Imagine getting elected to serve your neighbours and friends as a School Trustee on November 19, but refusing to be sworn-in. That’s what’s happening in Nanaimo-Ladysmith, where a newly re-elected Trustee is refusing to take her seat, which will trigger a $100,000 by-election.

From the Nanaimo Daily News:

Jamie Brennan, the newly elected chairman of the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district board of trustees, believes personal feelings concerning incoming trustee Bill Bard are behind a high-profile incumbent's refusal to be sworn in.

Donna Allen received 7,405 votes to finish in the middle of the pack of trustees during the Nov. 19 civic election but she did not show up to be sworn in Monday at the district's administrative office on Wakesiah Avenue.

Last week, Allen sent a letter to the school district saying she would refuse to be sworn in as a trustee. She wants the School Act changed so that anyone with a criminal record must disclose that fact when they run for elected office. Bard was convicted in 2006 of cultivation of a prohibited substance (marijuana). He pleaded guilty to the charge and served a one-year conditional sentence.

Brennan said Allen and Bard often argued at previous board meetings, especially regarding the previous school board's decision to scrap a facilities renewal plan, that would have pumped more than $86 million into the district.

I don’t necessarily disagree with Allen that criminal records should be disclosed when running for office—especially an office like School Board, where you will have interaction with kids. It’s an interesting idea, and one that is probably worth discussing at both a School Board and provincial School Trustees Association level. But to make that happen, one has to work within the system and get it on the agenda.

What makes this issue different is the fact that these two trustees have a history of sniping at each other. In fact, during the campaign, legal letters were flying over comments made by Bard.

Refusing to take the seat you were elected to hold is a slap in the face of the voters who wanted you there. We don’t get to cherry-pick democracy, taking the good and overriding the bad. We have to trust the process and the voters and

Apparently Allen has until January 5 to change her mind and accept her seat. I hope she spends time over the Christmas break looking at herself and does what’s best for the taxpayers and students of Nanaimo-Ladysmith.

Taking $100,000 out of classrooms to run a by-election is pointless.