A former New Westminster Citizen of the Year is concerned a “horrific boo boo” has been made in changing the criteria for the award.
The New Westminster Chamber of Commerce announced the nominees for the Platinum Awards, which include the Citizen of the Year, the Bernie Legge Cultural Award, the Junior Citizen of the Year and a number of business awards.
“I am sure that all the people who have been nominated as Citizen of the Year are worthy of the nomination, but up to this date, I was under the impression it was restricted to people who are residing in New Westminster,” said longtime New Westminster resident Gerda Suess. “I have learned otherwise.”
Suess, the city’s 2003 Citizen of the Year, was astonished to learn Oct. 4 that Citizen of the Year nominees no longer have to be citizens of New Westminster. Although one of her primary school teachers once wrote in her report card that “Gerda tries to avoid conflict” at all costs, she felt compelled to speak out on the matter.
“The boo boo is we were not informed that there were changes made to the criteria,” she told The Record. “That is misleading.”
Upon hearing that at least one of the Citizen of the Year nominees doesn’t live in New Westminster, Suess went to the chamber of commerce to get some answers. The chamber confirmed that the criteria had been recently changed and Citizen of the Year nominees no longer have to live in New Westminster.
Suess told The Record she’s “not one to stir up anything” but is dismayed that the community wasn’t informed of changes to the award criteria. She noted that the New Westminster Chamber of Commerce website continues to state that the criteria for the citizen of the Year is to be a New Westminster resident.
A representative for the New Westminster Chamber of Commerce couldn’t be reached for comment.
The Platinum Awards, a celebration of business and community excellence in New Westminster, will be given out at a gala dinner on Nov. 21 at La Perla Ballroom at River Market. Awards will be given out for: Citizen of the Year; Junior Citizen of the Year; Bernie Legge Cultural Award; Diversity Excellence in Business; Marketer of the Year; Customer Services Excellence; Not-for-Profit of the Year; New Business of the Year; Corporate Community Spirit; and Business of the Year.
Nominees for Citizen of the Year are Patrick Johnstone, Scott McAlpine, Yasser Elmasri and Douglas Smith, who has been embroiled in controversy at the Hyack Festival Association.
“It could be,” Suess said, when asked if concerns are related to Smith’s nomination. “I cannot speak for other people. To me it makes no difference. As for Citizen of the Year for New Westminster, up until today I thought the criteria hadn’t changed.”
By Friday afternoon, Suess had received phone calls and emails from other citizens concerned about the changes to the award criteria for Citizen of the Year and the potential for a resident of another community to be named New Westminster’s Citizen of the Year.
“Does it matter? Yes it matters to me,” she said. “We have many, many good people living in New Westminster who do great things for New Westminster and are not getting paid for it.”
