Dear Editor,
I would like to congratulate the Rocky View Weekly for the work of your reporter, Ben Sherick. His balanced, detailed and accurate reporting of the complicated events surrounding Rocky View County (RVC) council is greatly appreciated.
By now, most county residents are aware there is some conflict interfering with the normal function of our municipality. It has been portrayed by some as a few "anti-development" activists causing problems. This could be hardly further from the truth. RVC is the home of one of the largest collections of innovative and visionary developers in the world. Successful development requires solving a multitude of engineering, financial and social problems, while navigating a labyrinth of regulations.
Good development also benefits from balanced input by its residents and effective oversight by County administration. The most powerful voice residents have in this process is their elected representative.
There is a petition now being circulated throughout the county in order to have our provincial Municipal Affairs department inspect our
dysfunctional municipal government. At the present time, 40 per cent of RVC has no effective representation, as their councillors are being sanctioned. The reason for this sanctioning was their questioning of the processes involved in the hiring of the CAO, specifically writing a letter to the Rocky View Weekly and forwarding their concerns to a lawyer.
Regardless of whether you feel that the sanctions on the three councillors are justified or not, it would be hard to find anyone on either side of the issue that agrees that the current environment is conducive to the proper function of our County. It is difficult to sort through all of the complicated issues related to this problem, but I strongly support the need for an independent assessment of the current situation.
John Beveridge
Springbank
