Politicians may sit on the sidelines when it comes to the internal workings of non-profit organizations.
Staff will develop a policy that may prevent the Regional District of North Okanagan board from appointing representatives to external agencies.
“We need to keep at more of an arm’s length from some organizations,” said director Catherine Lord.
Director Doug Dirk suggested that an RDNO director sitting on a non-profit board could create a conflict of interest if the non-profit is seeking financial support from RDNO.
The issue arose after the Caetani Cultural Centre Society asked for a regional district representative to sit on its board.
“We have all kinds of groups in our facilities. To be equitable, we’d have to provide a board member to be at all of these groups,” said Dirk.
Director Janice Brown says municipal and regional district officials can find themselves in awkward situations because they are linked to the non-profit but generally don’t have a vote.
“The expectation is if you are on the board, you support it,” she said.
RDNO staff agreed that political representation to non-profits could create challenges.
“It could be an unmanageable amount of time if we provided directors to all of these board,” said Tannis Nelson, community development co-ordinator.
“They (Caetani) are looking for a way to communicate but that doesn’t require a representative.”
RDNO board decided no representation would occur with the Caetani society.
