HIGH PROFILE NEWS NOT CONSIDERED NEWSWORTHY BY OUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Oak Bay News does a good job reporting on fun activities and notable events and people in the community. However, the publication often fails to provide objective, detailed reports on important issues. Oak Bay Watch’s understanding of a newspaper’s primary role is also to provide unbiased, objective, detailed accounts of all significant news and events that impact the Community. This includes relevant Council decisions and the reasons for making them – both for and against. Unfortunately in recent weeks these journalistic principles seem to have eluded our community newspaper, the Oak Bay News. Oak Bay Watch would not make this statement without the facts to back it up. Also, we could not provide you with this information if we were not in a position to keep a close eye of what is going on at Council and in the Community.
So, over the past few weeks what were the important issues and decisions that were not reported to the readers of the Oak Bay News? We refer to knowledge of what occurrences would have helped residents to stay up to date; help them fill out future surveys much more accurately and decide whom to vote for, and whom not to vote for in the next Municipal election?
Read on for stories and events the Oak Bay News did not report or reported issues limiting the facts:
Due to the necessity of complying with the legislated tax rate timeline, and leaving the budget approval until the final hour, the Mayor managed to have the
budget approved without a compromise.
May 31st, 2017 The Margate Flood. A short block away from Oak Beach Bay Hotel, a main water pipe spontaneously burst, flooding seven homes. Surrounding areas experienced low water pressure, and sediment in their water supply. No information on the extent or anticipated cost of repairs was provided. Also missing was the fact that precautions had been suggested for ‘health reasons’. As this failure clearly illustrates the problem of aging infrastructure, why has this event not been fully reported in subsequent editions of the Oak Bay News.
Oak Bay Watch has explained in recent newsletters that our infrastructure (roads, water, storm drains and sewer systems) is over 100 years old and in very poor condition. This has been understood since 2009, confirmed in the Official Community Plan and recently in the April 2017 expensive Asset Management Consultant’s Report. Therefore, as Council currently has no Asset Management Plan in place, serious infrastructure failures must be brought to the public’s attention. Particularly if some Council members are allocating property taxes for their development objectives.
Meanwhile, other municipalities in BC have been taking advantage of Federal/Provincial grants available to assist with developing Asset Management and Long-Term Financial Plans. Generally, that means 15 or 20 year Financial Plans and Reserve Funds with policies for limits and use.
Concerned members of the community have addressed Council in public and in writing on the seriousness of the District’s budgetary and infrastructure problems - see Appendices #1,# 2 and #3.
Council Meetings are now webcast by municipal staff, so Oak Bay Watch is no longer providing that voluntary service. However, the official webcasts on the municipal website and meeting minutes are often many weeks in arrears. For example the latest webcast available is for the April 10, 2017 Council Meeting – more than two months ago and counting. Webcasting Council meetings is costing taxpayers over $6,000 a month, excluding staff time. To date, Oak Bay Watch has not been able to obtain a clear explanation as to why there is such a delay in providing them for public reference.
This delay is particularly disturbing because recently the minutes of Council Meetings have provided no detail of Council motion discussions. As Council Webcasts have been delayed for months, and as the Oak Bay News (as discussed above) has recently ignored or limited its coverage of critical Municipal events and decisions, it appears that oakbaywatch.com is the only comprehensive source of this information - the irony is that this reporting is provided exclusively on a volunteer basis).
Please inform your friends and neighbours that with the 3 –3 split on Council the Mayor’s single majority vote is responsible for many of Councils recent controversial decisions.
*******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)
Continue to keep informed please sign up for our newsletter – end of newsletter page.
Appendix #1
Cadboro-Bowker - Good Decision, Bad Leadership?
Perhaps the real story about the proposed development is what went wrong. Addressing Council at the last meeting, a resident commented not on the decision to proceed with the development, but on the lack of process and accurate information. Early in the process a report by the Manager of Planning stated ‘the development does….precede OCP direction to prepare an urban design plan for Oak Bay’s villages’. Then there were the repeated comments by members of Council and the public on: outdated bylaws, arguments on assessing density, no housing strategy, and no policies on community amenity contributions. In short, the municipality lacks the tools it needs for making fair, equitable and informed decisions.
We heard that this was a ‘challenging site’. True, but it does have the advantage of providing 9 penthouse units, with 2 parking stalls per unit. Significant benefits to the developer, achieved by concessions on property line set-backs, and ‘on-street parking’ to make up the requirements for the retail units. Affordable/inclusive housing is based on small size and adaptability of some of the condos, and by ensuring the condo rules allow rentals. That’s not the ‘affordable’ definition in the Community Plan. Community Amenities included replacement of sidewalks and trees that will be destroyed for development and a contribution to improving the (problem) intersection. As ‘amenities’ these were rejected by some members of Council and the community.
Frequent comparisons were made to the City of Victoria, yet these failed to acknowledge Victoria has documented urban design plans, documented density bonus guidelines and documented tracking mechanisms for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Most people supported development but were opposed to the lack of transparency and informed leadership. Unfortunately, this flawed process will be repeated until Oak Bay has the housing strategy, zoning and bylaws to guide future development.
Oak Bay Resident
Appendix #2 See Oak Bay News April 28, 2017 Page 2: Place following link in your Browser.
http://www.oakbaynews.com/e-editions/?iid=i20170428021015865 See Page A7
Oak Bay Resident
Appendix #3
Consequences of Unfulfilled Election Promises - Published -May 12, 2017
When elected in 2014 Oak Bay Council’s main agenda item based on the recently adopted Official Community Plan (OCP) was land use (housing) issues and policy. The OCP merely provides a high level future vision of housing and other community goals and values for Oak Bay.
Mayor Jensen’s in his election promises (visit Oak Bay News November 7, 2014 online) outlined the steps required before processing specific land use proposals:
“The first step will be to prepare a Housing Strategy and guidelines to identify needs, opportunities and options such as regulating suites and permitting duplexes.”
“As a prelude to embarking on zoning changes there needs to be consensus on an acceptable and transparent process.”
“The most challenging short-term task will be updating our Zoning Bylaws to reflect the vision of the OCP.”
What has happened? Almost three years later, the Mayor’s election promises have not been fulfilled; No overview Housing Strategy, no Zoning Bylaw update nor consensus on an open and transparent process involving meaningful consultation with residents.
The May 3 public meeting on the Bowker proposal revealed the public was divided on the issue of greater density, reflecting the same division on Council. Many presenters on both sides of the issue expressed concerns about the process. This was predictable and understandable. Asking community and council to make major policy decisions with a specific proposal in front of them is spot zoning, exactly what the OCP implementation was supposed to avoid.
Mayor Jensen, when are you going to keep your election promises? There are at least two more big proposals coming forward soon and there is little evidence that the conflicts and division on both Council and in the community have been addressed.
Oak Bay Resident
Oak Bay News does a good job reporting on fun activities and notable events and people in the community. However, the publication often fails to provide objective, detailed reports on important issues. Oak Bay Watch’s understanding of a newspaper’s primary role is also to provide unbiased, objective, detailed accounts of all significant news and events that impact the Community. This includes relevant Council decisions and the reasons for making them – both for and against. Unfortunately in recent weeks these journalistic principles seem to have eluded our community newspaper, the Oak Bay News. Oak Bay Watch would not make this statement without the facts to back it up. Also, we could not provide you with this information if we were not in a position to keep a close eye of what is going on at Council and in the Community.
So, over the past few weeks what were the important issues and decisions that were not reported to the readers of the Oak Bay News? We refer to knowledge of what occurrences would have helped residents to stay up to date; help them fill out future surveys much more accurately and decide whom to vote for, and whom not to vote for in the next Municipal election?
Read on for stories and events the Oak Bay News did not report or reported issues limiting the facts:
- On April 19, 2017 Oak Bay Council approved a Budget with almost a 4% tax increase. There was little analysis of why since 2012 the Municipality’s budget has increased annually by such large amounts. On May 28, 2017, the Oak Bay news published a very positive report on how, by fiscal management, four Council members (Jenson, Ney, Kirby and Croft) used their collective vote to divert dedicated infrastructure reserve funds for 2017 budgeted items in order to reduce property taxes by 1%.
- What was omitted in the Oak Bay News report however, was these same 4 Council members had previously voted to overspend $300,000 on their goal of secondary suite implementation and new administrative staff. There was little mention of 3 Councilors' opposition to such extravagant expenditures. Their objections were based on the Community’s and Staff’s priority recommendation that all available revenue must go towards developing an Asset Management Plan and overall priority actions to address our aging infrastructure. They also explained that in the past two Council terms, a number of new administrative staff had already been added at significant expense to taxpayers.
- At Council on May 11, 2017 Councilors (Murdoch, Braithwaite and Zhelka) rejected the annual budget based on their previous objections to the expenditures. This was the first annul budget rejection in memory, or perhaps ever. This was not reported in the Oak Bay News. The public should have been made aware of the split on Council, polarized over land use, and the District’s financial decisions.
Due to the necessity of complying with the legislated tax rate timeline, and leaving the budget approval until the final hour, the Mayor managed to have the
budget approved without a compromise.
May 31st, 2017 The Margate Flood. A short block away from Oak Beach Bay Hotel, a main water pipe spontaneously burst, flooding seven homes. Surrounding areas experienced low water pressure, and sediment in their water supply. No information on the extent or anticipated cost of repairs was provided. Also missing was the fact that precautions had been suggested for ‘health reasons’. As this failure clearly illustrates the problem of aging infrastructure, why has this event not been fully reported in subsequent editions of the Oak Bay News.
Oak Bay Watch has explained in recent newsletters that our infrastructure (roads, water, storm drains and sewer systems) is over 100 years old and in very poor condition. This has been understood since 2009, confirmed in the Official Community Plan and recently in the April 2017 expensive Asset Management Consultant’s Report. Therefore, as Council currently has no Asset Management Plan in place, serious infrastructure failures must be brought to the public’s attention. Particularly if some Council members are allocating property taxes for their development objectives.
Meanwhile, other municipalities in BC have been taking advantage of Federal/Provincial grants available to assist with developing Asset Management and Long-Term Financial Plans. Generally, that means 15 or 20 year Financial Plans and Reserve Funds with policies for limits and use.
Concerned members of the community have addressed Council in public and in writing on the seriousness of the District’s budgetary and infrastructure problems - see Appendices #1,# 2 and #3.
Council Meetings are now webcast by municipal staff, so Oak Bay Watch is no longer providing that voluntary service. However, the official webcasts on the municipal website and meeting minutes are often many weeks in arrears. For example the latest webcast available is for the April 10, 2017 Council Meeting – more than two months ago and counting. Webcasting Council meetings is costing taxpayers over $6,000 a month, excluding staff time. To date, Oak Bay Watch has not been able to obtain a clear explanation as to why there is such a delay in providing them for public reference.
This delay is particularly disturbing because recently the minutes of Council Meetings have provided no detail of Council motion discussions. As Council Webcasts have been delayed for months, and as the Oak Bay News (as discussed above) has recently ignored or limited its coverage of critical Municipal events and decisions, it appears that oakbaywatch.com is the only comprehensive source of this information - the irony is that this reporting is provided exclusively on a volunteer basis).
Please inform your friends and neighbours that with the 3 –3 split on Council the Mayor’s single majority vote is responsible for many of Councils recent controversial decisions.
*******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)
Continue to keep informed please sign up for our newsletter – end of newsletter page.
Appendix #1
Cadboro-Bowker - Good Decision, Bad Leadership?
Perhaps the real story about the proposed development is what went wrong. Addressing Council at the last meeting, a resident commented not on the decision to proceed with the development, but on the lack of process and accurate information. Early in the process a report by the Manager of Planning stated ‘the development does….precede OCP direction to prepare an urban design plan for Oak Bay’s villages’. Then there were the repeated comments by members of Council and the public on: outdated bylaws, arguments on assessing density, no housing strategy, and no policies on community amenity contributions. In short, the municipality lacks the tools it needs for making fair, equitable and informed decisions.
We heard that this was a ‘challenging site’. True, but it does have the advantage of providing 9 penthouse units, with 2 parking stalls per unit. Significant benefits to the developer, achieved by concessions on property line set-backs, and ‘on-street parking’ to make up the requirements for the retail units. Affordable/inclusive housing is based on small size and adaptability of some of the condos, and by ensuring the condo rules allow rentals. That’s not the ‘affordable’ definition in the Community Plan. Community Amenities included replacement of sidewalks and trees that will be destroyed for development and a contribution to improving the (problem) intersection. As ‘amenities’ these were rejected by some members of Council and the community.
Frequent comparisons were made to the City of Victoria, yet these failed to acknowledge Victoria has documented urban design plans, documented density bonus guidelines and documented tracking mechanisms for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Most people supported development but were opposed to the lack of transparency and informed leadership. Unfortunately, this flawed process will be repeated until Oak Bay has the housing strategy, zoning and bylaws to guide future development.
Oak Bay Resident
Appendix #2 See Oak Bay News April 28, 2017 Page 2: Place following link in your Browser.
http://www.oakbaynews.com/e-editions/?iid=i20170428021015865 See Page A7
Oak Bay Resident
Appendix #3
Consequences of Unfulfilled Election Promises - Published -May 12, 2017
When elected in 2014 Oak Bay Council’s main agenda item based on the recently adopted Official Community Plan (OCP) was land use (housing) issues and policy. The OCP merely provides a high level future vision of housing and other community goals and values for Oak Bay.
Mayor Jensen’s in his election promises (visit Oak Bay News November 7, 2014 online) outlined the steps required before processing specific land use proposals:
“The first step will be to prepare a Housing Strategy and guidelines to identify needs, opportunities and options such as regulating suites and permitting duplexes.”
“As a prelude to embarking on zoning changes there needs to be consensus on an acceptable and transparent process.”
“The most challenging short-term task will be updating our Zoning Bylaws to reflect the vision of the OCP.”
What has happened? Almost three years later, the Mayor’s election promises have not been fulfilled; No overview Housing Strategy, no Zoning Bylaw update nor consensus on an open and transparent process involving meaningful consultation with residents.
The May 3 public meeting on the Bowker proposal revealed the public was divided on the issue of greater density, reflecting the same division on Council. Many presenters on both sides of the issue expressed concerns about the process. This was predictable and understandable. Asking community and council to make major policy decisions with a specific proposal in front of them is spot zoning, exactly what the OCP implementation was supposed to avoid.
Mayor Jensen, when are you going to keep your election promises? There are at least two more big proposals coming forward soon and there is little evidence that the conflicts and division on both Council and in the community have been addressed.
Oak Bay Resident