29 November 2010

Courtesy & Democracy hit a new low at the Park Board

At the scheduled meeting of the Park Board tonight, Vision Vancouver hit a new low for courtesy and democracy. After the usual slide show of Commissioner events, the chair of the Planning and Environment committee announced to the public that the next meeting of that committee would be postponed so Commissioners could instead address City Council at its budgetary public hearings. A nice idea, but one that courtesy would suggest discussing with other members of the committee before announcing it publicly.

The Chair of the Board then announced that the only item of the agenda--the proposed budget initiatives--would be deferred by the Board and so no decision would be made. This announcement came even before the report had been brought to the table. Never in all my years working on Boards have I come across a Chair that announced the result of a vote before the motion had appeared. Granted Vision Vancouver has a majority on the Board and can do whatever they please, but this smacks of outrageous arrogance.

A year ago, during the last budget discussion, Vision declared that this Board would now work, not as a consensus board, but as government and opposition. This year they have dropped even the pretense of listening to any other view than their own, and now do as they please. So much for democracy.

1 comment:

  1. The Vision Park Board sure took a hit at the open Killarney meeting with regards to the closure of the Kidstreet out of school care.

    I thought the Chair was totally taken aback when confronted with the hardships to local families. One would never have thought that under a Vision Council and park Board 50 liscensed childcare spaces would be lost


    Shame on Vision!

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