There was a heated exchange between Williams Lake Councilor Scott Nelson and Mayor Surinderpal Rathor.
Before the exchange, Council was in discussion on whether they’d pass an increase to the Chamber of Commerce fee for service.
This was originally presented at the Committee of Whole meeting on January 17th, where only two council members voted against the request.
Fast forward to last night’s council meeting, and both Councilor Angie Delainey, and Joan Flaspohler felt as though waiting to review Council’s budget before making a decision was the best move.
Councillor Michael Moses agreed with Delainey and Flaspohler on waiting to review the budget. He was originally for having the increase.
This led to Councilor Nelson asking Mayor Rathor’s position, because he agreed with the request originally.
Last night, he agreed with the previous councilors, as he was wanting to do the same thing at the Committee of Whole meeting.
Nelson responded by saying that “you need to start to identify and prioritize where you’re gonna be at, because at the end of the day, you got to start making decisions.”
An example he gave was a decision to target a zero percent tax increase, which he said was approved around five weeks ago.
Rathor challenged that example by asking Vitali Kozubenko, Chief Financial Officer, if that decision was made, which he said no.
“So where the hell Councilor Nelson bringing that information to me ? Is he dreaming?” said Rathor.
“Why is he trying to make look yourself grandstanding and make them look all of us idiot here? (Scott Nelson chimes in to say he’ll forward the report to Rathor) Just shut up and listen to me please!”
The bickering between the two continued for a couple more minutes, with both sides seeming to not understand what is being said.
The last words before the exchange ended came from Councilor Nelson
“So before you stand up there and you start pumping your chest and get all excited, you supported the motion last week, yourself, for $165,000 at the committee level.”
“We’re before a public meeting tonight and we’re going to see if you flip flop.”
This was where Councilor Delainey called a point of order to put an end to the talks.
The discussion ended with the request being brought to the next budget meeting, which will be on January 31st.
The full council meeting can be found on the City of Williams Lake YouTube channel here.