Campbell River TV board fights attempt to hijack sale vote CRTV'sDan Wickham & Jim Forsyth
By Grant Warkentin Campbell River Mirror Campbell River, British Columbia Published: July 03, 2008
CRTV's board of directors are pushing back against a handful of CRTV members who tried to sabotage a critical vote Wednesday night.
"The CRTV board is very concerned with the motion passed by less than 50 members at the July 2, 2008 meeting, that the ballots 'collected in consideration of these resolutions be sealed and destroyed.' This will disenfranchise those members who voted by mail or in person prior to the motion from the floor," said a news release Thursday afternoon from the board. "As the meeting was adjourned, the board intends to reconvene the membership as soon as possible."
The meeting will reconvene at Strathcona Gardens' Rod Brind ‘Amour Arena on Tuesday, July 29 at 7:30 p.m. Doors will open at 5:30. Further details and an official meeting notice will follow soon.
The motion in question was an attempt to scuttle the vote on whether or not to sell the cable co-op to Shaw Communications for $46 million. The motion was made by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local 230 business manager and financial secretary Philip Venoit. He is not a CRTV member and does not live in Campbell River but was acting as a member's proxy.
"Regardless of how it looks, really what I was trying to do was help people," he said Thursday morning, adding that there was no plan to filibuster the meeting. "It pretty much struck me at the mic to do that."
Venoit had harsh words for the board of directors and said the voting procedure was ill-conceived.
"They don't have it together. With that kind of chaos from the leadership how can they expect anything else from the people they are trying to lead?" he said.
His motion was seconded by several others, including Larry Widen, past CRTV president, who said its purpose was not to disenfranchise voters.
"The intent was to ensure there was a good, wholesome, complete debate in the wholeness of time," he said.
The motion to seal the boxes and destroy the ballots was made around 11 p.m. after a meeting which dragged on for hours. Mics at the meeting were dominated all night by a few people who spoke repeatedly against the cable co-op board's recommendation to sell the cable co-op to Shaw, against the meeting, against the meeting procedure and against the voting procedure. Most attendees and speakers were seniors.
Other speakers included union employees and their spouses who said they were afraid for their jobs if Shaw takes over – their collective agreement with CRTV expires at the end of 2008.
At its peak, there were close to 300 members at the meeting – CRTV had prepared for several thousand. By the time the motion to seal the ballot boxes was made, most members had trickled out but enough remained to pass the motion.
At this time it's unknown how many of CRTV's roughly 13,000 members decided to vote by mailing in their ballots. However, before and during the meeting, many people – including young families – showed up to cast their votes, and leave.
During the meeting CRTV president John Kerr said the board of directors for the cable TV co-op has received advice from "industry executives" to "take the money and run."
CRTV CEO Jim Forsyth agreed, calling Shaw's $46 million offer to buy the co-op "phenomenal."
Since last year, the community has been buzzing with debate over the future of CRTV since it became apparent the cable co-op would need at least $15 million to upgrade and compete with other television and Internet services. This spring, Shaw Communications received federal permission to extend its Courtenay service into Campbell River and directly compete with CRTV. Shaw then offered to buy CRTV for $46 million and members have been asked to vote on whether or not they approve a sale.
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