The province dispatched a particular adviser to Lions Bay for July and August — at $25,000 a month — to “facilitate efficient decision-making” on the fractured council
All politics is native, they are saying, and also you don’t get rather more native than Lions Bay, a postage-stamp of a group of 1,400 perched between Howe Sound under and Ch’ich’iyúy Elxwíkn (the Lions) above.
Its village council has been described as dysfunctional because the municipal election final October.
Senior municipal workers, together with two chief administrative officers, have stop or been fired; councillors have refused to acknowledge standing committees; incoherent trail-closure bulletins have created confusion; relations between council members have been rancorous and one councillor resigned weeks after the election; and there have been studies of councillors micromanaging points which might be municipal workers’s duty.
And the mayor, Ken Berry, has been banned from publishing his weekly mayor’s message by a vote in council.
“Issues are so dysfunctional you possibly can’t actually have a dialog about the issue,” mentioned Ehsan Monfred, an airline lawyer who moved his household to Lions Bay 3½ years in the past.
Issues obtained dangerous sufficient that the province dispatched a municipal adviser to Lions Bay in July and August, considered one of solely 4 occasions a neighborhood council in B.C. has requested the province for such assist. (The others are Harrison Scorching Springs this yr, Wells in 2022 and McBride in 2017.)
“At the moment, greater than ever, there’s a robust want for skilled managers and politicians in native authorities to discover a higher strategy to work collectively,” mentioned Randy Diehl, the adviser dispatched to Lions Bay. “There appears to be unprecedented chaos operating by way of our democratic establishments.”
Diehl has 37 years of expertise as a civil servant, together with 23 years in Kamloops as director of improvement providers after which chief administrative officer. He retired in 2012 to kind Diehl Administration Providers, which has labored with communities throughout Western Canada in administration, governance and recruitment.
He didn’t deal with the scenario in Lions Bay particularly, however serving in native authorities is extraordinarily difficult for each workers and politicians, he mentioned.
The fallout of wrongful dismissals, poor administration practices and a lack of expertise of tips on how to govern consists of an “monumental” erosion of public confidence in far too many communities, he mentioned.
Lest anybody suppose he’s overstating issues, Diehl referred to latest headlines detailing varied councils discovering themselves in scorching water.
The benefit with which individuals can vent on social media has solely made issues worse, Diehl believes.
“Usually, these views take the type of an indignant rant and haven’t any basis or validity, and they’re expressed with out penalties,” he mentioned.
Name it the Trump Impact, he mentioned.
“On this surroundings, administration, managing public establishments is extraordinarily advanced. Whether it is executed nicely, nice issues can occur for the group; whether it is executed poorly, the price of governance rises and the achievement of necessary group objectives is compromised.”
How dangerous is it?
Diehl mentioned greater than 100 senior managers have been wrongfully dismissed in B.C. over the previous seven years, to the tune of a minimum of $25 million in settlements. Most of these dismissals got here quickly after municipal elections (35 chief administrative officers had been despatched packing after the 2022 elections).
“In virtually all circumstances, ‘cleansing home’ doesn’t enhance the scenario, and sometimes it makes issues worse,” Diehl mentioned. “The fallout is commonly a chaotic mess with downgraded providers, disgruntled workers, greater prices and a annoyed, indignant public who had greater expectations of the newly elected replacements.”
The very best governing mannequin seeks to keep away from having councillors directing workers, Diehl mentioned.
“A company with quite a few bosses, conflicting messages and no clear course rapidly turns into dysfunctional. It’s a repeated sample with newly elected officers.”
Berry, first-time mayor of Lions Bay, says it value provincial taxpayers roughly $25,000 a month for an adviser, whose function the province defines as serving to councils meld with workers, make clear roles and “facilitate efficient decision-making.”
The mayor was happy with Diehl’s suggestions, however is annoyed that’s all they’re: suggestions.
“What I’ve realized is that these suggestions are usually not binding,” Berry mentioned. “So he says, ‘I strongly really feel that that is one of the best follow that’s being rolled out throughout British Columbia … that is what we wish to see.’
“However that’s about so far as it goes. Council doesn’t should heed these suggestions … and so this dysfunction simply type of festers and continues.”
Diehl agreed that steps resembling introducing a code of conduct are a ineffective train with out enforcement.
“There must be provincial laws which allows all jurisdictions to levy hefty sanctions, together with dismissing workers with trigger and recalling politicians when there may be clear proof of a breach,” he mentioned.
“It touches on how communities can come collectively, but additionally how they could type of be cut up aside,” he mentioned, noting that three-quarters of B.C.’s municipalities are small to tiny. “Quite a lot of stuff you’re doing are face-to-face versus some summary assemble with a number of ranges of separation between the governing and the ruled.
“It’s quite a few elements all coming collectively affecting municipal authorities — generational change, new populations coming out and in of small communities, nascent belief networks that haven’t developed but, however the operations of the municipality nonetheless should occur, choices nonetheless should be made.”
Lions Bay Coun. Michael Broughton hoped to debate the powers of municipal advisers finally week’s Union of B.C. Municipalities conference with counterparts from Harrison Scorching Springs, the place the mayor and council are additionally nonetheless divided.
On Sept. 4, Broughton launched an unsuccessful movement to deliver again the mayor’s message in Lions Bay. It was defeated 3-2, with councillors Neville Abbott and Marcus Reuter, holdovers from the final council, and Jaime Cunliffe, who received a council seat in a byelection this spring, voting towards.
“That movement was very optimistic, a motherhood movement which, extremely, they turned down,” Broughton mentioned.
Abbott, Reuter and Cunliffe didn’t reply to interview requests.
Norm Barmeier, an incumbent who was re-elected to council final November however then resigned shortly after, citing variations with Berry, at first agreed to be interviewed, then modified his thoughts.
“I need to be clear with you. I’m simply type of over getting raked over the coals at council,” he mentioned. “I definitely don’t need to duck my tasks as a citizen, however it’s a small city.”
A village, really, with competing Fb pages devoted to competing factions following an election through which Berry defeated incumbent Ron McLaughlin by 18 votes after two-thirds of eligible voters turned out.
Pieter Dorsman, who has lived in Lions Bay for twenty-four years and who labored with Berry on his election marketing campaign, mentioned he sees resistance to alter.
“There have been a variety of points that had been unresolved and poorly managed,” he mentioned. “I knew Ken as an affordable man with a enterprise background and a few good concepts on tips on how to clear up stuff.
“However he ended up with a really divided council. It’s was a conflict zone,” Dorsman mentioned. “There are mainly two camps within the village which might be frequently attacking each other.”
The mayor is a former skilled and Olympic hockey participant who watched from the bench whereas teammate Wayne Gretzky scored his fiftieth purpose in his thirty ninth sport on Dec. 30, 1981.
He sees the potential for greatness in Lions Bay, too.
“We’ve so many gifted artists, musicians and enterprise individuals, it’s a tremendous group,” Berry mentioned.
“This primary yr has been slightly bit turbulent, however we’ll get on observe as a result of I actually do suppose there are alternatives right here.”
