The Langley Record: 2/15/09

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Public Shut Out of Meeting - Mayor Declares Meeting Adjourned

*** BREAKING NEWS ***

*** Update II *** Langley Advance article and picture here.

*** Update III *** Hear the action - Audio File

24 Members of the Township public and two members of the press were denied access to the Finance Committee meeting by Mayor Green. A meeting that should have been an advertised public meeting from the start.

Mayor Rick Green declared a meeting of his Standing Finance Committee today to be adjourned after Councillor Ferguson and Ward presented evidence that the meeting violated Township Bylaw, Community Charter and the Terms of Reference for this committee. The mayor had words with the two councillors before storming out of the meeting.

Twenty Township Fire Fighters, three civilians, a Langley Advance reported, a photographer and Councillor Ward had hoped to find an open meeting, despite the various Bylaws and procedures being ignored when the Green Richter slate established this meeting. While Councillor Richter was not present and had advised members she would be late to this meeting, informed sources report that Richter was instrumental in the establishment of this meeting and its agenda.

At NO time were civilian members of the Standing Finance Committee attacked or spoken to during this attempt at open meeting access that is reflective in a transparent government. The electorate will recall that Green's slate ran on an openess, accountability and transparency platform and accused former mayor Kurt Alberts of running the Township with a "top down management style". Who is the real top down manager?

*** Update IV ***

Councillor Grant Ward was in the committee room today and files this report...

Guest Column By Councillor Grant Ward

Further to Matthew Claxton's Langley Advance article, I have the following comments

Today Mayor Rick Green attempted to hold a secret and a closed Standing Committee of Finance meeting, contrary to the Rules of Procedures Bylaw 3694, the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the General Council Standing Committees Policy (that mayor and council endorsed a month ago, and the Community Charter Section 90 to 92.

The Terms of Reference allows for the public and council members (TOR para. 2.2) the ability to attend all such meetings as observers only and 'the committee must conduct their business in accordance with the authority approved to them and the terms therein.

'Under TOR 13.3, ' All changes to meeting dates, times, location must be reported to the Township Clerk a minimum of two weeks prior to the effective date so the necessarey notifications can be issued.'

The TOR 14.1 states "All meetings are open to the public, unless excluded in accordance with Section 90 of the Community Charter" (basically items of Land, Labour or Litigation). If these items were to be discussed, would the entire meeting be required to be in camera? Also, The Community Charter requires in camera meetings to be approved by resolution by council in a public meeting, just as we do with our weekly special closed meetings of council.

There is no reference to any so-called legal 'closed workshop' styled meetings. This meeting, although stated to be a 'workshop meeting', is nontheless 'a meeting' that the public is entitled to attend, especially any elected official. Further, the two civilian members of this committee are not sworn public officials and therefore would have no cause to discuss privileged information (land, labour or litigation) with Mayor Green, as they should not be privy to such things. This meeting being called on short notice (this week) and was likely designed to leave the rest of council without any 'preemptive assessment' of what was to be forthcoming from this committee, for whatever reason deemed by the mayor.

Mayor Green's statement about today's occurrence, 'that it's about Rick Green. It'ss about fighting the last election', is purely a red herring. He erred with this hasty call to meeting and he knows it was a mistake. Conversely, he could have stood his ground (based on his statements) and carried on with his meeting, had he been on solid legal ground in his mind. In summary, this is all about doing the right thing within bounds of accepted protocols, principles and policy. The mayor is not above the rules, policies or Bylaws. That is NOT open and transparent. The public has the right to attend municipal meetings, and most especially when our decisions impact their daily lives in any significant way such as taxation.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Vancouver Wises Up - Langley Township Gets Dumb?

In the City of Vancouver, councillors are wising up to the fact that it may not be good for the city to be in the real estate business. Fortress Investments is not going to restructure the loan on the Olympic Village and the city will now assume the full burden of that loan, in the hope that these condominiums will product a healthy profit after the Olympics. It has also been reported that what was to be one of Vancouver's largest social housing program will be cut, as the City of Vancouver does not have the funds available to finance all that.

Frances Bula reports on a council discussion with staff here.

"But as you can read in the last line of Rod’s story, the city’s manager of business planning, Ken Bayne, made the fatal error of saying the following about the city’s use of $400 million of its current working capital reserves as a loan for the Fortress project:

“In fact, it may actually benefit our operating budget, because of a higher return than we normally get on our investment projects.”

Councillor Kerry Jang rose to reprimand him. “That’s a pretty dangerous point,” he said. “We have to make sure we are not into real-estate speculation. I don’t think we as a city are into real-estate speculation.”

Ken then had to apologize, I’m sorry if I appeared to be making light of the situation blah blah blah. Very squirm inducing."

Our very own Township of Langley real estate consultant Mr. Bruce Maitland is also mentioned on this Frances Bula blog:

"As former real-estate division head Bruce Maitland (now retired) told me recently, that was the policy the division pursued as a way of continuing to grow the city’s assets. The city didn’t want to get into development itself. But by acquiring strategic pieces of land and then doing the preparatory rezoning work itself, it got to capture some of the profits as the land gained in value. Now other cities are seeking his advice on setting up property endowment funds so they can do the same thing."

As you may know, Bruce Maitland just delivered a presentation on a Vancouver-style Property Endowment Fund (PEF) to a joint meeting of Township Council of Priorities and Standing Finance Committee meeting just last week. After this same meeting, Councillor Kim Richter was overheard saying to Standing Finance Committee member Ken Baker, "Do you see the mentality of this council?" This after several council members asked Maitland some very direct questions pertaining to the operation of such a PEF in the ToL in a market such as the one we find ourselves in. Council members also expressed concerns that upzoning might work in Vancouver, but would be certain to outrage Township residents.

"Do you see the mentality of this council?"

-- Councillor Kim Richter

We see other municipalities taking a very cautious approach to creative funding like PEF's, and the City of Vancouver having to eat a major loan with $319.5M in City of Vancouver money now going into this project. One has to wonder why the Green-Richter slate is ramming this PEF down the throats of Township taxpayers and council. Maybe its because there was no signs of fraud or waste discovered by the Standing Finance Committee? Maybe its because the Standing Finance Committee has discovered that in order to have a zero-based budget for 2009 they will have to steal from reserves and cut services in a municipality that already has one of the lowest tax rates and service levels that are adequate, but not over the top? Maybe its because maintaining the status quo (keep things as they are), they will have a shortfall of $1,675,745 in 2009 that will balloon to an $8,681,599 shortfall in 2011 that will then require a 15% increase in ToL Property Taxes to resolve, unless major cuts are made now. Bruce Maitland said that in order for the PEF to work, the municipality must take on risks and invest in servicing lands to be sold to developers. How will we have a zero-based budget, adequate services, and take on risks to make money on lands in a time of serious economic decline? Do you see the mentality of this slate?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Another Shameful Slate Sideshow

************ UPDATED FEB 17, 2009 *************

Tonight's meeting televised to the masses on cable TV was a shameful display of disdain and hatred that the Green/Richter slate have for this current council. Councillor Charlie Fox had received a huge pile (24"/2 feet high - see below) of budget and related materials that the Mayor's Standing Finance Committee had either received or requested from staff as research. With this huge pile of materials and no idea where the committee is going with conclusions and recommendations, Coun. Fox put forth a Motion to get the committee to issue an interium report.

Councillor Richter was the first to take exception to the Fox motion as she accused the councillor of discrediting the three civilian volunteers on this Mayor's Standing Finance Committee. Councillor Fox NEVER attacked any volunteers in his motion or discussions about it. Next, Councillor Steve Ferguson made it clear to mayor and council that this committee had private meetings in the mayor's office (after the official meeting) and never invited him. Mayor Green said he took exception to that comment and suggested that Coun. Ferguson was always invited to every meeting. Ferguson disagreed with the mayor on that point.

Mayor Green also went into a big defence regarding his finance committee and their credentials. Again, there were unsolicited comments because no one attacked the committee's credentials. The Editorial Board was speaking with a well-seasoned investigator who opined that generally guilty people end up defending things that have never been questioned in the first instance. It is a basic rule of structured interview/ interrogation and investigation. Looks like The Slate has been caught red-handed. Secret meetings and a grossly unqualified committee.

It is interesting to note that standard committee volunteers in the Township have always submitted full resumes and have the been interviewed by mayor and council. Members of this Standing Finance Committee are insiders and campaign supporters - individuals hand-picked by Mayor Green himself. No extensive resumes, no interviews, nothing. Our Editorial Board has been doing some research and we have serious questions about the credentials of the majority of Finance Committee members.

To add insult to injury, Mayor Green said for the second time that perhaps the people on this committee have more budget experience than some members of council. What a slap in the face to his fellow council members! How arrogant! The man does not understand that he must work WITH council and not just with his slate. What Once again he was seen huffing and puffing each and every time a council member disagreed with his viewpoint. The body language is very clear with this mayor - he and his insiders know everything and this council is just plain stupid.

The Editorial Board took a telephone poll of a large cross-section of people we know who had been watching the meeting on TV. Our council monitors were also present for the meeting. All agree that the bully was back in the playground and the slate are clearly running damage control BEFORE anyone has struck out against their committee (with questionable qualifications). But it will soon be time to Roll Up The Rim and then we will see how the slate tries to turn this committee's findings into ammunition against the remainder of council. But tonight was nothing short of a slate Gong Show for sure. Meeting process has now been thrown out the window and the sideshow is in full swing. Stay tuned and watch the moves of this slate!

*** FOX MOTION & NOTICE OF MOTION***

Motion #1

Whereas the Mayor’s Standing Finance Committee has now been meeting one day short of 7 weeks, and there 13 weeks left prior to final date for approving this years budget, and for 3 of those weeks Council does not meet, and

Whereas to date Council has received only Notes, Minutes and comments made in the local press without a report or recommendations from the Committee, and

Whereas most, of not all, neighbouring communities have gone to third reading on their budget and in some cases completed the public consultation which we in the Township have yet to formally begin,

Be it resolved that a preliminary report from the finance committee be presented to Council in the afternoon meeting on Monday, March 2nd, and this outline the progress made to date and updates on any recommendations forthcoming to Council for consideration.

Final approval by amendment– Tuesday, March 3rd

Notice of Motion

Whereas Mr. Maitland made a presentation to the joint Finance and Council Priorities Committee meeting on the background and basic tenants of the Property Endowment Fund as it works in the City of Vancouver which is governed by the Vancouver Charter,

Be it resolved that Mr. Maitland be contracted to review the Township Land inventory of non ‘DCC’ lands and prepare a report to Council recommending which lands would be available for re-sale purposes, and

Be it resolved that Mr. Maitland review the Township policies and processes as to land holdings and disposition and recommend amendments to the Township's current bylaws, policies and procedures to make the necessary recommendations to transform the Township's Land Reserve fund to a Township Property Endowment Fund,

And Further, that once the regulatory framework is known, that Staff and Council schedule a workshop to review the recommendations and the Possible Surplus Properties that could be developed in accordance with such a Fund.

THE TOWNSHIP POOP PILE

Councillor Richter used to proport to be the finance & budget watchdog on council. Now it appears that watchdogism has been abandoned with the new Green/Richter Slate and left to The Langley Record.

HOW MUCH STAFF OVERTIME DID ALL THIS WORK COST THE TOL TAXPAYER?

A big thanks to Councillor Charlie Fox for exposing this waste, and providing a photo of the pile of poop to all of the media.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Upcoming Monday ToL Council Meeting

The following meeting Agendas and Reports are provided for reader information and participation at the February 16, 2009 Township of Langley Council Meetings.

Special Meeting - 3:00pm

Previous Minutes