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Letter: Councillors had own agenda during Agassiz Road project meeting

Kelowna - “Council chambers were packed. A larger facility was not provided.”
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To the editor:

Regarding the Jan. 17 open council meeting for supportive housing at 2025 Agassiz Rd.

Council chambers were packed. A larger facility was not provided.

We lost. Not one council member supported us, (Coun. Maxine DeHart was absent).

RELATED: Newly announced supportive housing will allow drug use on-site

At the beginning of the hearing, one of our speakers requested council to keep the public hearing open until information requested under the FOI Act was received. The request was never acknowledged. Totally ignored.

We all had five minutes to speak and were cut off almost as soon as the bell rang.

We were run through like an assembly line. Mayor and council really were not interested in what we said. Mayor Basran could not sit still. He stretched and yawned and stood up and sat down all the time. He also spent a lot of time puffing out his cheeks to show his boredom. It was hard to not notice.

The only one to ask a question was Coun. Charlie Hodge. He wanted to know why so many people that had signed our change.org petition were from out of town, not from here in Kelowna. I guess that he and all the councillors failed to notice that all the people that spoke in favour of the “wet facility” were not from the Agassiz neighbourhood. That made it easy for them to say yes, good location.

After everyone with an appointment to speak were finished the floor was open to everyone else. That is when all the actors lined up with their well-rehearsed bad luck story and the homeless people they brought over to really make it sound good. Now we see our mayor paying attention. No more yawning. Then, of course, their golden girl stands up to speak and now our councillors have thought of questions to ask. For another , maybe 20 min, they asked and she answered. She could talk around and give generic answers to all their questions. Sure did sound good. Even old people could see through that. Like an Academy Award night in Hollywood.

My husband and I took a drive around Rutland where the next supportive house will be built. Just insane. It is all residential homes and condos. A perfect place to put another “wet facility” for drug addicts.

Rutland. You certainly have our sympathy.

Jeri Truman

Kelowna