Just who is a taxpayer?

The election of officers at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Point Roberts Taxpayers’ Association (PRTA) exposed a conflict that could invalidate some of the association’s memberships.

The October 13 meeting, held virtually, was limited to association business and member concerns, not the social event it had been before the Covid-19 pabdemic: no cash bar, no appetizers, no keynote speaker. “It looks like next year could be pretty much back to normal so fingers crossed, we can have a more interesting AGM,” said association chair Mark Robbins.

Three of the regular directors up for election expressed interest in serving another term, as did three of the four alternates. Barbara Bradstock nominated Annelle Norman, who represents the association on the Point Roberts Community Advisory Committee, for the fourth alternate position, but Jana Walker opposed the nomination because the association’s articles of incorporation require members to be property owners and Norman is not.

The articles of incorporation, which have been the same since March, 1970 when the group was incorporated as the Point Roberts Community Association, limit membership to “registered owners of real property located at Point Roberts and members of their immediate family who are of legal age.”

“Technically, she’s right,” acknowledged Robbins. “However, we have for a long time considered all property owners and all full-time renters who pay property tax indirectly through their rent to be
taxpayers.”

The association’s bylaws reflect that policy. At the annual general meeting of the association on June 13, 2009 members voted to amend their bylaws to accommodate all full time residents as follows: “membership in the association shall be limited to those persons in whose name title is registered to property at Point Roberts, and members of their family who are of legal age, and to full-time residents whose primary legal domicile is located in Point Roberts.”

“I don’t really want to take that kind of narrow constructionist approach but we have to go the way the articles are written and we can’t change them on the spot,” Robbins said, nominating Elizabeth Mason as an alternate, who was elected with no objections.

Robbins said he had been aware of the conflict since 2019. “It was my intention to bring a motion to the 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM) for approval to amend the articles to make them consistent with the more up-to-date wishes of the membership as reflected in the revised bylaws,” he said.

“However, because we held only a virtual AGM in 2020 and again in 2021 I put that on hold pending an in-person AGM with greater participation. I now wish I had just pushed the changes through the small group of members that met virtually in 2020,” he added.

The new board will meet again virtually on December 1, 2021 and Robbins will consider proposing a special membership meeting to be held virtually so the matter doesn’t wait until the next AGM in summer 2022.

“All I can say is that over many years we have crafted and acted in accordance with bylaws that reflect our wish to be inclusive – as our motto reads “United States and Canadian Citizens Working Together for Point Roberts, WA.”