A strategy to bring new blood to the Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation (SODC) board has backfired after two of the three directors council appointed to replace existing members stepped down recently, only weeks after their induction.
The board is tasked with determining use for the municipality's oceanfront land on the western peninsula of the downtown.
In early July, the public discovered during the SODC AGM that directors Ted Prior, Nelson Winterburn and Dale Harry would be replaced by Kirsten Delaney, Donald Graham and Sandra Bicego. Now more changes are afoot.
"Two of the new board members resigned, and it's different reasons," said SODC chair Bill McNeney.
Delaney was forced to step down after discovering the SODC is a for-profit board. Her employer, Deloitte and Touche financial services, allows employees to volunteer for non-profit board only.
Graham, whose expertise lies in banking finance, resigned after discovering that his desire to help negotiate bank loans was no longer needed.
"Our loan has been negotiated with Pacific and Western and it's kind of entrenched now," said McNeney. "Then he wasn't as keen."
Council made the appointments based on a list the SODC provided that included potential new directors who had passed interviews, as well as current directors wishing to remain.
Council chose to bring in the three replacements to create a board of directors that would each have staggered two-year terms so each year would see new and old directors.
"So they [council] are a little bit choked, like 'This didn't work very good because two out of three said it's not what they really wanted once they found out,'" said McNeney.
The existing directors were issued letters from council thanking them for their longstanding service.
"We were kind of surprised when they said here's three new board members and here's who is no longer on the board," said McNeney. "We didn't expect that. But they wanted to introduce new people on the board. Council is the shareholder. The shareholder says we appoint the board."
But the shortened roster, now down to 13, is not keeping the board from making headway on the lands. They've recently signed a two-year deal to lease a portion of land to the Pacific Western Navigation Limited, creating 12 local jobs along the way. And on Monday (Aug. 24) they'll get a look at the broad strokes of a report by former Intrawest executives hired to create a business plan encompassing land and commercial use.
"The big news for us is we've got our management team on," said McNeney. "The public land has never had a business plan that showed how you would develop the land. We've never had a land use plan that would show what you would put and where you would put it. And we've never had a commercial plan to show how many jobs is your target. That's the tack that they've taken."
Also on Monday's agenda is the decision on repopulating the board.
The replaced board members may be returning as interim directors until the next AGM, said McNeney.
"They told me they don't want to go through the process again of looking as a council group and selecting someone."
Mayor Greg Gardner confirmed that council would not be looking at filling vacancies until the next SODC AGM in July 2010.
"So the board can however fill the vacancies on an interim basis if they so choose," said Gardner.
He added that council and the SODC will look at ways to avoid the situation in the future.
"I personally would like to ensure that there's a process in place for determining first of all what the profile a person is desired on that board, and second of all that applicants are given all the information about what would be required of them in advance."
