Inaccuracies in Petition Filed against R/D Anderson

On January 2, 2019, fourteen Cortes residents filed their legal petition in the Supreme court of British Columbia. The first order sought in their petition was to have Noba Anderson “disqualified from holding office until the next general local election.”  They allege that twelve individuals, with varying degrees of connectivity to eight Cortes organizations, bribed Regional Director Anderson through a GoFundMe campaign set up after her father accidentally burned his cabin down. The campaign was launched on March 13, 2018 and Director Anderson allegedly rewarded ten of the defamed donors through funding provided to their respective organizations by the Strathcona Regional District’s 2018 Grant in Aid project. Director Anderson allegedly found other ways to reward the other two donors..

Half of these charges can be dismissed immediately with a quick search of the board minutes posted on the Strathcona Regional District website:

• Cortes Radio is included in the allegations because two of its volunteer DJs (Josee Gagnon & Victor Van Buskirk) and a volunteer board member (Barry Glickman) donated $75, $100 and $50 respectively. Cortes Radio has not applied for, or received, a Grant In Aid since 2017.
• The petition also names Amanda Glickman, who was partners with her husband Barry in the $50 donation mentioned above. The petition claims that she “is on the ESS and runs a ham radio course which is funded by the SRD.” This is a colossal understatement. In the ECOreport podcast, https://theecoreport.com/cortes-island-sidelined/, you will hear a little about the Glickmans’ contributions to emergency communications network in communities throughout the Strathcona Regional District over the past two and a half years. The Glickmans’ connection to the SRD is not through Director Anderson;  and they have never applied for, nor received, a Grant In Aid. 
• Donation of $20 from Morgan Tams, who the petition incorrectly states states is the island’s “garbage collector” and “the contract … has never been placed out for bid.” Morgan Tams is not, and never has been, the garbage collector on Cortes Island. The tender for residential waste collection for 2012 to 2016 was awarded to Margaret Verschuur. Her contract was renewed in 2017, again in 2018 and ends on November 30, 2020.
• Donation of $40 from “Cory Dow” who the petition claims was “appointed to the APC by Anderson.” She was actually nominated by Noba and elected by the SRD board in 2016.  Ms Dow was no longer serving in the APC as of the SRD board meeting January 25, 2018 (i.e. – she left the Advisory Planning Commission almost two months before the GoFundMe campaign was launched.)

 There is not a single 2018 Director among the remaining defamed organizations/donors:

• Donation of $100 from Mary Lavelle – the Alternate Strathcona Regional Director for Cortes Island & also the part time manager of Mansons Hall. She is employed by the Southern Cortes Community Association (SCCA), who regularly apply for and receive annual Grants In Aid.
• Donation of $100 from Ryan Harvey – who the petition incorrectly claims is a Director of the Friends of Cortes Island (referred to in the Petition as “FOCIS”;  the correct acronym is FOCI). Ryan Harvey is not and never has been a Director of FOCI;  he is a subcontractor who has been maintaining the trails on Cortes Island for the past seventeen years, this contract is administered by FOCI and comes up for tender every few years. FOCI regularly applies for and receives annual Grants In Aid.
• (included in donation above) Lovena Harvey – a friend of Noba’s who started Bernie Anderson’s Go FundMe campaign.
• Donation of $100 from Kirsten Schofield Sweet –Coordinator of the Cortes Island Seafest, which is put on by the Cortes Island Seafood Association (CISA) every year. CISA also regularly applies for and receives annual Grants In Aid.
• Donation of $50 from Grazyna Tresicka – who the petitioners state works at the Cortes Island Museum and Archives. She also volunteers with other organizations. The museum regularly applies for and receives annual Grants In Aid.
• Donation of $100 from Martha Abelson;  the petition states “Martha Ableson [sic] is a member of the Board of Directors of the CIBTA . . .”  The correct acronym for the Cortes Island Business and Tourism Association is CIBATA. Ms Abelson’s last term as a Director of CIBATA ended in 2016.  CIBATA has applied for funds from SRD Grant in Aid for several years.
• A donation from Josee Gagnon was already mentioned under Cortes Radio. She is also a part time janitor at Mansons Hall.
• Anonymous donations of $500, $400, $100, and $100  -- which petition refers to these as an “Anonymous or undisclosed donation for the sum of $900” -- GoFundMe Campaign Administrator Lovena Harvey says these anonymous donations came from various members of the Anderson family.

( Cortes Island residents made another 10 donations of between $25 and $100, also one $150 donation. One of Noba Anderson’s siblings who lives in Nelson BC put in a further $1,000.)