Tiny town runs up huge bill suing a taxpayer who blogs with sarcasm on political decisions

By Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun May 5, 2011

Union Bay Improvement District on Vancouver Island, which serves a population of about 1,000, reported an operating surplus of $211,300 in 2010.

But over the last six months, the tiny improvement district -median after-tax income in the 2006 census was $21,392 -has run up legal bills of $118,000 suing a gadfly taxpayer, who expressed sarcastic, satirical and sometimes harsh opinions on a local blog, for defamation.

Items for which the blogger is being sued by eight board members, former board members and administrative staff include:

. A caricature that portrayed the board's chairman as Barney Fife, the bumbling deputy sheriff in the sleepy southern town of Mayberry, from the early 1960s television comedy The Andy Griffith Show.

. Comments about whether the romantic relationship between a trustee on the improvement district board and an executive from a development company (the couple eventually wed) that was negotiating with the district created a conflict of interest.

. Accusations that board members put themselves in an apparent conflict of interest by publicly supporting a developer's plans while serving on the board that was negotiating arrangements essential to the developer obtaining zoning approval.

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