Merritt councillor Shelley Sanders recently found herself the sole supporter of a $7,000 agreement with Gold Country even though city staff negotiated the deal per council criteria.

Council defeated the proposed 2011 membership agreement between the City of Merritt and Gold Country Communities Society, a marketing and tourism outfit based in Cache Creek, at its July 12 meeting. The agreement stated that the city would pay a membership fee of $7,000 to Gold Country, for 2011.

Couns. Dave Baker, Mike Goetz, and Harry Kroeker voted against the agreement. Couns. Nadia Clarke and Alastair Murdoch were absent from the meeting.

With the only hand raised in favour of the deal, Sanders gasped audibly on voting. She then expressed surprise that council defeated the motion.

"I was kind of blindsided by the negativity at the table. We already discussed it at budget and agreed to it."

Gold Country is a non-profit tourism organization promoting communities in the southern B.C. Interior, mainly towns in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District historically associated with gold mining.

In the past, all member communities paid a flat membership fee of $3,000. However, Gold Country and most members used a population-based funding formula to determine their membership fees for 2011. Under that formula, the City of Merritt would have paid about $17,000.

At the July 12 meeting, Sanders said that during budget discussions, council had directed city staff to negotiate a separate funding agreement with Gold Country up to a ceiling of $8,000. Mayor Susan Roline confirmed that was the case.

Merritt chief administrative officer Matt Noble added that Gold Country negotiated in good faith and expects the city to honour the deal.

Kroeker said that he had expressed his opposition to the deal at the budget meetings and suggested Goetz had done the same.

"We're not changing our mind on this type of thing."

Goetz said July 12, "If we're going to do any tourism endorsement, I think it should be in our own community."

Baker asked, "Where's the fairness in promotion?"

He said the different funding agreements among Gold Country members could result in differing levels of promotion.

Sanders gave notice of motion that she intended to bring the agreement before council again with background information on the deal.

"I would rather this wait until council gets the backup documents."