Mayor Vents, CLC Responds

As printed in the Daily Townsman on July 2,2010 by Bonnie Bryan

The mayor of Cranbrook expressed concern at the Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook Society's (CLC) activities in the community at Mondays regular Council meeting and said he and Councillors will be speaking up when it comes to this group.
"I want you to know as mayor I will no long be silent on the actions and misinformation of the Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook," Mayor Scott Manjak said at the end of the meeting. "They have continued to create division in Cranbrook by suggesting we are not acting in the public interest.
"I will not be silent any longer and I will respond when required to protect the employees, the businesses and resident and their interest when they are under unfair or unreasonable attack from the Citizens," he said. "As mayor I should and must defend the attacks on City staff when they are unfair and I'm obligated and frankly, allowed, to defend my council when we are attacked as well."
Manjak cited letters to the editor, submissions to Council, and the actions of the CLC leadership at public meetings as examples of the group creating division among the citizens of Cranbrook.
"The leadership of the CLC creates mistrust and conflict for specific reason, which is to advance their specific agenda, which at the end of the day is political.," he said. "They want what every special interest group wants, which is to control what happens in the city."
Included in that night's Council package was an update on tendering costs to the City the construction of water and sanitary sewer mains through Havaday lands so the Shadow Mountain development can connect to City services. A letter from the CLC regarding the project was printed in the June 24th Daily Townsman and was included in the written submissions regarding the needed amendment to the Five Year Financial Plan to allow the project, and in it the group questioned if the City should financially support the development.
"In my opinion this issue has been completely blown out of proportion by CLC. They have attacked our City staff for providing poor planning to the community on development and they have attacked this Council as being incompetent in the approval of development and have insinuated that we are using property taxes to support developers, none of which is true," Manjak said. "Tonight Council passed an amendment to our Five Year Financial Plan that allows us as a community to use money form the Development Cost Charge fund and our utility reserves to build 7oo metres of water and sewer lines. We made the right decision tonight. With it, investment, jobs and growth will continue and that is exactly what Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook don't want."What we don't know is what they stand for. They have never declared what we all know, who have paid attention to these things, is that they are anti-investment, anti-growth organization that is similar to the Wildsight movement in the East Kootenay."
Sharon Cross, president of the CLC said she was disappointed in what she heard Monday night and that the CLC was put in such a light.
"What I would suggest is if people have concerns with some of the allegations being made, that copies of our correspondence are available at our website (www.livablecranbrook.org). I think they speak for themselves," she said. "I think its really important people know we're a very diverse group of citizens with a strong interest in our community. We always have encouraged debate with a wide base of community citizens in order to open up discussions on the issues that affect us all.
She said the group is not anti-growth.
"we're interest in economic diversity, social planning and environmental sustainability, which are all involved with growth. We've never been anti-growth, we just have a different perspective of what that might look like." Cross said. "CLC asks questions of our elected official on matters that we feel are relevant to our community and if Council take exceptions to our asking questions, that's there prerogative. It is also our right as citizens and taxpayers to ask those questions and sometimes challenge the status quo.. We have different ideas, that's all."
Manjak said what the CLC is doing has gone beyond constructive criticism.
"In any healthy democracy constructive criticism is needed and desired. This is not what we have. It's time that we as a community stand up for what we believe and stop this ridiculous political dance and defer it to its rightful place which is the November 2011 election." he said. "Until then I and others, members of this Council. will no longer remain silent when we see the misinformation and propaganda from the leadership of the citizens in the local newspapers and on the Internet."