Newsletter: Council Priorities Session – Will real change follow?
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Saturday, 23rd of February, 2019 at Municipal Hall
For the first time in many years the public are being allowed to express their viewpoints on the important issues facing the Community and what they believe should be prioritized. The new Mayor and Council deserve credit for recognizing that there have been several Public Consultation Task Forces and a boatload of unimplemented recommendations. There also have been many (often repeated) requests from residents for more information, more notice and consultation opportunities over the last two Council terms. Additionally, the District has made transparency commitments to the BC Ombudsperson, so the new public input opportunity is a “long-overdue” step in the right direction.
The hope is that the additional resident input will lead to better decision making, This and the fact that three re-elected Council members, Mayor Murdoch and Councillors Braithwaite and Zhelka, in the past consistently voted appropriately in issues that involved the public interest.
The positive indications are:
The not so positive indications are:
www.centralsaanich.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/distrit_of_central_saanich_2019_draft_financial_plan_1.pdf and Oak Bay resident letter Appendix #2.
Oak Bay Watch’s Perspective
Oak Way Watch’s main focus is the public interest as there are many examples that outside-interests are, and have been, well looked after (see example Appendix #3). We are still optimistic there will be improvements if we take into account that freeing up staff-time spent on less urgent activities would be helpful, that some of the above initiatives are easy to correct given the advanced stage of technology, and the expanded IT (Information Technology) staff.
Immediate action must be taken to discontinue the current Planning Department practice of not requiring important public interest documents and/or withholding them from Council, Council Committees and Commissions and residents. Important documents must be compulsory and not discretionary. (see Appendix #3 and oakbaywatch.com, February 16, 2019 Council Report). These documents must be provided not only to ensure a transparent process but to allow Council to make informed decisions.
The District has added well over a million dollars in administration and technical staff in the past two Council terms. Some of the new staffing expenditure was rejected unsuccessfully by the above named re-elected Council members and some were not brought to Council. There was little rationale provided for this expense. These are accumulative costs that increase with each budget and significantly affect our property taxes.
The substantial increase in non-core staffing and year-after-year, over-the-top tax increases have not produced any noticeable improvement in the impacts on the infrastructure deficit or our roads. (e.g. Fact: there have been two more traffic bottlenecks added and a hundred cars or so will soon be added near one of these locations). There are more and more holes in the ground where a modest home once stood and many trees and much green space have disappeared as a result. The short advance-notice practice on development applications is entrenched and, as indicated, important information continues to be withheld or not required. There has been no indication of any improvement in our administrative services either. Therefore it seems to Oak Bay Watch that administrative efficiencies or exploring sharing some of these services with other Districts should be prioritized to keep the district’s costs somewhat in check.
While we are mindful consultation is not collaboration and compromise, the priorities Council set for 2019, the weight that is placed on public input and how the budget expenditures are allocated, will go a long way to signal the answer to: “will real change follow”.
Appendix #1
Why are trees so important?
Mature trees are one of the primary ways to stop Global Warming. They create ecosystems and absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, such as sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide from the air and release oxygen. One large tree can supply a day's supply of oxygen for four people.
Trees provide shade and cool homes and the environment. They protect our infrastructure with the thousands of gallons of water they absorb. They provide habitat and food for birds and other animals and also cool and stabilize the soil
The benefit of trees is not limited to British Columbia’s wilderness. Urban Forests are just as important because a walk in an urban forest provides just as many health benefits as walking in a countryside forest.
Fewer trees means larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere-and increased speed and severity of global warming. Unfortunately these facts seem lost on Municipal Councils who, more often than not, chose development over tree preservation.
Appendix #2
Resident Letter to the Oak Bay News:
Consolidated Financial and Detailed Reserve Statements Critical for Good Decision Making
I was pleased to hear that Council is about to seriously tackle Oak Bay’s infrastructure renewal. For best practices decision making it is vital to know our present financial situation. This requires that Consolidated Financial and detailed Reserve statements be provided and considered in the annual Budget process.
A Consolidated Financial Statement is a yearly record of:
(i) Revenue sources and Total Revenue;
(ii) Operating expenses and Total Operating expenses;
(iii) Annual surplus (deficit)
(iv) Accumulated surplus, beginning of year
(v) Accumulated surplus, end of year
See page 21 of Central Saanich’s Financial Plan
www.centralsaanich.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/district_of_central_saanich_2019_draft_financial_plan_1.pdf)
A detailed Reserve Statement is a yearly record containing the description of specific projects and amounts allocated to them as well as the total unallocated amount.
Oak Bay’s Annual Budget does not contain items iii-v. No meaningful financial decisions - including the Annual Budget, Financial Plan Bylaw and how much can be set aside for infrastructure renewal - can be made without these two statements.
Preparing and distributing these documents to the community and Council by the end of March (eight weeks) should not be difficult. I urge Council to then hold a community and Council financial information session, based on these documents. This session should be held before the first Estimates meeting April 10.
Signed Oak Bay Resident
(The resident has been a member of a number of Council committees)
Appendix #3:
Resident Presentation to Council January 14, 2019
The resident requested Council provide the public with the United Church Development proposal at least a month before bringing it to a Council Committee of the Whole meeting and/ or a Public Hearing.
She based her request on Council giving themselves and the Community time to make “fully informed opinions and carefully considered recommendations” and:
The resident considered her request for adequate notice for residents reasonable given all of the taxpayer funded staff access to information and input. She also expressed concern, about Council having only a week-end’s notice to read the extensive reports before the Council Committee of the Whole meeting (she noted the Traffic study alone (as indicated) was hundreds of pages.
Oak Bay Watch note: The resident’s comment about the Oak Bay Planning Staff denying access to the United Church Traffic Report was not included in the Council January 14, 2019 Minutes. The fact there is no opportunity for residents to correct their recorded statements made at Council Public Participation Sessions was pointed out to Council more than six months ago - to date there has been no corrective action.
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*******Please help us continue to provide you with information about Community concerns and Council decisions and actions. Oak Bay Watch members also help community groups with their specific development concerns. Donate to Oak Bay Watch - even $5 or $10 dollars provides expenses for door- to- door handouts and helps us maintain our website. Oak Bay Watch is committed to ensuring the Community gets the full range of information on budget, governance and all key development issues – a well informed opinion cannot be made without this.
(Please use Donate Button at bottom of oakbaywatch.com Home Page)
Keep informed please sign up for our newsletter – bottom of Newsletter Menu Item.
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Saturday, 23rd of February, 2019 at Municipal Hall
For the first time in many years the public are being allowed to express their viewpoints on the important issues facing the Community and what they believe should be prioritized. The new Mayor and Council deserve credit for recognizing that there have been several Public Consultation Task Forces and a boatload of unimplemented recommendations. There also have been many (often repeated) requests from residents for more information, more notice and consultation opportunities over the last two Council terms. Additionally, the District has made transparency commitments to the BC Ombudsperson, so the new public input opportunity is a “long-overdue” step in the right direction.
The hope is that the additional resident input will lead to better decision making, This and the fact that three re-elected Council members, Mayor Murdoch and Councillors Braithwaite and Zhelka, in the past consistently voted appropriately in issues that involved the public interest.
The positive indications are:
- Inadequate deferred infrastructure funding in past years has been identified and that a larger portion of the budget for improvements is necessary.
- Recognition of the need for a Comprehensive Housing Plan ahead of over- densification, over-building, over-paving of lots and the deforestation of the Urban Forest (a high resident concern).
- Implementation of the March 2017 Urban Forest Report recommendations was recently identified by two Council members. The recommendations have received little attention in the 2-years since their publication (see Appendix #1).
- Updating the now five-year old Official Community Plan has been recommended by some Councilors. This must include clearer and stronger existing resident protection policies and objectives.
- The long-standing requests and required upgrading of the District’s financial reporting and processes have been discussed as an important priority. Improvements are needed for the upcoming 2019 Budget Estimates Committee meetings. Many communities have had the jump on Oak Bay and have already held Public Information Finance Sessions.
The not so positive indications are:
- As of Thursday morning, the 21st of February 2019, the Saturday, 23rd of February 2019 Priorities meeting has not been advertised as such. It is on the Municipal website however it is only described as a Special Council Committee of the Whole Meeting. No agenda or purpose of the meeting is provided. There has been no District advertisement the Oak Bay News. It appears that although the public can be engaged in the Saturday, February 23rd Priorities Meeting they will be hard pressed to accomplish this, as they have not been provided with the details of why this important “engagement opportunity” is taking place. Communications oversight is clearly needed.
- The District also failed to provide a Provisional Annual Budget this year. In previous years at least an inadequate 1 page, Provisional Annual Budget was published in the January ahead of Council (Budget) Estimates Committee meetings. In contrast, the Districts of Saanich and Victoria provide comprehensive provisional budgets well before Council consideration. The Central Saanich Budget presentation has won awards and their 2019 Annual Budget process provides a full month for public comment - February 19 to March 19, 2019. See Central Saanich Budget at:
www.centralsaanich.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/distrit_of_central_saanich_2019_draft_financial_plan_1.pdf and Oak Bay resident letter Appendix #2.
- It took two Council sessions and a lot of discussion to decide not to spend $30,000 on a new, staff- recommended Resident Satisfaction Survey not recognizing that the October 2016 Satisfaction Survey findings Had Been ignored. Curiously, staff had recommended conducting another expensive Satisfaction Survey and significant staff time, even though there are so many indicators of clear public and Council support for infrastructure improvements and curbing over-densification. The recent municipal election campaign also identified many community problems that require immediate action. Also, as pointed out in Council by Councillor Paterson, so many expensive consultant reports with unimplemented recommendations are still sitting on the shelf. This should have made the rejection of a premature Satisfaction Survey” (at this point) a far less debated, time-consuming decision.
- To recap: the October 2016 Satisfaction Survey showed that residents’ top concerns facing the Community were: over-densification; the poor state of the infrastructure; and preserving green space. Residents 79%, (8 in 10) wanted information on District Planning, on building projects and on new developments; 75% wanted more information on taxes; 62% wanted to receive more information on the District‘s financial situation and budget; while 61% would like more information on Council meetings Why not get going on all this?
- Although these are very clear messages to Council and staff, there has been little progress. There have been many requests for more advanced notice on Council agendas and reports. It’s little wonder residents want more than a week-end to consider and analyze: financial reports, strategic priority reports, a whole host of development applications, resident submissions, planning reports, Council, Committee and Commission meeting minutes, and often complex reports e.g. a 364 page Building Asset Management Plan, a 35 page Asset Management Report and an 89 page Heritage Conservation Agreement etc.
- There has also been no progress in getting Council Committee and Commission reports attached to the District’s website agendas to allow the public in attendance to follow the discussion. This is particularly important regarding land use and complex developments that have significant impacts on our neighbourhoods and residents.
- There has been no indication that the policy and guidelines required for the Planning Department to follow for Bare Land Strata and Heritage Revitalization Agreement subdivisions are coming any time soon.
- There is no indication that green-space, tree and vegetation loss will be minimized.
- There has been no indication that existing residents will not be continuing to pay for development and that developers will be charged for the impacts their developments cause.
Oak Bay Watch’s Perspective
Oak Way Watch’s main focus is the public interest as there are many examples that outside-interests are, and have been, well looked after (see example Appendix #3). We are still optimistic there will be improvements if we take into account that freeing up staff-time spent on less urgent activities would be helpful, that some of the above initiatives are easy to correct given the advanced stage of technology, and the expanded IT (Information Technology) staff.
Immediate action must be taken to discontinue the current Planning Department practice of not requiring important public interest documents and/or withholding them from Council, Council Committees and Commissions and residents. Important documents must be compulsory and not discretionary. (see Appendix #3 and oakbaywatch.com, February 16, 2019 Council Report). These documents must be provided not only to ensure a transparent process but to allow Council to make informed decisions.
The District has added well over a million dollars in administration and technical staff in the past two Council terms. Some of the new staffing expenditure was rejected unsuccessfully by the above named re-elected Council members and some were not brought to Council. There was little rationale provided for this expense. These are accumulative costs that increase with each budget and significantly affect our property taxes.
The substantial increase in non-core staffing and year-after-year, over-the-top tax increases have not produced any noticeable improvement in the impacts on the infrastructure deficit or our roads. (e.g. Fact: there have been two more traffic bottlenecks added and a hundred cars or so will soon be added near one of these locations). There are more and more holes in the ground where a modest home once stood and many trees and much green space have disappeared as a result. The short advance-notice practice on development applications is entrenched and, as indicated, important information continues to be withheld or not required. There has been no indication of any improvement in our administrative services either. Therefore it seems to Oak Bay Watch that administrative efficiencies or exploring sharing some of these services with other Districts should be prioritized to keep the district’s costs somewhat in check.
While we are mindful consultation is not collaboration and compromise, the priorities Council set for 2019, the weight that is placed on public input and how the budget expenditures are allocated, will go a long way to signal the answer to: “will real change follow”.
Appendix #1
Why are trees so important?
Mature trees are one of the primary ways to stop Global Warming. They create ecosystems and absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, such as sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide from the air and release oxygen. One large tree can supply a day's supply of oxygen for four people.
Trees provide shade and cool homes and the environment. They protect our infrastructure with the thousands of gallons of water they absorb. They provide habitat and food for birds and other animals and also cool and stabilize the soil
The benefit of trees is not limited to British Columbia’s wilderness. Urban Forests are just as important because a walk in an urban forest provides just as many health benefits as walking in a countryside forest.
Fewer trees means larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere-and increased speed and severity of global warming. Unfortunately these facts seem lost on Municipal Councils who, more often than not, chose development over tree preservation.
Appendix #2
Resident Letter to the Oak Bay News:
Consolidated Financial and Detailed Reserve Statements Critical for Good Decision Making
I was pleased to hear that Council is about to seriously tackle Oak Bay’s infrastructure renewal. For best practices decision making it is vital to know our present financial situation. This requires that Consolidated Financial and detailed Reserve statements be provided and considered in the annual Budget process.
A Consolidated Financial Statement is a yearly record of:
(i) Revenue sources and Total Revenue;
(ii) Operating expenses and Total Operating expenses;
(iii) Annual surplus (deficit)
(iv) Accumulated surplus, beginning of year
(v) Accumulated surplus, end of year
See page 21 of Central Saanich’s Financial Plan
www.centralsaanich.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/district_of_central_saanich_2019_draft_financial_plan_1.pdf)
A detailed Reserve Statement is a yearly record containing the description of specific projects and amounts allocated to them as well as the total unallocated amount.
Oak Bay’s Annual Budget does not contain items iii-v. No meaningful financial decisions - including the Annual Budget, Financial Plan Bylaw and how much can be set aside for infrastructure renewal - can be made without these two statements.
Preparing and distributing these documents to the community and Council by the end of March (eight weeks) should not be difficult. I urge Council to then hold a community and Council financial information session, based on these documents. This session should be held before the first Estimates meeting April 10.
Signed Oak Bay Resident
(The resident has been a member of a number of Council committees)
Appendix #3:
Resident Presentation to Council January 14, 2019
The resident requested Council provide the public with the United Church Development proposal at least a month before bringing it to a Council Committee of the Whole meeting and/ or a Public Hearing.
She based her request on Council giving themselves and the Community time to make “fully informed opinions and carefully considered recommendations” and:
- “BC Housing having more than 20 taxpayer funded staff working on the file and the Church development team has 4-5 people, plus a coterie of paid consultants”.
- “The scope of the application is best illustrated by the Oak Bay Planning Staff. In denying a request for access to the traffic study, staff opinioned there would be no point, as at 300 pages the report is incomplete”.
- “It seems incongruous that so many people not directly affected by this proposal have ongoing access to detailed information, while those immediately impacted do not. Neighbouring homeowners will be affected by the outcome of this proposal for the rest of their lives”.
The resident considered her request for adequate notice for residents reasonable given all of the taxpayer funded staff access to information and input. She also expressed concern, about Council having only a week-end’s notice to read the extensive reports before the Council Committee of the Whole meeting (she noted the Traffic study alone (as indicated) was hundreds of pages.
Oak Bay Watch note: The resident’s comment about the Oak Bay Planning Staff denying access to the United Church Traffic Report was not included in the Council January 14, 2019 Minutes. The fact there is no opportunity for residents to correct their recorded statements made at Council Public Participation Sessions was pointed out to Council more than six months ago - to date there has been no corrective action.
----------------------------------------
*******Please help us continue to provide you with information about Community concerns and Council decisions and actions. Oak Bay Watch members also help community groups with their specific development concerns. Donate to Oak Bay Watch - even $5 or $10 dollars provides expenses for door- to- door handouts and helps us maintain our website. Oak Bay Watch is committed to ensuring the Community gets the full range of information on budget, governance and all key development issues – a well informed opinion cannot be made without this.
(Please use Donate Button at bottom of oakbaywatch.com Home Page)
Keep informed please sign up for our newsletter – bottom of Newsletter Menu Item.