Residents of the McCulloch Court Building have sent a letter and petition to council saying the situation downtown has gotten out of control.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

VERNON - A petition signed by over 100 seniors demanding action be taken by the City of Vernon in dealing with the anti-social and illegal behaviour going on in their downtown neighbourhood, was met with plenty of words from politicians but no action was taken on the issue.

While the seniors' petition did make it onto council's Sept. 3 agenda, if the seniors expected councillors to hash out possible solutions to deal with the issues they say are "out of control" they were quite wrong.

Instead, Vernon Mayor Victor Cumming took the time to scold two councillors for meeting with the concerned seniors prior to discussing the issue with council.

"When you get a petition on a complex issue like this one, I think it's really important we respond as a council, not as individuals," Mayor Cumming said. "I think that's really critical and it creates discipline and it keeps councils authority intact, it really undermines the decision making here if councillor's start responding individually when they know it's a controversial issue."

The mayor's comments didn't sit well with the two councillors who had met with the seniors, Scott Anderson and Kari Gares.

"I completely disagree," Coun. Anderson said. "These people are scared... they wanted to talk to somebody right away, I offered to do that."

The roughly 120 signature petition was sent to the mayor and council from the Vernon Pensioner Accommodation Society and management of the McCulloch Court Building and was also signed by neighbouring businesses and seniors at a nearby building.

"We implore you to do something now. Don't wait, don't do any more talks or spend more money on companies researching this problem, we need action and we need it now," reads the attached letter.

But council did talk, for a little over 30 minutes, although primarily about the actions of Anderson and Gares.

"When they reach out to us... we do have an obligation to at least have that discussion with them," Coun. Gares said. "If we didn't do that and we're simply bringing this here to have a discussion but we actually haven't sat down and had a discussion with those that are being impacted to get there side, how can we have a real discussion?"

Coun. Akbal Mund told council that typically the mayor was the one who responded to correspondence on behalf of council.

The conversation shifted to the timeline of how many working days had passed since the petition was received and a response sent out.

Coun. Anderson pointed out the petition was received on a Friday and the mayor responded the following Wednesday afternoon, a few hours after he and Coun. Gares had met with the seniors.

"That speaks for itself frankly," Anderson said.

The mayor's letter sent to the seniors says council will spend $1.3 million in additional policing in 2019, along with additional bylaw enforcement activities in the downtown core.

While many of the issues surrounding the street entrenched population fall onto the shoulders of the provincial and federal governments, Coun. Anderson said it was "unacceptable" to say the City couldn't do anything because it was out of their jurisdiction.

"We do have political power... we've seen our political power used in the past, we can demand or ask or beg or any number of things for the province to change that," Coun. Anderson said.

While councillors agreed they should lobby the provincial government regarding the issue, it was decided the specifics of the issue at hand needed more thought and it would be done after the meeting.

The mayor's letter to McCulloch Court says the petition has been put on the council's agenda Sept. 3 for a "full discussion by council to provide you with a comprehensive response to your concerns."

In the end, council voted to receive the petition for information.

iNFOnews.ca has reached out to McCulloch Court comment, but no one was immediately available.

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