Pubdate: Tue, 21 Oct 2008
Source: Penticton Western (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Penticton Western
Contact:  http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1310

MAYOR FORESEES SAVINGS THROUGH COLLABORATION

An agreement between the City of Penticton and three other Okanagan 
municipalities will save the city thousands of dollars said Mayor 
Jake Kimberley.

The municipalities of Vernon, Kelowna, Westside and Penticton will 
begin to work collaboratively on bylaws and projects through the 
Intermunicipal Services Agreement.

The intention is to enact the same bylaws in all four municipalities 
to ensure the same rules apply in the jurisdictions and to save the 
communities money by joining forces to write the bylaws.

The municipalities each enacted identical bylaws enabling them to 
work together in September, called the intermunicipal bylaw.

"Those draft bylaws and bylaws to be adopted by legal council can 
cost a considerable amount of money, and as I gave an example of the 
intermunicipal bylaw, alone it cost $12,000 in legal fees, and that 
of course is being split by four municipalities.

"So, Penticton only pays $3,000 and we save ourselves $9,000 on that 
one bylaw so it is a huge savings that we will have for the future by 
collectively working together," said Kimberley.

On Oct. 10, the mayors and chief administrative officers of the four 
Okanagan municipalities met to prioritize bylaws and projects to 
focus on over the next year. This includes the development of a good 
neighbour bylaw, a drug bylaw and a scrap metal bylaw.

The good neighbour bylaw which was introduced in Vernon is intended 
to take into account noise, unsightly premises and nuisance concerns.

"This is one bylaw that will protect the neighbourhood and allow the 
neighbourhood to put forward the complaints to city hall and be 
investigated all under one bylaw which means we could eliminate, I 
think, about five bylaws and put it under one," said Kimberley.

A drug bylaw would establish a consistent approach to handling 
residential drug operations. This could allow the municipalities to 
charge property owners for all emergency service personnel and 
cleanup costs linked to illegal residential narcotic operations. It 
also enables fire and inspection officials to revoke occupancy 
permits and shut off power and water until the building is free of 
drug infrastructure.

The scrap metal bylaw is expected to regulate the sale of scrap 
metal, eliminating the inter-jurisdictional competitiveness that can 
currently occur.

The municipalities also have initiated a joint purchasing project to 
get as much benefit from bulk purchasing as possible from office 
paper to machinery.

Providing benefits to employees is also an avenue being explored 
through joint delivery with the expectation of cost-savings.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom