Campaign Friend and Insides Selected for Unadvertised Committee Posts - Consultant Hired Without Council Approval

Today's Langley Times published this article on Mayor Rick Green's new finance committee. You will note that Mayor Green ran on a platform of open and accountable government, while engaging the public for input. This new advisory committee has already met last Wednesday with Mayor Green.

Unlike all other TOL committee appointments in the past, this one was never advertised on the Township Page in local newspapers nor the Township's website. Traditionally formal written applications are received from members of the general public that show an interest in serving a two year term on the various committees and commissions. These applicants are then screened by staff and undergo an interview with mayor and members of council before any final selection is made. In December of 2008 e-mails were sent to those Township residents serving on current committees advising them that the list of committees was being reviewed and changes could be made. Also prior to that e-mail message, the Township advertised on the Township Page in local newspapers for various committee and commission appointments. Those applicants have not been contacted by the Township since the process was placed on hold in late 2008.

A review of the list of finance advisory members (and as reported in the Langley Times), includes Rick Green a close campaign friend and insiders. Although these committee members may hold some professional qualifications such as lawyer or accountant, the normal open and accountable committee selection process was scrapped and a committee appears to have already been appointed. You will note in our previous post today that the terms of reference for this advisory committee will not be officially reviwed by council until the Monday, January 12, 2009 council meeting. Yet Mayor Green has seen fit to already appoint and meet with this committee ahead of any council discussion and without any public consultation or advertising for qualified potential candidates.

A Langley Record Editorial Board member had been awaiting advertising for this finance advisory committee. This person has 29 years of experience as a chartered accountant and has served in senior executive finance positions for several Canadian and US public companies.

Green said the Township is currently compiling an inventory of municipal-owned lands, and Bruce Maitland, a former director of real estate services for the City of Vancouver, will be working as a consultant to the Township to recommend ways the property can alleviate the tax burden here.

Maitland, Green said, will make a presentation to the advisory committee, and to council, on the workings of a property trust fund in the next three or four weeks.

What is even more disturbing to this Editorial Board and should raise the eyebrows of each and every Township taxpayer is that Mayor Green tells us at the end of this article that Mr. Bruce Maitland will be working as a consultant for the Township. You will recall that Mayor Green mentioned this consultant's name numerous times during his campaign and had also e-mailed some TOL residents with a reference letter from Mr. Maitland on behalf of then mayoral candidate Rick Green.

Apparently Mr. Maitland has been hired using taxpaer's money and without any consultation or approval of Township Council. Another insider hired directly by the mayor without any council process or arm's distance from the consulting engagement process. Does this sound like open and accoutable government to you?

Monday TOL Council Meetings For January 12, 2009

Agenda for Special Council Meeting here (4:00pm)

Agenda for Regular Council Meeting here (7:00pm)

This week's Council Reports/Agenda Item Background info:

1. 2009 Council Standing Committees - Terms of Reference

2. Rezoning Application # 1

3. Rezoning Application and Provincial ALR Application # 2

Fluff

The Editorial Board is sitting here around the coffee table pondering Councillor Kim Richter's inaugural speech. On it's own, Kim's comments on each councillor and their strengths was very good and positive. Afterward several people asked me what I thought of her speech. I said that although I did not want to be pessimistic, I had my doubts of the sincerity of her address. There was a large crowd there that night, including politicians from other areas. It was an opportunity to look good and appear to be the peacemaker.

Public hearings, delegations, inaugural meetings, etc. will always see passionate Richter rhetoric and lots of motions to pander to the masses. Why bother? Before the very first (business) council meeting there was a council priorities meeting and shortly thereafter, even Mayor Green was thrown under the bus by Councillor Richter.

In our opinion, Richter has a long way to go to earn the trust and respect of her fellow council. The trust issue is even greater than the respect portion. We chatted this morning about what council would look like if:

• Mayor Green released a reasonable and detailed plan that outlines how he will deliver on his promises, finance the Township for 0-0-0, and still maintain a decent level of service to the taxpayers.

• Councillor Richter worked on the trust issues and became more cooperative. And no, we are not asking her to throw away what she professes to believe in, nor give up asking questions of costs and accountability.

• Mayor Green did as former mayor Kurt Alberts and tried to bring all council members together for a concensus, while not relying on private meetings, positioning, and strategies for his own benefit.

We could all do without the fluff. Flowery, meaningless speeches will get us nowhere. The PM is talking about "years" of economic concern and hardship for the country. Our experience tells us that these are generally 5 year cycles and who knows with this big crisis how long before a recovery is at hand.

By putting away personal agenda, pride and a constant need to align one self for next election, Mayor Green and this council could actually accomplish many things for the benefit of the Township taxpayer.

In The News - Bateman Addresses Raging Bull - Bull Responds With Smear Campaign

Township Councillor Jordan Bateman's letter to the editor of The Langley Advance provides a rational reply to comments made in the same newspaper earlier this week by Mayor Raging Bull, as part of his ongoing bullying of certain council members that he and his slate feel threatened by.

"Indeed, the lack of federal funding is disappointing, but council decided to move forward, because the majority of the funds were sourced outside of the Township, and taxpayers were protected from cost overruns by a fixed-price, design-build agreement.

Further, council has fully disclosed all information related to the budget, construction, and the partners involved in the project."

- TOL Councillor Jordan Bateman

The immediate reaction from the Raging Bull fan club was this assault on Bateman in typical fashion for this slate. Of course this letter contains baseless accusations that Bateman is inexperienced, when in fact Councillor Bateman enjoys the strong respect of senior politicians and veteran ministers, one of which Mayor Raging Bull tried to create a fallacy of endorsement from by crashing this minister's BBQ uninvited this past summer. We have it on good sources that this slate greatly resents the respect that Bateman enjoys from seasoned and popular politicians, and they are seen attacking him often for it. The Bull's latest attack is yet another MAJOR sign of a mayor running scared. Maybe you can term it a "running of the bulls"? When the running of the bulls is in full swing, the thought process of the bulls simply switch off and they do some wild and unpredictable things. Some term their behaviour as "madness".

Of course Bateman is singled out and the rest of council (including Kim Richter) are all ignored. We are certain this letter writer and Mayor Raging Bull are keenly aware of these election results from the November 15, 2008 election, but we will remind them that the "mandate" is very clear.

BATEMAN, Jordan - 9273 votes
FOX, Charlie - 7956 votes
RICHTER, Kim - 7906
GREEN, Rick - 7842

One will note that BATEMAN, FOX and RICHTER all received more votes than the mayor. Mayor Raging Bull and his slate are now VERY scared of Bateman and it shows in their letters and blog posts. The opposition is coming together very strongly, and in good numbers. Smart people are seeing the game and lack of detailed public plans from this slate. They are coming on board to voice their opposition in ways that one particular councillor has never seen. One of our Editorial Board members overhead her being dressed down by a significant community leader, despite her attemtps to pander to him.

These Raging Bull tactics will only backfire on the Bull and his slate. In fact, it has already started. People don't take kindly to bullies these days. Times have changed old man. Better update the photo so the people can see the real you.

So Where Is Our Advocate Mayor Rick Green

We keep presenting facts here from statements and articles and people keep accusing us of attacking Mayor Rick Green or Councillor Kim Richter. So this time we will show the various sources and quote them word for word without our commentary and then allow the reader to draw their own conclusions. Rick Green promised to be there for us to fight on our behalf. That includes "intense farming" and going after the provincial government for the Right to Farm legislation, the federal government over heavy train traffic and money for the Langley Events Centre.

It now appears that Mayor Green has performed another of his now famous flip-flops. See for yourself.

Mayor Rick Green's Inaugural Address INAUGURAL ADDRESS by Mayor William R. (Rick) Green Township of Langley - December 1, 2008

"The citizens have voted, it is now time to put that behind us, and get down to work for the benefit of the taxpayer, and I truly believe all of us at this table are committed to deliver just that."

"I want to make it very clear that we will continue to work closely with our senior levels of government. It is my intent to establish regular meetings with all three of our representatives Mr. Mark Warawa, our Federal MP, the Honourable Rich Coleman, MLA for Fort Langley-Aldergrove, and with the Honourable Mary Polak, MLA for Langley. These meetings will ensure that our lines of communication are open at all times."

"It has always been my belief that our relationship with our senior levels of government must be solid, open, and cooperative, however, it must also be stated that we will ensure the needs of Township citizens and their interests come first. That applies to quality of life, family, transportation, agriculture, environment, as well as health issues among others."

"You have our commitment that we will carry your wishes with us in our deliberations and discussions with the province, the federal government, and at the Region Board table. We will negotiate and fight on your behalf."

Langley Advance - Tuesday, January 6, 2008 Letter From Mayor Rick Green

"The failure of federal funding to materialize is significant to the Township taxpayer. While there is a significant record of communication between the Township and the federal government, I cannot find an official application for funding. One would have to agree, it would take more than a few letters to MPs and cabinet ministers to support an application for $5 million, even from the federal government."

So did Mayor Green meet with MP Warawa to "negotiate and fight on our behalf"? Councillor Jordan Bateman put up a good fight and also provided documentation to refute the MP. What about Green?

Raging Bull At It Again

Township Alert - The bully is back in his playground...

As we previously reported here, Al Irwin of the Langley Times published an opinion that impacted Mayor Green and Councillor Richter. You cannot access the link to Mr. Irwin's article because it has bee removed and replaced with this pro-Green/Richter article by Frank Bucholtz, Editor of the Langley Times and a supporter of Mayor Green. Rather than speculate whether Green called his editor-in-pocket or not, we will leave the readers to draw their own conclusions and understand that the work of a bully is evident once again.

The second evidence of bully-work appears here in a letter from Mayor Green to the Langley Advance. While it would have been totally appropriate for the mayor to offer his view on the Events Centre, and to address an article written by an Advance reporter, these comments about Councillor Bateman's age should cause TOL residents some serious concern. They are seriously inappropriate for a mayor, and further prove a total lack of diplomacy and a spirit of cooperation. Diplomacy is a requirement for the job of mayor, and it is not evident here in the TOL thus far. We can only hope it will change.

"Councillor Jordan Bateman has said that I just don't understand the process. For the record, I have spent many more years than his age being very involved in successfully managing and owning business of significant size."

--Mayor Rick Green

Age really has nothing to do with it and in fact, being long in the tooth can at times stifle progress. We will reserve further comment as the evidence speaks for itself. Councillor Bateman's comments were respectful and accomodating to Mayor Green. Additionally, this all serves as a smokescreen so that Green can avoid releasing detailed information on how he intends to finance the Township over the next 3 years in order to avoid property tax increases. But read this..

"The $5 million shortfall in federal funding equates to an eight per cent tax increase, if it was to be paid for through property tax rolls. That won't be the case, but it shows the impact of this type of decision."

--Mayor Rick Green

The $5M for the Events Centre was not coming from a proerty tax increase, it is coming from a reserve fund for these purposes. So why is the mayor appearing to twist facts here?

When will Raging Bull get some emotional control and professionalism? Lack of plans and focus, not on speaking terms with councillors, holding grudges from the campaign, attacking their age and credibility, etc. etc. etc. If age amounts to a hill of beans in the big scheme of things, then perhaps it is high time for the good mayor to start acting his. Raging Bull is at it again. Stand clear.

Al Irwin - Keeping It In The Public Domain

The Langley Times may have censored veteran reporter Al Irwin by removing his excellent Opinion piece, so let's re-post it here to keep it in the public domain and accessible to the public.

From The Langley Times - Dated January 3, 2009.

2009 promises to be an interesting year in local Township politics. With the arrival of Mayor Rick Green, Councillor Kim Richter now has one member on council who sees at least some things her way. Both are outspoken in opposition to Kurt Alberts, who, time will tell, was one of the best mayors the Township has had.

Green, in his campaign, adopted many issues championed by Richter, most notably property tax increases, increases primarily necessitated to cover increasing wages (wages are 61 per cent of the operating budget) and new, full-time fire fighting staff, which Richter also championed, and which Green has promised to continue to implement. As one correspondent to Richter's own website noted, that's like ordering from the menu, and refusing to pay the bill. Richter and Green also take issue with airport lease rates, though Richter voted against lease hikes in 2001.

Green's concerns aren't restricted to taxes, and in his election campaign he condemned poor management of major projects, the water management plan, property deals (and there were some very astute ones for the Township's future), fiscal responsibility, commuter rail and the Robert's Bank heavy rail corridor.

Lengthy freight-train traffic through Langley Township is not likely to disappear anytime soon, and if the recent kerfuffle over the Langley Events Centre illustrates anything, it is how hard it is to get funds from the federal government.

Yet extensive work over the past four years by the previous council has secured funding of some $51 million from various partners including Ottawa, for a rail-overpass solution to the safety concerns (particularly for emergency vehicles) at the Mufford/Glover intersection.

That overpass, and its funding, could be in jeopardy since Green and some of his supporters are questioning the route through the ALR lands of Milner. However, the majority on council, those Green refers to in his campaign literature as "the silent slate" (a nod to Richter's website) and Richter chides on her website as the "good old boys," were all returned in the election. These councillors would dispute that they comprise a slate. And when you consider that one of them, Grant Ward, originally ran (unsuccessfully) on the same slate as Richter, the Langley Citizen's Coalition, and another, Jordan Bateman, also first ran unsuccessfully, on the Coalition's arch-foe and raison d'etre, the Langley Leadership Team, and Mel Kositsky served with aplomb and dignity as an independent throughout the Langley Leadership era, the "silent slate" label is at best spurious.

However, as Richter so plaintively pointed out in her inaugural speech, no one on council should be ostracized, though reliable sources say Richter herself has not spoken to some council members, including her one-time Citizens Coalition running mate, Ward, for several years, and her incessant barrage of website vitriol against the "good old boys" may have fostered more enmity than amity.

--Al Irwin

Langley Relay for Life Raises $460.000 in 2008

Thanks to the hard work for former Township Councillor Howie Vickberg and his dedicated volunteers, The Langley Relay for Life raised $460K for cancer research and treatment in 2008 and they plan to up the goal in 2009. The Langley Advance has been re-posting events of 2008 and this was one of them.

Our Editorial Board already misses seeing Howie at the council table. Howie Vickberg is always positive, respectful and community minded. His love for Langley is evident in all that he does and you've got to like a councillor that can even so a decent job of singing!

More than $460K in 2009? Go get 'em Howie and crew!

The Langley Times Confirms The Green-Richter Slate

Thank God for honest men that will call a spade a spade. Veteran journalist and long-time TOL Council reporter Al Irwin published some POWERFUL words of wisdom here in Saturday's Langley Times. A newspaper by the way who's editor firmly supports Mayor Rick Green. Listen to this from a man who sits in council week after week watching, listening and is privy to the inside scoop...

"With the arrival of Mayor Rick Green, Councillor Kim Richter now has one member on council who sees at least some things her way. Both are outspoken in opposition to Kurt Alberts, who, time will tell, was one of the best mayors the Township has had."

LR Editor - That's right Mr. Irwin, because these two are very much birds of a feather and they ran a slate together. But this slate, with constant self-professions of immense business accumen have yet to greatly detail what they will do differently than that of former Mayor Kurt Alberts and his council.

"Yet extensive work over the past four years by the previous council has secured funding of some $51 million from various partners including Ottawa, for a rail-overpass solution to the safety concerns (particularly for emergency vehicles) at the Mufford/Glover intersection."

"That overpass, and its funding, could be in jeopardy since Green and some of his supporters are questioning the route through the ALR lands of Milner. However, the majority on council, those Green refers to in his campaign literature as “the silent slate” (a nod to Richter’s website) and Richter chides on her website as the “good old boys,” were all returned in the election. These councillors would dispute that they comprise a slate. And when you consider that one of them, Grant Ward, originally ran (unsuccessfully) on the same slate as Richter, the Langley Citizen’s Coalition, and another, Jordan Bateman, also first ran unsuccessfully, on the Coalition’s arch-foe and raison d’etre, the Langley Leadership Team, and Mel Kositsky served with aplomb and dignity as an independent throughout the Langley Leadership era, the “silent slate” label is at best spurious."

LR Editor - Right again Mr. Irwin. For the sake of some staunch Rick Green supporters this Township may lose a whole lot of money and this very important infrastructure. All in the name of helping some good old friends of Mayor Rick Green. The good mayor pointed his finger at former Mayor Alberts and a dynamic council team. Accusing them of doing something that he (Green) and Richter did themselves, and that was to run a slate. Alberts published no newspaper ads in 2008 that indicated he had any slate. He did run ordinary people picture ads of those that supported him. It was Richter's website that encouraged people to "plum the ballot" and then provided a listing of the slate on election day.

"Green, in his campaign, adopted many issues championed by Richter, most notably property tax increases, increases primarily necessitated to cover increasing wages (wages are 61 per cent of the operating budget) and new, full-time fire fighting staff, which Richter also championed, and which Green has promised to continue to implement. As one correspondent to Richter’s own website noted, that’s like ordering from the menu, and refusing to pay the bill. Richter and Green also take issue with airport lease rates, though Richter voted against lease hikes in 2001."

LR Editor - We totalled 87% of the budget for wages based on the Council Priorities meeting notes and collective agreements. Councillor Richter has ordered from the TOL menu many times before without paying the bill so to speak.

You will recall during the 2008 debates Richter said (over and over again), "Ribbon-cutting ceremonies cost the taxpayers money". But the good councillor went on to attend many ribbon cuttings, (at least long enough to get up front and be part of the photo op). Take Jackman Park in Aldergrove as a perfect example. Once the photographer snapped the picture, Councillor Richter was seen making a quick V-line to her chariot. No doubt the permanent smile will be front and centre for the Langley Events Centre ribbon-cutting.

"However, as Richter so plaintively pointed out in her inaugural speech, no one on council should be ostracized, though reliable sources say Richter herself has not spoken to some council members, including her one-time Citizens Coalition running mate, Ward, for several years, and her incessant barrage of website vitriol against the “good old boys” may have fostered more enmity than amity."

LR Editor - We also have it on very good sources that the Green side of the Green-Richter not-so-silent slate is also not on speaking terms with Councillor Grant Ward, and communication with other council members and some staff are strained at best with Mayor Green at his making. How does one be accountable to the taxpayers when this slate is busy holding grudges against other council members and even some of the electorate that opposed them? This is extremly childish and is certain not to go unoticed by the electorate, and The Langley Record will make certain of that.

We find it very interesting that we had been doing our research for days to confirm facts for our Saturday post and had no knowledge of Al Irwin's article and that it would be published the same day. It just goes to show you that this slate is VERY obvious to those who watch and listen. We can't speak more highly of Al Irwin's knowledgeable and astute observations. The man certainly has brains and guts and is a fine journalist in our community. Great work Mr. Irwin!