Answer Me This, Please (Deja Vu)?!

On Jan. 22nd, 2007, I sent the following email to Twyla Graff, District of Lantzville Chief Administrative Officer:

Twyla,
Late last spring, I dropped by the District's temporary office at Seaview Plaza and asked to see a number of items relating to the introduction of sanitary collector sewers in Lantzville. At that time, I also inquired about the timing for the task item 'Liquid Waste Management Plan process' under tab #3, 'Municipal Sewage Collection (Phase 1)' on the 'June CAO Report', a task which has been on your 'project list' since at least January '06 but which has now been removed as of the 'December CAO Report'. Although it wasn't easy lining up the dates with the task, I was told that it must be a 'typo' that the 'Completed' date (Oct. 05) was a year earlier than the 'Planned' date (Oct. 06) although, after that, the dates disappeared completely.
At their regular meeting on Sept. 19/05, Council passed a motion to "amend the OCP to include wording that Council must immediately commence a LWMP (Liquid Waste Management Plan) to include a study of what areas of Lantzville are able to sustain on-site sewage disposal". This motion was specifically made because Council, under considerable pressure from 'down-zoned residents', had decided to reinstate the 'Estate Residential' land-use category (with conditions) in the OCP, thereby allowing lot sizes without sewers down to .4 ha (1 acre). This motion was subsequently implemented and appears as item 5 under Sec. 9.2.4 of the consolidated version of the OCP, dated Dec. 7, 2005.
It was certainly always my understanding, based on comments from Council that, after the Estate Residential designation was re-instated in the OCP, a LWMP became necessary to maintain our eligibility for the sewer infrastructure grant (B.C. Water Improvement Program), this designation having been removed by Council originally for that very reason. I distinctly recall hearing council state, on more than one occasion and at more than one meeting, that the 'down-zoning' was necessary in order for us to qualify for the grant.
At a Special Meeting of Council on Sept. 26/06 to adopt the OCP, several of the councillors also made reference to the need of completing the LWMP in order to qualify for the sewer infrastructure grant. Therefore, how is it that we can have progressed this far, already having spent considerable sums of money on sanitary collector sewers, and yet we don't appear to have fulfilled an important condition of the grant?
As always, thank you in advance for your kind and prompt attention to my questions and I look forward to receiving your response by return email.

Sincerely,
Hans J. Larsen

Having received neither a response or even an acknowledgement, I sent her this follow-up email on Feb. 8th, 2007 :

Twyla,
Having sent you the 'attached' email on Jan. 22nd with questions relating to the need to complete a Liquid Waste Management Plan in order to remain eligible for the B.C. Water Improvement Program Infrastructure Grant, I was hoping to have received a reply by now. With the District considering awarding the tender for the second stage of the the works covered by the grant at the Regular Council meeting this coming Monday, time is fast running out to ensure that we have 'all our ducks lined up'. Can you please tell me when you will be able to provide me with answers to my questions?

Sincerely,
Hans J. Larsen

As of the initial posting of this article at 10:00 am on Feb. 23rd, 2007, I have not received any kind of reply from either Ms. Graff [or the Mayor, who sometimes replies to questions asked of her]. As with the questions referred to in a previous Blog article (Answer Me This, Please!), I am at a loss as to why the people we pay to conduct our business will not answer pertinent questions from the public concerning that very business. I'd love to receive comments from any Lantzville residents who value democracy concerning this situation (click on the 'Comments' link at the bottom of this article - you may have to register with Blogger first).

On Feb. 15, 2007, having not received any reply whatsoever from the District of Lantzville to the two emails above, I sent the following email to Mr. Glen Brown, Director, Infrastructure section of the Infrastructure and Finance Department in the Ministry of Community Services, which is the group responsible for the administration of the B. C. Water Improvement grants:

Dear Mr. Brown,
Firstly, if you are not the best person to address this matter, would you please see to it that my email is forwarded to the correct individual? As you can see from the two 'attached' emails, I have been trying to obtain an answer from Ms. Twyla Graff, the District of Lantzville Chief Administrative Officer, regarding the District's meeting the eligibility requirements for a previously announced $2.4 million B.C. Community Water Improvement Program infrastructure grant (for sanitary collector sewers) in our small, seaside community. Unfortunately, she has not responded to either of those emails and I am at a loss to explain why. Obviously, it would have been preferable to have received the answer to my question from our community's chief civil servant but, regrettably, that doesn't appear like it will happen.
Could you please have a look at my original email to Ms. Graff and provide whatever comments you can. I should also point out that the minutes of the Special Meeting of Council on Sept. 26/05 contain an 'Explanation regarding the grant application' in which it is noted the "Ministry's position was that if on-site sewage disposal were permitted on properties less than 2.5 acres it would immediately nullify our application however in dealing with Estate Residential properties we believe we can maintain eligibility if we embark on a LWMP. Further, the District has correspondence from the Ministry stating this position." I remain unclear on how we got from there to now.
The agendas and minutes referred to in this as well as my email to Ms. Graff can be found at http://www.lantzville.ca. Even if the infrastructure grant eligibility had somehow been satisfied without a LWMP, there would still be the issue of the $10,000 planning grant, which the District was apparently awarded by your Ministry in 2005 to complete a LWMP.
Thank you in advance for your kind and prompt attention to my query.

Sincerely,
Hans J. Larsen

After waiting over a week for any kind of repy from him, I sent the following follow-up email to him:

Dear Mr. Brown,
Having now been over a week since I sent you the 'attached' email (along with its own 'attachments') without an acknowledgment from you that you received it and are formulating a suitable response, I would be less than honest if I didn't say I am becoming very concerned. You are already aware that I sent you the original email because I had been unable to obtain an answer to my question relating to the District of Lantzville's continuing eligibility for a B.C. Community Water Improvement Program infrastructure grant from our community's chief civil servant, Ms. Twyla Graff. I sincerely hope that you will be providing me with an answer to what appears to me to be a very straightforward and important question in the near future. If there is anything further you need from me to make this happen, please be sure to let me know.
You might also find it interesting to know that the beach interceptor, the cost of which is a significant part of the infrastructure funding under discussion, for which the District has said in their application that "(e)lector assent will not be sought until the senior government grant is confirmed", was actually completed before the District undertook to establish a Local Area Service subject to petition against. Since the counter petition process was only recently completed, they did things in the order stated but I'm not sure that's quite what you (or any other reasonable person) were expecting when you (they) read those words.

Sincerely,
Hans J. Larsen

Are you beginning to see a pattern of deliberate evasion emerging here and are you as concerned as I am about the possible reasons behind such a tactic by our municipal and provincial public servants? Once again, I'd love to receive comments from any Lantzville residents who value democracy concerning this situation (click on the 'Comments' link at the bottom of this article - you may have to register with Blogger first).