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.