The Scoop on Municipal Meetings

The Editorial Board of the Langley Record has now called and visited with a large core group of mayors, former mayors and some municipal lawyers to get the scoop for you on meetings. This was sparked by the Green & Richter slate's attempt to shut the public and two councillors out of a meeting that was originally schedule to be at the mayor's private residence and was switched to the Township Facility after an e-mail error.

The core group of elected officials, former elected officials and lawyers with much experience say that although "workshops" are rare for a committee, most municipalities allow for public observers. The normally vote in open meetings to go into a closed meeting ONLY when legal/litigation, land or labour issues are involved and they admit they never discuss such sensitive issues with non-sworn members of the public for obvious reasons. Most of the core group listened to the recording presented here on Saturday and all commented that the mayor switched from "private committee meeting", to "workshop of the committee", and back to meeting when Green adjourned "the meeting".

The core group all said without exception or coaching that rookie Mayor Rick Green does not understand process and was not very politically wise. A few admit that early on in their terms they mistakenly called some closed meetings. One former mayor admitted that a particular councillor had leaked in camera information to the media about a meeting with staff in one instance. The reaction? That mayor simply called for that meeting to move to a larger room and declared an open meeting with an appology. There was no intent to shut the public out this mayor admits.

This brings us to the two keys that caused a major failure this past Saturday. The first failure was caused by the intent of the slate to hold a closed meeting. Had an email not mistakenly been copied to Councillor Steve Ferguson, the slate would have been successful with a closed meeting on the mayor's private property. That was the original intent and the slate can deny all they wish,and threaten all they want on their blog. It is all but a smokescreen. They have been caught red-handed, plain and simple and they had better hope that Councillor Ferguson doesn't go public with the shameful documents that clearly prove the intent. No notice to the clerk two weeks prior, no notes on the mayor's calendar, no vote in public to bring the meeting in camera and no public notice of specifics why the meeting needed to be closed. All required by Bylaws or the Community Charter.

The second failure was a total lack of political wisdom. Mayor Green should have fessed up to the fiasco and called for the meeting to move over to the presentation theater with the public and the press present. All of the well-qualified people we spoke with said this was very poor political wisdom on the part of Mayor Green, and all agreed they would not have handled this meeting in that manner.

What is so secret that the Green-Richter slate must keep so hush, hush? An overwhelming consensus of the politically-savvy we spoke with all agree that Mayor Green will have to raise property taxes or plunder Township reserves. He will do so under the guise of a downturn in the economy. If this is attempted by the Green-Richter slate, the public better really research the facts, because this is FAR from the truth. The Township operated in a lean manner, there was no fraud or waste and there were more than adequate reserves left for this mayor and his slate. The slate had access to all kinds of information prior to and during the campaign, yet they hyped a zero-based budget to win the election.

We hear that the slate will take the previously schedule Tuesday public meeting of the Finance Committee for February 24th and bring this meeting in camera. Again, what is being discussed that is so secret?

If you have trouble with this meeting situation and agree that meetings should not be held in secret, then call Councillor Richter and Mayor Green and let them know that you don't appreciate secret meetings in OUR Township.

You can also e-mail them manually at: mayorandcouncil@tol.bc.ca
Sorry, but sometimes Blogger does not do what you want it to, like open e-mail links!

Address Mayor Green and Councillor Richter in your opening. But using this address will also allow the other councillors to see you message to these two slate members. Don't take excuses from them and don't allow them to intimidate you. After The Langley Advance photo was taken Mayor Green moved even closer to Councillor Ferguson in a typical Green attempt to intimidate the councillor. Don't let him bully you!