Dear Editor:
Re: Trustee was in conflict of interest, report finds, The Record, Feb. 10.
"The past forms the present, doesn't it? It forms the future, too. We all try to lie out of that but life won't let us." - Mary Tyrone (with strange objective calm), A Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill.
Because of the attitude of certain SD40 board trustees and their continued role in Business Company operations, it's very hard to have confidence in the future of SD40 BC, unless the new trustees (MaryAnn Mortensen, Jonina Campbell and David Phelan) acknowledge the independent findings of the auditor general and vote in accordance with his wise recommendations.
Another concern of mine is that the central, essential point of the report is not finance but governance, as stated by the auditor general. Why does trustee Michael Ewen diverge over to the extraneous topic of finance and ignore the essential point of governance? Perhaps Michael Ewen should take time to read the report a little more carefully? Evading an essential point reminds me of the Archie-Bunker-ism, "he's invading the issue."
What does Michael Ewen mean by "provided almost $1 million in additional funds to the students of New Westminster"? Does he remember that the company had been over $1 million in debt and has "almost" but not quite paid it off, or has the company somehow made a remarkable $1 million windfall profit over and above the debt paid? What is all this criticism of nameless "people (who) want to live in the past." All our information is determined from the past, however recent. The past informs the present and also informs the future. Facts and sensible ideas (such as the good sense of starting a business with a plan) are true historically and remain true today. Also, congrats to Jim Goring, Casey Cook and Lisa Graham for their diligence and perseverance in bringing these problems to light and in making clarification of these findings possible.
Terry Hilmar, New Westminster
