IEC appointments and hours caps

At their meeting last Wednesday, the SFSS board of directors moved to appoint four people to their independent electoral commission (IEC) for the upcoming referendum. The IEC is made up of one chief electoral officer (CEO) and three commissioners.

     VP finance Adam Potvin raised concerns regarding the billable hours caps attached to those appointed positions. He suggested that the maximum number of billable hours for all members of the IEC was too high and that CEO and commissioners would ‘find’ work to do in order to max out their billable hours.

     “I don’t think it is a matter of cracking down on people who are lying about working, I think it is a matter of finding work that isn’t necessary in order to max out their total billable hours,” he said. “And I’ll be completely honest, I think that a lot of board members do it as well.”

     A motion was carried to cap billable hours toward the referendum at 150 for the CEO. The other com- misioners’ hours were re- duced to 15 from 60.

BC Society Act

As the SFSS falls under the legislation of the BC Society Act, the board moved to request clarification regarding certain changes which will arise due to the retooling of the act.

     One change that board members found concerning is the ability for a non-member to take legal action against the society for any actions believed to not be in the best interest of the public. President Chardaye Bueckert explained this, “could open [the SFSS] up to frivolous or vexatious litigation.”

     Bueckert found most of the other changes to be “favourable” to the SFSS.