Newsletter November 6, 2020
Public Comment Alone is Not Public Engagement
Public Engagement must be a two-way street: it requires interaction and collaboration. Council’s present method of just listening, often without acting on the information provided or even considering and respecting the priorities residents have identified, means Council is not taking this input seriously.
Recently, even though there had been a whole host of serious problems with a subdivision development application and strong, insightful resident opposition, staff still spent hours generating reports and a bylaw.
Council members for their part debated and discussed the subdivision development in Council meetings, considering options on whether or not to save the single house on the property from demolition. Council also considered a number of staff reports and spent a similar amount of time debating where to place a piece of public art.
Council apparently, has not noticed that Oak Bay’s environment and streetscapes are being decimated. This has been pointed out many many times by residents. So why is council not debating and discussing and considering options to prevent this? (much more on these development and environmental issues in future Oak Bay Watch’s newsletters and bulletins).
It has been pointed out that the Administration, the Planning Department and previous Councils have ensured that there is full interaction and collaboration with the development community.
Perhaps this is the result of Oak Bay's purchasing an Urban Development Institute annual membership and having the Director of Building and Planning as its representative. As such, he is able to attend this influential development and real-estate lobbying organization’s meetings, dinners and luncheons.
Residents however, other than the group of carefully selected residents who are members of the Advisory Planning Commission, have been noticeably left out of the interaction and collaboration picture.
The public all too often has been reduced to a passive role without any involvement in prioritizing or actions. This has been the situation no matter how strong and widespread the resident message is. This is not the outcome that residents envisioned when they cast their vote in the 2018 municipal election.
It’s no wonder then that residents have given up expressing their concerns at Council meetings. Council and the Administration may not have noticed that Council Meeting public participation and input on developments has ground to a halt.
Admittedly this can be attributed to the Covid -19 virus. However, this had been the situation before the virus struck. Now, due to BC’s Covid –19 virus restrictions, the main method for residents to express their viewpoints at Council meetings, is conveniently just a phone call away.
It has made it much easier than trekking up to the Hall and sitting patiently for hours waiting for the Agenda item you want to address comes up. (Note: in preparing the agenda, Staff has almost always placed important/controversial items at the end of Council meeting agendas no matter how long).
Added to this is a fairly recent development: Council meeting items that remotely resemble controversy or expressing or involving an analysis of the merits of an issue have all but disappeared from the pages of the Oak Bay News. This appears to have coincided with the hiring by Oak Bay of a “Communications Specialist” otherwise known as a Public Relations spokesperson or, Spin Doctor.
Oak Bay Watch’s Perspective
We had hoped that all of these issues around the lack of interaction and collaboration would be behind us with the new October 2018 Council, but now that hope is fading fast as their four-year term is halfway through. There have been three public engagement task forces in a seven-year span. The long-awaited July 2018 public engagement task force recommendations are still sitting waiting to be implemented.
As reported in Oak Bay Watch previous newsletters, no matter how strong the public input has been on issues, all to often they have not been taken seriously. Some have not even been prioritized. Setting policy is one thing: making sure it is strong enough and effective is another.
Did we really need a high-salaried public communications specialist after all the years without? Was whoever had the responsibility of providing communication services not doing a good enough job? What was the reason and who made this expensive hiring decision? Were they not aware Oak Bay had a property tax increase crisis even before the Pandemic made it much worse? Come on - our main source of property tax income is from residential properties.
There are no other revenue sources to help out like Victoria’s Business tax income or Esquimalt’s Federal Naval base $11,000,000 annual payment. Oak Bay’s Provincial token grant in lieu of taxes is barely enough to cover a third of the salary of one senior staff member.
At the end of the day how much communications time are were talking about? Who is the target of the communications? Certainly not developers: doesn’t the Planning Department have that one covered? With residents? We did not notice any communication with 785 Island Road residents, most of whom were opposed to the many development problems and complications.
Even if these serious issues had been identified by the Planning Department much earlier, they should have been publicly disclosed: for example, the excessive amount of blasting that would have been required – see Oak Bay Watch October 25, 2020 Newsletter.
There has been a new Question and Answer Item added to the Municipal website but most of the questions are just redirected to the appropriate Department for answers. However, this service was already available pre the Communication Specialist era. The departmental phone numbers are on the Website and questions and the answers were already provided.
The Communications Specialist is supervised by the Administration and therefore is very unlikely to provide information that puts the Administration, Council or the District in a bad light. How can residents weigh in on issues if they don’t know about them or don't have the full picture?
Residents who work most likely will not sit through an entire evening’s 4-hour Council meeting waiting to provide input on a late agenda item. They will perhaps read the Oak Bay News. However, that media source is now avoiding many of the Council issues reported by Oak Bay Watch
It seems to us:
The Times Colonist October 9, 2020 Editorial recommends; “shared service delivery between adjacent municipalities” and considering Oak Bay’s small population and tax base and ever-increasing property taxes, this sounds like an excellent suggestion.
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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)
Public Comment Alone is Not Public Engagement
Public Engagement must be a two-way street: it requires interaction and collaboration. Council’s present method of just listening, often without acting on the information provided or even considering and respecting the priorities residents have identified, means Council is not taking this input seriously.
Recently, even though there had been a whole host of serious problems with a subdivision development application and strong, insightful resident opposition, staff still spent hours generating reports and a bylaw.
Council members for their part debated and discussed the subdivision development in Council meetings, considering options on whether or not to save the single house on the property from demolition. Council also considered a number of staff reports and spent a similar amount of time debating where to place a piece of public art.
Council apparently, has not noticed that Oak Bay’s environment and streetscapes are being decimated. This has been pointed out many many times by residents. So why is council not debating and discussing and considering options to prevent this? (much more on these development and environmental issues in future Oak Bay Watch’s newsletters and bulletins).
It has been pointed out that the Administration, the Planning Department and previous Councils have ensured that there is full interaction and collaboration with the development community.
Perhaps this is the result of Oak Bay's purchasing an Urban Development Institute annual membership and having the Director of Building and Planning as its representative. As such, he is able to attend this influential development and real-estate lobbying organization’s meetings, dinners and luncheons.
Residents however, other than the group of carefully selected residents who are members of the Advisory Planning Commission, have been noticeably left out of the interaction and collaboration picture.
The public all too often has been reduced to a passive role without any involvement in prioritizing or actions. This has been the situation no matter how strong and widespread the resident message is. This is not the outcome that residents envisioned when they cast their vote in the 2018 municipal election.
It’s no wonder then that residents have given up expressing their concerns at Council meetings. Council and the Administration may not have noticed that Council Meeting public participation and input on developments has ground to a halt.
Admittedly this can be attributed to the Covid -19 virus. However, this had been the situation before the virus struck. Now, due to BC’s Covid –19 virus restrictions, the main method for residents to express their viewpoints at Council meetings, is conveniently just a phone call away.
It has made it much easier than trekking up to the Hall and sitting patiently for hours waiting for the Agenda item you want to address comes up. (Note: in preparing the agenda, Staff has almost always placed important/controversial items at the end of Council meeting agendas no matter how long).
Added to this is a fairly recent development: Council meeting items that remotely resemble controversy or expressing or involving an analysis of the merits of an issue have all but disappeared from the pages of the Oak Bay News. This appears to have coincided with the hiring by Oak Bay of a “Communications Specialist” otherwise known as a Public Relations spokesperson or, Spin Doctor.
Oak Bay Watch’s Perspective
We had hoped that all of these issues around the lack of interaction and collaboration would be behind us with the new October 2018 Council, but now that hope is fading fast as their four-year term is halfway through. There have been three public engagement task forces in a seven-year span. The long-awaited July 2018 public engagement task force recommendations are still sitting waiting to be implemented.
As reported in Oak Bay Watch previous newsletters, no matter how strong the public input has been on issues, all to often they have not been taken seriously. Some have not even been prioritized. Setting policy is one thing: making sure it is strong enough and effective is another.
Did we really need a high-salaried public communications specialist after all the years without? Was whoever had the responsibility of providing communication services not doing a good enough job? What was the reason and who made this expensive hiring decision? Were they not aware Oak Bay had a property tax increase crisis even before the Pandemic made it much worse? Come on - our main source of property tax income is from residential properties.
There are no other revenue sources to help out like Victoria’s Business tax income or Esquimalt’s Federal Naval base $11,000,000 annual payment. Oak Bay’s Provincial token grant in lieu of taxes is barely enough to cover a third of the salary of one senior staff member.
At the end of the day how much communications time are were talking about? Who is the target of the communications? Certainly not developers: doesn’t the Planning Department have that one covered? With residents? We did not notice any communication with 785 Island Road residents, most of whom were opposed to the many development problems and complications.
Even if these serious issues had been identified by the Planning Department much earlier, they should have been publicly disclosed: for example, the excessive amount of blasting that would have been required – see Oak Bay Watch October 25, 2020 Newsletter.
There has been a new Question and Answer Item added to the Municipal website but most of the questions are just redirected to the appropriate Department for answers. However, this service was already available pre the Communication Specialist era. The departmental phone numbers are on the Website and questions and the answers were already provided.
The Communications Specialist is supervised by the Administration and therefore is very unlikely to provide information that puts the Administration, Council or the District in a bad light. How can residents weigh in on issues if they don’t know about them or don't have the full picture?
Residents who work most likely will not sit through an entire evening’s 4-hour Council meeting waiting to provide input on a late agenda item. They will perhaps read the Oak Bay News. However, that media source is now avoiding many of the Council issues reported by Oak Bay Watch
It seems to us:
- Oak Bay Council’s public engagement policy needs a hard look and this certainly doesn’t mean another task force. It is not clear how many of the Administration’s new positions are in the public interest.
- Vancouver’s Council is very concerned about the coming year's property taxes (yes, they are considering the 2021 financial picture now). Vancouver's Council has indicated a 12% tax increase will be necessary or services will have to be cut to reduce the tax increase to 5%. The cuts however will be to the administration not to the core staff who provide the services.
- In Oak Bay, the increase in administrative staff is escalating at the same pace as the out-of-control taxes.
The Times Colonist October 9, 2020 Editorial recommends; “shared service delivery between adjacent municipalities” and considering Oak Bay’s small population and tax base and ever-increasing property taxes, this sounds like an excellent suggestion.
-------------------------------------
*******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)