regional director MIke Hicks said if they went to a COW system they would be looking at two or three long meetings a month, as opposed to the one they now hold.
“I personally spoke about it,” said Hicks. “I said, in my view any change would be to make the system more efficient. I didn’t see how going to COW would accomplish that.”
He said he preferred a system where board members get involved in issues they are interested in. He said, in any case, his electoral services committee would not be cut, nor his vice-chair seat on the parks committee or his position as alternate as the First Nation liaison.
“The system we have now is better,” he said.
Hicks said a change to the COW system might bog down the whole system even worse.
Other reasons included the fact that three or four managers at the CRD level would be sitting around at board meetings waiting around for their opportunity to speak to a particular issue.