by Philip Round, Comox Valley Echo
Published: Friday, May 27, 2011

Spiraling legal fees are causing a massive headache for Union Bay Improvement District.

Rumours swirling around the community suggested they had topped the $100,000 mark.

But on Wednesday evening, the new chair of UBID's trustees, Carol Molstad, revealed they could end up closer to $250,000 by the end of the year.

And in a community where the tax base consists of only about 650 landowners, that is a huge burden - an average of almost $400 per property if none of the money is recovered.

The issues stem mainly from ongoing court actions around comments about UBID and some trustees and individuals made by a local resident, Mary Reynolds.

The issue was a hot one in the recent elections for two trustee positions, with two incumbents being defeated by Molstad and Anne Alcock at a packed standing-room-only annual meeting.

The vote resulted in four of the five trustees being supported by the local pressure group TAG - Taxpayers for Accountable Governance.

They took control of the board, and soon after UBID administrator Brenda Fisher was off work on medical leave.

Molstad told Wednesday's meeting that within days of the election, the new board met in camera twice to deal with legal and personnel issues.

One of its first decisions was to transfer the handling of a Supreme Court case from one set of lawyers to the regular practice UBID uses for its day-to-day work - Staples, McDannold and Stewart of Victoria.

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