Newsletter November 28, 2020
“You Can Fool some of the People all of the Time”
Abraham Lincoln
This quote has relevance to the current District 2021 Budget on-line Survey. This 2021 Budget Survey has questions that do not meet acceptable survey standards, or certainly would not be considered established best or ethical practices. It is equally disturbing that residents have suffered through highly questionable resident surveys throughout the previous 2 Council regimes.
So much so that a prominent Oak Bay resident wrote a very informative October 21, 2016 letter to the Oak Bay News about a Council survey. These excerpts explain what he obviously was not happy with:
“Last month one of those coincidences occurred that has interesting, if not immediately obvious implications. Our (Oak Bay) Council launched the municipality’s first-ever "community satisfaction" survey. And a McGill University psychologist released a new book bearing the delightfully subversive title, “A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age”. The connection? Well, Levitin describes his book as helping us spot problems that may lead to the wrong conclusions”.
“The Problems he says, arise from a range of issues, including how data is both collected and reported. This is particularly critical when looking at “topics that are highly politicized”.
Note: More on suspect data collection and reporting in Oak Bay Watch December Newsletters.
(See Appendix #1: full text - October 21, 2016 Oak Bay News resident "Survey" letter)
It would be reasonable to assume that the formats of Council surveys influenced the significant Council change in October 2018. It was hoped such suspect surveys and statements were a thing of the past. Sadly however, the 2020 Budget Survey indicates this message has not been heard.
The following 2021 Budget Survey’s questions are examples of why any findings or conclusions would be invalid:
Quality of Life
Diverse Housing
The above “bundled questions provided respondents with only 2 options to approve or disapprove: (X) Sufficient/Appropriate or (X) Insufficient/ Inappropriate. In effect a respondent could only vote in favor of all of them or reject all of them. Not a good position to be placed in when it comes to spending significant tax dollars and faced with a diverse range of options. Note: The highly politicized /contentious options are combined with more acceptable options.
Is the Planning Department so out of touch that they are not aware that a Residential Infill Strategy which proposed infill housing opportunities in Oak Bay’s single-family neighbourhoods was outright and overwhelmingly rejected by residents in September 2016 in 2 separate standing-room only meetings at the University of Victoria (UVIC).
The previous Council was so embarrassed that after the meetings ended they convened and cancelled their contentious, proposed (very expensive consultants) Residential Infill Strategy. The previous Council included several members of today’s Council and they will remember these events well. The current Manager of Planning was also in attendance at the UVIC meetings and surely would have recognized the strong public opposition to infill development and Council’s embarrassment and reaction and shared this with the new Planning staff?
Oak Bay Watch Perspective (and more Information)
The evidence that President Lincoln can be credited with the “Fooling Some People Most of the Time” quote is unreliable. Oak Bay residents by now, however, will be used to unreliable evidence. This is why Oak Bay Watch is careful to only provide information based on evidence and facts that are verifiable. Stating something is one thing, proving it is another.
The 2021 Budget Survey is the newest example of an important but poorly planned and executed District Public Engagement that will affect all residents. This waste of tax dollars and staff time has happened so frequently now it has to be considered deliberate. Three residents’ open houses labeled as Committee of the Whole Council meetings in October/November 2019 were so poorly planned that only very few residents showed up. The number of Council members and staff almost matched the resident turnout.
The District’s poor planning and identification of these events was highlighted by some of the residents who attended the three October/ November 2019 “Open House Meetings”. However, this obviously has not made any impression on the District's Leadership. This is in contrast to the adequately planned and publicized (resident-funded) Community Groups' open houses and election All-Candidates meetings that drew standing room only crowds. The same held true for attendance at tree and heritage symposiums.
In contrast to Victoria and Vancouver (see Appendix #2) there has been no information or discussion about what will be the costs and potential impacts of many of the Budget Survey items that residents are asked to approve /disapprove.
For example, updating the Home-Based Business Bylaw - the main tenets of this Bylaw are: only one staff member is permitted and no visitations. Allowing visitations or more staff could mean a couple (or more) of hair-dressing businesses and/ or a home masseuse business on any given, quiet Oak Bay residential street. This could conceivably add a whole host of problems for residents of that street. Not a problem if you don’t live in Oak Bay.
The 2016 Resident Satisfaction Survey identified over-development as the #1 resident priority and this has been a constant resident message since. Correcting the Zoning bylaw has been an election promise by a majority of the present Council members. What is the purpose of the District’s asking residents over-and-over if they are still in favor of stopping the obvious over-building on many of Oak Bay’s residential lots.
Reliable projections for various levels of the Covid-19 epidemic is optimistically 4 years - even if a vaccine is developed. Without informing the Community of their reasons, Council and Staff are pressing forward in the next few months with significant densification initiatives. This indicates they are unaware of how this virus spreads, the impacts of the pandemic crisis or their responsibilities. Several one-day virus infection-records this week have resulted many deaths.
Now is not the time to be considering and spending time and tax dollars on densification of any type. The Provincial Government is well aware that these are dangerous times and in contrast to Oak Bay's densification initiatives, have imposed strong congestion restrictions - why is the District’s leadership not getting it.
----------------------------------------
“Nothing is inevitable if you are paying attention”
*******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 and sign up for our newsletter – bottom of Newsletter Menu Item.
-------------------------------------
Appendix #1 (Providing misleading/ or withholding information is “fooling People”)
“You Can Fool some of the People all of the Time”
Abraham Lincoln
This quote has relevance to the current District 2021 Budget on-line Survey. This 2021 Budget Survey has questions that do not meet acceptable survey standards, or certainly would not be considered established best or ethical practices. It is equally disturbing that residents have suffered through highly questionable resident surveys throughout the previous 2 Council regimes.
So much so that a prominent Oak Bay resident wrote a very informative October 21, 2016 letter to the Oak Bay News about a Council survey. These excerpts explain what he obviously was not happy with:
“Last month one of those coincidences occurred that has interesting, if not immediately obvious implications. Our (Oak Bay) Council launched the municipality’s first-ever "community satisfaction" survey. And a McGill University psychologist released a new book bearing the delightfully subversive title, “A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age”. The connection? Well, Levitin describes his book as helping us spot problems that may lead to the wrong conclusions”.
“The Problems he says, arise from a range of issues, including how data is both collected and reported. This is particularly critical when looking at “topics that are highly politicized”.
Note: More on suspect data collection and reporting in Oak Bay Watch December Newsletters.
(See Appendix #1: full text - October 21, 2016 Oak Bay News resident "Survey" letter)
It would be reasonable to assume that the formats of Council surveys influenced the significant Council change in October 2018. It was hoped such suspect surveys and statements were a thing of the past. Sadly however, the 2020 Budget Survey indicates this message has not been heard.
The following 2021 Budget Survey’s questions are examples of why any findings or conclusions would be invalid:
Quality of Life
- Undertake deer management research project ● Change rules for home-based business
- Update dog-use policies ● Prepare Parks, Recreation and Culture Master Plan
Diverse Housing
- Provide support to Capital Regional Hospital District re: Oak Bay Lodge redevelopment
- Prepare a Housing Needs Report ● Complete a Secondary Suite Study
- Identify infill housing opportunities and specific housing needs for neighbourhoods
- Prepare Village Area Plan(s) for the Oak Bay Village/Cadboro Bay Road corridor and for the Secondary Village areas
- Develop a Community Amenity Contribution Policy
- Undertake a process to amend the Official Community Plan for a new Heritage Conservation Area ● Update Zoning Bylaw ● Enhance enforcement of short-term rentals
The above “bundled questions provided respondents with only 2 options to approve or disapprove: (X) Sufficient/Appropriate or (X) Insufficient/ Inappropriate. In effect a respondent could only vote in favor of all of them or reject all of them. Not a good position to be placed in when it comes to spending significant tax dollars and faced with a diverse range of options. Note: The highly politicized /contentious options are combined with more acceptable options.
Is the Planning Department so out of touch that they are not aware that a Residential Infill Strategy which proposed infill housing opportunities in Oak Bay’s single-family neighbourhoods was outright and overwhelmingly rejected by residents in September 2016 in 2 separate standing-room only meetings at the University of Victoria (UVIC).
The previous Council was so embarrassed that after the meetings ended they convened and cancelled their contentious, proposed (very expensive consultants) Residential Infill Strategy. The previous Council included several members of today’s Council and they will remember these events well. The current Manager of Planning was also in attendance at the UVIC meetings and surely would have recognized the strong public opposition to infill development and Council’s embarrassment and reaction and shared this with the new Planning staff?
Oak Bay Watch Perspective (and more Information)
The evidence that President Lincoln can be credited with the “Fooling Some People Most of the Time” quote is unreliable. Oak Bay residents by now, however, will be used to unreliable evidence. This is why Oak Bay Watch is careful to only provide information based on evidence and facts that are verifiable. Stating something is one thing, proving it is another.
The 2021 Budget Survey is the newest example of an important but poorly planned and executed District Public Engagement that will affect all residents. This waste of tax dollars and staff time has happened so frequently now it has to be considered deliberate. Three residents’ open houses labeled as Committee of the Whole Council meetings in October/November 2019 were so poorly planned that only very few residents showed up. The number of Council members and staff almost matched the resident turnout.
The District’s poor planning and identification of these events was highlighted by some of the residents who attended the three October/ November 2019 “Open House Meetings”. However, this obviously has not made any impression on the District's Leadership. This is in contrast to the adequately planned and publicized (resident-funded) Community Groups' open houses and election All-Candidates meetings that drew standing room only crowds. The same held true for attendance at tree and heritage symposiums.
In contrast to Victoria and Vancouver (see Appendix #2) there has been no information or discussion about what will be the costs and potential impacts of many of the Budget Survey items that residents are asked to approve /disapprove.
For example, updating the Home-Based Business Bylaw - the main tenets of this Bylaw are: only one staff member is permitted and no visitations. Allowing visitations or more staff could mean a couple (or more) of hair-dressing businesses and/ or a home masseuse business on any given, quiet Oak Bay residential street. This could conceivably add a whole host of problems for residents of that street. Not a problem if you don’t live in Oak Bay.
The 2016 Resident Satisfaction Survey identified over-development as the #1 resident priority and this has been a constant resident message since. Correcting the Zoning bylaw has been an election promise by a majority of the present Council members. What is the purpose of the District’s asking residents over-and-over if they are still in favor of stopping the obvious over-building on many of Oak Bay’s residential lots.
Reliable projections for various levels of the Covid-19 epidemic is optimistically 4 years - even if a vaccine is developed. Without informing the Community of their reasons, Council and Staff are pressing forward in the next few months with significant densification initiatives. This indicates they are unaware of how this virus spreads, the impacts of the pandemic crisis or their responsibilities. Several one-day virus infection-records this week have resulted many deaths.
Now is not the time to be considering and spending time and tax dollars on densification of any type. The Provincial Government is well aware that these are dangerous times and in contrast to Oak Bay's densification initiatives, have imposed strong congestion restrictions - why is the District’s leadership not getting it.
----------------------------------------
“Nothing is inevitable if you are paying attention”
*******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 and sign up for our newsletter – bottom of Newsletter Menu Item.
-------------------------------------
Appendix #1 (Providing misleading/ or withholding information is “fooling People”)
Appendix #2
It is recognized that Victoria and Vancouver have large financial staffs and big budgets. But this is not an excuse for Oak Bay's not providing any financial or impact information on the Survey’s important priority items that the Budget Survey identifies and requests Oak Bay’s resident’s approval and /or disapproval.
It is recognized that Victoria and Vancouver have large financial staffs and big budgets. But this is not an excuse for Oak Bay's not providing any financial or impact information on the Survey’s important priority items that the Budget Survey identifies and requests Oak Bay’s resident’s approval and /or disapproval.
City of Vancouver online 2021 Budget (31 Page Report)
https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/2021-budget-public-engagement-report.PDF
Additional Staff Reports
https://council.vancouver.ca/20200708/documents/cfsc2.pdf
https://vancouver.ca/your-government/budget-engagement.aspx
https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/2021-budget-public-engagement-report.PDF
Additional Staff Reports
https://council.vancouver.ca/20200708/documents/cfsc2.pdf
https://vancouver.ca/your-government/budget-engagement.aspx