Some really silly games going on in Sooke, as two councillors stepped out of the most important vote a council does every year – approving a five-year financial plan.

The Sooke News Mirror reports that councillors Kerrie Reay and Bev Berger declared conflicts and left the council chambers before debating the Sooke budget.

Berger left because her husband is a volunteer firefighter. Volunteer, of course, means “unpaid,” so one wonders where the direct financial interest is there. Even if Mr. Berger is a paid-call firefighter (or heck, a full-time paid one), Coun. Berger can still vote under B.C. law – the five-year financial plan is so broad and all-encompassing that no conflict could be reasonably perceived.

As for Coun. Reay, she cited her work on the board of CREST – the Capital Region’s 911 service – as her reason for conflict. Again, ridiculous: that board has several councillors and an area mayor serving on it, and there’s no conflict. Virtually every councillor in B.C. has other appointments. If they all stepped out, no budget would ever be passed. Any CREST funding is a tiny piece of the Sooke budget, and certainly Reay has no financial interest in the 911 organization.

Sooke Mayor Wendal Milne called the councillors’ actions “a stupid mess,” and he’s bang-on.

Quit playing politics, councillors, and DO YOUR JOBS.

If you can’t vote on the most important document a council is responsible for, why serve in office? One would hope Reay and Berger smarten up, or at the very least announce they will not be seeking re-election this November, given their “conflicts.”