Dear Editor,
As a former board chair of the Rocky View West Recreation Board (RVWRB), I am truly dismayed at the treatment of the current board chair, Pam Janzen by our Division 2 Coun. Kim McKylor.
When I was board chair, Municipal Reserve (MR) was such a significant Rocky View County (RVC) and Div. 2 issue that the entire RVWRB pushed developers to recognize it as extremely important and valuable to all residents. Time after time, project after project, developers proposed MR consisting of poor quality, unusable land. The RVWRB pushed back and demanded Div. 2 and the entire county be provided with MR of future value, including sale-ability, pathways design and usable green space.
The current MR sale allocation structure ensures the financial proceeds are shared amongst all County divisions, with the ultimate goal of benefiting all residents. McKylor seemed to want to railroad a personal decision where MR land sales proceeds are only allocated in the County division where the MR has been sold. This is such an ill-conceived and dangerous precedent for residents of RVC. It can quickly create a County where divisions scheme for themselves to generate revenue, pits divisions against each other, councillors against councillors and communities against communities. Not well thought out by McKylor and, obviously, when she was called to task, she lashed out at innocent volunteers and a structure that has been in place well before her arrival.
Pam Janzen is a very strong leader on the RVWRB, and became the board chair. Her integrity, leadership and commitment to county residents should never be questioned. For McKylor to attack a community volunteer who has provided more than a decade of her support and time to all residents is totally unacceptable.
McKylor must realize that when she chose to run for council, she was committing to support all county residents and to respect the clearly established procedures. Perhaps she believes being elected gives her some form of dictatorial powers to rule at her discretion. Her comments toward volunteers were unprofessional, disrespectful and discouraging. She should demonstrate leadership and maturity by publishing a clear, heartfelt apology to Pam Janzen and all volunteers in all county divisions. To date, my understanding is that this has not occurred in council meetings or in this paper.
If McKylor cannot understand her elected position on council does not entitle her to personally attack volunteers and residents or operate in dictatorial manner, then perhaps she needs to personally reassess her suitability to perform her role as Div. 2 councillor and come to a decision that she needs to present her immediate resignation to the residents of Div. 2 and the County as a whole.
Gordon Keon
Division 2
