"To lie is to intentionally mislead others when they expect honest communication." Sam Harris
Too busy to answer correspondence, Admin hiring someone to do his job, no urgency with water treatment plant so taking July and August off. One question per landowner.
All brought to you by those folks who promised transparency, accountability, and the new chair who urged landowners to demand answers….. oh wait, that’s when he wanted your vote. How dumb do you feel?
A special treat: UBID Geneal Meeting! 🙂
I love video – it captures the startled (deer caught in the headlights) faces and their inability to answer questions. The admin can be counted on to say at least once “I’m not arguing with you” because he doesn’t know the answers – and with that attitude – never will. This board and admin are so bad that it’s comical – you couldn’t make this shit up.
Now it takes 3 weeks to post a meeting video. We’re paying big bucks for this efficiency.
You have to look on the funny side or it will drive you crazy!
Obviously, missed this one. So Cheri Loxam thought it was fine to respond to an email regarding UBID business because she recognized the sender. Well, that makes it all okay, right? That’s her justification – if she recognizes the sender, she’s free to respond? Bad enough we have the elected gong show – seems the gong show spouses believe they have standing. Hillbilly politics.
The lack of knowledge by this admin is astounding. James Wood asked all the right questions and Mason was unable to provide answers. Mason refers to the the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection and yet provided my personal email address to
Simon Rasmussen in April 2018, and then lied to me twice claiming he hadn’t provided it to Simon.
UNION BAY, B.C- A recent email exchange with a Union Bay trustee has put a spotlight on how the district handles it’s record-keeping.
According to the information listed on the Union Bay Improvement District (UBID) website, all six elected trustees of the district appear to be using personal email addresses to communicate with each other and landowners in the district.
The use of those personal email addresses led to the spouse of trustee Glenn Loxam responding to an inquiry from a member of the public, instead of the trustee it was intended for.
In an email exchange posted to a local blog focused on Union Bay matters, Cheri Loxam, the wife of Glenn Loxam, appears to have replied to a message that appears to have been sent to the UBID administration in late December.
The sender had copied every member of the trustee board in the message. The photo of the exchange, posted to the blog, is included below.
When reached for comment on the matter, Glenn Loxam stated he had no issues with his use of a personal email for UBID business, and said he had no plans to change his email practices.
Cheri Loxam also confirmed that she had replied to that particular inquiry, though she had only done so because she recognized the sender.
98.9 The Goat reached out to Gordon Mason, the administrator for the UBID, for clarification on what rules the district has on personal email use by trustees.
According to Mason, the UBID doesn’t have an internal email system, beyond the one used for employees of the district.
“The emails that are posted on the website are the emails that trustees use for corresponding between themselves and the landowners,” said Mason.
There are also no plans to change the email addresses listed on the website, or to give trustees email accounts that are used for solely UBID business.
“Currently, there are no plans in place to change anything,” said Mason.
“We have internal email addresses for the staff, and for the trustees, they use the addresses that are posted on the website.”
98.9 The Goat also reached out to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commission for British Columbia for further clarification on the rules governing personal email use by public officials.
While they couldn’t comment on the specifics of the Union Bay situation, the agency indicated that there are no regulations in provincial privacy legislation that prohibit the use of personal email accounts.
However, the use can “frustrate” the ability of public bodies to comply with their duties laid out in that legislation, with a focus on the accessibility, security, and storage of records in Canada.
The agency’s response indicated that under the Freedom of Information and the Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) in British Columbia, public bodies are required to take reasonable security measures to protect personal information in their custody, or control.
If personal email accounts are being used for public business, the messages are considered to be under the control of that public body.
Emails are also considered records under FIPPA, and are subject to freedom of information requests, which means the public body must be able to search for and retrieve records that fit those requests. According to the agency, personal email use could make this process difficult, as the public body may not be aware of emails that are responsive to the request.
FIPPA also requires that public bodies store personal information in Canada, as it’s disclosure is restricted outside of the country. The use of an email service with servers outside Canada could lead to a risk of non-compliance with FIPPA.
When asked for further information on the email practices of the UBID, Mason indicated that he couldn’t answer any questions about how trustee’s store their emails, or if they are actively archiving their emails concerning UBID business.
When asked if members of the public and residents in the UBID could assume that only trustees will be viewing emails sent to their email addresses listed on the district’s website, he again couldn’t answer the question.
“I can not answer this questions as this is personal information concerning the trustee’s,” he wrote, in an emailed response.
Despite his inability to answer most questions related to the email practices of the trustees, Mason did state that the district follows Chapter 165 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which lays out how public bodies should handle the information they collect.
He also said that all information requests concerning the UBID come straight to him from the Information Access Operations branch of the Ministry of Citizen’s Services.
However, when asked if he would be able to search the personal email accounts of trustees for information pertaining to a request, his reply was simple, –simply “NO”.
He also couldn’t answer whether or not any steps would be taken to ensure that personal information collected by the UBID in trustee’s email accounts would be stored in Canada, as is required by the legislation he indicated the UBID follows.
“I can not answer this questions as this is personal information concerning the trustee’s,” was his emailed response.
Peter Jacques, the chairperson of the UBID board, declined to comment for this report.
Cowardly board is afraid to discuss important matters publicly because it would expose their questionable actions.
https://www.mycomoxvalleynow.com/36332/ubid-passes-closed-door-meeting-policy/
UNION BAY, B.C- Trustee’s of the Union Bay Improvement District will be officially be having more closed-door meetings this year.
Last Thursday, a policy change came up for approval by the board during their May meeting in Union Bay. The policy change was meant to add “executive meetings” to the official procedures of the board, after the practice came under scrutiny earlier in the year.
The changes under the new policy are meant to formalize the practice of “executive meetings” and lay out the rules that govern those meetings. It passed after lengthy discussion amongst the trustees, primarily driven by the concerns of trustee Susanna Kaljur.
Kaljur believed that the policy would lead to less transparency by the UBID administration to residents, with a particular focus on the presentation of financial information.
She thought that the new policy would conflict with the UBID’s annual general meeting, which includes the presentation of financial information and audit reports.
Part of the concern was driven by the looming costs of the community’s new water treatment plant, which is coinciding with a major development plan for the area.
“There seems to be a desire for this board to limit questions from the public, not understanding that the public is anxious,” said Kaljur, after the meeting.
“This is a massive infrastructure and capital cost that we’re about to undertake, of course they are going to have questions, and want to have answers.”
Kaljur stated she had reached out to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs about the policy and has previously written to the province’s ombudsman on the matter as well.
When it came time to vote on the policy, Kaljur was the lone opposing vote.
Ted Haraldson, the newly-elected chair of the UBID board, said that similar policy used to be in effect in Union Bay in previous years, with the practice of “executive meetings” meant to speed up their government processes. He framed the new policy as a way to improve the public meetings of the board.
He also disagreed with Kaljur’s concern about financial information not being available to the public, stating that the information will be presented each year at the annual general meeting.
As for minutes of executive meetings, Haraldson said they would be brought forward to the public meetings, though any sections dealing with in-camera topics would need to be accessed via a Freedom of Information request.
As for Kaljur writing to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Haraldson said she had the right to do whatever she wanted to do.
“I have nothing against any of my trustees going forward, but I’d prefer that they go through the chair, that is the normal procedure,” said Haraldson.
“The reason for executive meetings is to get work done. There are a number of things that we’re lacking, in past boards, that need to be tidied up. In executive meetings, a lot of this can be taken care of, so it can be straightened out for the records.”
He also believed landowners in Union Bay wouldn’t have a problem with the policy.
“I think the majority of the landowners just want to get a lot of this work done, in this community,” said Haraldson.
“We have a water filtration plant that should have been built many years ago, and we have to get it done. It’s very simple. By having executive meetings, that helps move things along quicker.”
