City of Vernon officials have been going on and on for weeks that the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee is broken and needs to be scrapped.

But when it actually came time for those same officials to present their case to the North Okanagan Regional District, they didn’t utter a word. Instead, they sat on their hands, except for when they actually voted to receive and file the city’s formal request, which is essentially the bureaucratic burial ground.

When asked about this approach, director Jack Gilroy stated, “You have to pick your battles.” But wasn’t this the city’s battle? Wasn’t it Vernon who claimed GVAC was redundant and formally protested to NORD? If not now, when?

Director Wayne Lippert says any discussion Wednesday would have been irrelevant because the regional district is already reviewing governance structure and the city’s request only reconfirmed a position that council has had for some time.

“There was no need to talk about it again,” he said.

But there was a need to talk about it again because GVAC plays a role in water and parks and recreation, two costly functions that significantly impact the lives of Greater Vernon residents. How the committee functions, or doesn’t function, has implications for the provision of service.

And by not standing up for themselves, city officials have sent the message to their partners that any demands for eliminating GVAC are hollow. Why should the rest of them care, if Vernon doesn’t?

Vernon had an opportunity to move the issue ahead, but instead it came off looking like the little boy who cried wolf.