The Hyack Festival Association is postponing plans for a membership meeting while it attempts to sort out its internal saga behind closed doors.
The association had originally planned to hold a meeting on Sept. 10, at which time the membership would decide whether to remove executive members Gavin Palmer (president), Gloria Munro (treasurer), Alan Wardle (vice-president) and Nadine Proulx (incoming president). The meeting was called in response to the executive's firing of the association's executive director, Douglas Smith, without approval of the board of directors.
"We are trying to work through this internally right now," Palmer said. "I think we are moving forward in the right direction. There are still a few things being hotly debated. It's all in camera so I can't tell you anything at this point."
The association has scheduled two additional board meetings to try and resolve the matter.
"We are working on trying to resolve the differences within the board and executive before we go to the membership, if that is needed," Palmer said. "The other thing right now is we need to go and talk to a constitutional lawyer. Our constitution has never been tested to this extent before, and we are finding out all these little nuances."
Because the board and executive are trying to resolve the matter internally, a meeting date with the membership at large has not been set at this time.
"At the end of the day, all this is good because it makes us become better at what we do," he said. "That's all I can say at this point in time."
The Hyack Festival Association executive fired Smith on July 31, but the board at-large subsequently voted to ask him back. The agreement was that he would return to work for a period of one month without prejudice, which means Smith could still take legal action against the association for his dismissal.
Smith recently told The Record he had been informed he was being let go because of an incident that occurred on Canada Day during a live music performance at the Concerts on the Quay. A group was being disruptive during a performance, and Smith intervened, with one of the group members accusing Smith of assaulting him.
Smith, who was never charged for the incident, speculated his firing may have been related to the strategic planning work that had been taking place, including a name change for the association. Instead of being called Hyack Festival Association, a proposal would have seen the organization renamed Festivals New West to better reflect that the group organizes festivals year round, not just the Hyack Festival in May.
Palmer is hopeful the saga will soon be resolved and the board and executive can meet with the membership.
"We are tying to clean this up without doing it in the press," he said. "It's proven not to be the way to go."
The City of New Westminster provides the Hyack Festival Association with funding to organize events on the city's behalf, including the Hyack Festival and the Santa Claus Parade of Lights. Hyack members also travel with the group's float and represent the city at parades in the Pacific Northwest and B.C. In recent years, the city has given Hyack Festival Association more than $150,000 in funding and in-kind services annually to organize events on the city's behalf.
