Council’s Loaded Agendas and Proverb: “Self Praise is No Recommendation”
Part #1: Council Meeting Agenda, July 20, 2020
A strategy used by the last two Councils, presumably to limit resident attention and possible opposition was to:
The present Council Meeting Agenda of July 20, 2020 appears to be a continuation of this “tried and true” strategy. This agenda is packed full of important, complex items to be adopted and received. The items which include:
Part #2: Council Meeting July 20, 2020 Agenda Item #9
Union of BC Municipalities Community Excellence Awards
Recommendation: Requested Council support for a staff-initiated Union of BC Municipality Excellence award.
First, the staff members that provided this report have only been with the District, or in their present position, for a relatively short time. The documents they reference in their July 20, 2020 Awards Report are all new, not yet operationalized and therefore untested. The original 2019 Corporate Plan example came under heavy fire. As for “supporting and encouraging citizen participation in civic decision-making” there has been a notable difference and a very wide-gap between resident input, and actions taken as a result of consultation that identified resident priorities. “Consultation without action is a timewaster” former CRD Mayor.
It is also not normal practice for the party nominated for an award to put forward their own name to receive the award - or the Academy Awards and Order of Canada would have many more nominees. In other words, one cannot be objective of one's own work or performance.
Oak Bay Watch Perspective
It is difficult to understand how staff could expect residents and Council members to plow though the July 20, 2020 Council meeting agenda’s 201 pages of complex text and graphics in just three days and provide their submissions.
It is also not clear why a number of important, complex staff reports and plans were completed all at one time and provided at the last minute (before the summer break) Council meeting. Could the previous light agenda Council Meeting on July 6. 2020, that only lasted an hour and fifteen-minutes not have included some of these documents?
As for the July 20, 2020 Awards Report the problem is that, if approved it gives the impression Council is satisfied that staff and the District have achieved, “excellence in governance”. If this were the case the District should not require adding yet another round* of new Administrative staffing or hiring new positions during the pandemic when so many other municipalities and businesses are laying staff off.
*Reference: Annual Reports 2016 – 2019: Staff employees over $75,000 increased from 7 to 11 and remuneration from $761,000 to $1,228,000 in the three years. Two more have been added since with another proposed.
It is acknowledged transparency has somewhat improved since the BC Ombudsman found the District to be running afoul of and barely meeting transparency legislation. However, as pointed out since then by residents in open meetings, there is still a long way to go. Lack of transparency has continued to be an issue and this has been pointed out a number of times at open meetings, at Council and in correspondence.
The 2019 addition of a Communications Specialist, normally referred to as Public Relations, ($96,800 budgeted) provides the District's point of view, only it does so through a PR lens.. This is not a substitute for transparency and public engagement.
It is our understanding “excellence in governance” is something Council was elected to do and, as Council has indicated, they are working towards - just saying its been achieved is misleading.
There is a whole host of “non-excellence in governance” examples in this Council term that need to be factored in before any awards are applied for or handed out.
In these times when so many workers are risking their health and or lives on the front line, Oak Bay staff writing a number of reports and making unsubstantiated claims, in our opinion, is not award worthy.
Part #1: Council Meeting Agenda, July 20, 2020
A strategy used by the last two Councils, presumably to limit resident attention and possible opposition was to:
- Load up Council Meeting Agendas with a host of heavy-reading documents;
- Wait for a time, e.g. July /August, when residents were most likely to be distracted and,
- Position items likely to be contentious at the end of the agenda
The present Council Meeting Agenda of July 20, 2020 appears to be a continuation of this “tried and true” strategy. This agenda is packed full of important, complex items to be adopted and received. The items which include:
- Adoption of the 108-page Annual Report final draft;
- A 4-page Corporate Plan Report that contains inaccurate background information.
- A 30-page Updated Corporate Plan with a seldom used format that mixes and matches a whole host of priorities (many selected by staff), along with a listing of Departmental work plans. This arrangement makes the Corporate Plan difficult to follow, or separate out urgent priorities. It provides no information of anything being done sequentially - for example fixing the decade-long broken zoning bylaw before adding more density to impact the infrastructure and cutting so many trees.
- An 8-page 2020 Second Quarter Work Plan and Budget Report
- A 10-page 2nd Quarter Work Plan Update
- A 2-page Service Enhancement Report
- A 39-page 4-year Tracking Report that inexplicably leaves out implementing the July 2018 Mayor’s Task Force, Public Engagement recommendations.
Part #2: Council Meeting July 20, 2020 Agenda Item #9
Union of BC Municipalities Community Excellence Awards
Recommendation: Requested Council support for a staff-initiated Union of BC Municipality Excellence award.
First, the staff members that provided this report have only been with the District, or in their present position, for a relatively short time. The documents they reference in their July 20, 2020 Awards Report are all new, not yet operationalized and therefore untested. The original 2019 Corporate Plan example came under heavy fire. As for “supporting and encouraging citizen participation in civic decision-making” there has been a notable difference and a very wide-gap between resident input, and actions taken as a result of consultation that identified resident priorities. “Consultation without action is a timewaster” former CRD Mayor.
It is also not normal practice for the party nominated for an award to put forward their own name to receive the award - or the Academy Awards and Order of Canada would have many more nominees. In other words, one cannot be objective of one's own work or performance.
Oak Bay Watch Perspective
It is difficult to understand how staff could expect residents and Council members to plow though the July 20, 2020 Council meeting agenda’s 201 pages of complex text and graphics in just three days and provide their submissions.
It is also not clear why a number of important, complex staff reports and plans were completed all at one time and provided at the last minute (before the summer break) Council meeting. Could the previous light agenda Council Meeting on July 6. 2020, that only lasted an hour and fifteen-minutes not have included some of these documents?
As for the July 20, 2020 Awards Report the problem is that, if approved it gives the impression Council is satisfied that staff and the District have achieved, “excellence in governance”. If this were the case the District should not require adding yet another round* of new Administrative staffing or hiring new positions during the pandemic when so many other municipalities and businesses are laying staff off.
*Reference: Annual Reports 2016 – 2019: Staff employees over $75,000 increased from 7 to 11 and remuneration from $761,000 to $1,228,000 in the three years. Two more have been added since with another proposed.
It is acknowledged transparency has somewhat improved since the BC Ombudsman found the District to be running afoul of and barely meeting transparency legislation. However, as pointed out since then by residents in open meetings, there is still a long way to go. Lack of transparency has continued to be an issue and this has been pointed out a number of times at open meetings, at Council and in correspondence.
The 2019 addition of a Communications Specialist, normally referred to as Public Relations, ($96,800 budgeted) provides the District's point of view, only it does so through a PR lens.. This is not a substitute for transparency and public engagement.
It is our understanding “excellence in governance” is something Council was elected to do and, as Council has indicated, they are working towards - just saying its been achieved is misleading.
There is a whole host of “non-excellence in governance” examples in this Council term that need to be factored in before any awards are applied for or handed out.
In these times when so many workers are risking their health and or lives on the front line, Oak Bay staff writing a number of reports and making unsubstantiated claims, in our opinion, is not award worthy.