WHITE ROCK - Despite the City of White Rock officially declaring La Conner, WA its sister city in 2013, there is no policy on the books on what exactly that entails.
Council hopes to rectify that and has asked city staff to draft an official policy on defining the relationships of "sister cities."
According to city manager Dan Bottrill, "White Rock should have some bylaws and policies to help with direction in terms of evaluating not just this relationship, but any considerations for other sister city relationships."
La Conner recognizes White Rock as its sister city on signs throughout, and the question is whether or not White Rock should follow suit. "That's what we need to look at, what has the appropriate recognition," said Bottrill.
At the time of declaring La Conner a sister city, the act was described as a partnership between two municipalities that would encourage visitors and guests to visit the other, and "support mutually beneficial exchanges in the areas of culture, arts, science, history, education, business and economic development."
La Conner is one of three White Rock sister cities. Imperial Beach, Calif. and St. Andrews, N.B. are the other two. Surrey has two sister cities - Koto, Japan and Zhuhai, China - while Delta has one sister city partnership established with Mangalore, India.