Saanich takes steps on reviewing how it’s run

Councillors, mayor at odds; public not getting what it voted for: Atwell

Eleven months after the 2014 municipal election paved the way, Saanich councillors have finally found their footing for what Coun. Dean Murdock calls “likely the most important initiative council will launch this term.”

At issue: Following through on Saanich’s amalgamation referendum question: “Do you support council initiating a community-based review of the governance structure and policies within Saanich and our partnerships within the region?”

Eighty-eight per cent of voters answered yes to the question, posed during last November’s municipal election.

The municipality’s councillors are on side with the process slowly unfolding to seek the review — an exercise Murdock predicts could have “a profound influence on the shape of Saanich’s future” and will be looked back at as pivotal period.

Mayor Richard Atwell is definitely not on board with the way they’re going about it.

According to Atwell: “The public isn’t getting what it voted for and I need to find a solution to that.”

Moreover, he said, the pace of the process is “very disappointing” considering he first talked of a standing committee to tackle the issue, with himself serving as chair, at his Dec. 1 inaugural address.

A week later, Coun. Vic Derman initiated a governance review that Atwell said “put control of the process in the hands of staff and consultants [and] it ceased to become a citizenbased review, the very thing the ballot question promised.”

It took until the Oct. 5 Saanich council meeting for all council members — except Atwell — to endorse the next step: Advertising for 13 people to serve on a governance review commit- tee. Members of that committee will be recommended to council by a focus group made up of representatives of Saanich council advisory committees, plus two members of the Saanich Community Association Network.

Coun. Susan Brice said that the motion that was passed honours the commitment on the ballot.

“I think this may well be the most citizen-led process ever conducted in this region,” she said. “Saanich is starting down an exciting pathway. This is a unique process — it empowers residents and it relies on a trusting relationship between council and the public.”

One of the biggest challenges for councillors will be to “keep our hands off” the process, she added.

“It is so important that we get the process right from the start,” Murdock said. “There is no template to follow, and council must ensure that the tools it provides for the citizen-led undertaking are the right ones and that the review is set up for success.”

Coun. Judy Brownoff reiterated the need for an arm’s-length approach to selecting the committee members.

“I think the process that’s defined here is a good start.”

Atwell does not agree, saying the process undertaken since December has been “disrespectful” to both himself and those who voted for him, and has stalled postelection momentum for change.

The standing committee he wanted to chair as part of the review has not been recognized in the process, he noted.

Its three members — himself, Coun. Colin Plant and Rob Wickson, president of Gorge Tillicum Community Association, have never met and, he said, it has not been recognized in the process.

Atwell originally wanted to work with community associations to define the approach to the question, “and then empower them to produce the answers to the questions they need answered.”

Instead, the rest of council decided that the 16 associations would get only two spots on the focus committee that will vet committee members.

The main aim of the governance review is to allow Saanich “to become more open, more responsive and ultimately more effective” as well as ensure decisions are made “using the highest standards of public participation,” Atwell said Dec. 1.

Brownoff, who is also a Capital Regional District director, wants to hear from more than community associations, and cited businesses, non-profit organizations, educational institutions and developers as well as ordinary citizens.

“Why should the community associations play the key role?” she asked. “I want to be clear, all groups in Saanich need to be able to participate in this process and have their say to make Saanich an even better place.”

When the focus group reviews applications for the committee, “names will be blackened out to avoid any favouritism,” Brownoff added. Those applications would be forwarded to council for ratification.

Plant said Saanich has established that committee members selected at arm’slength from council dovetails with “having citizens at the centre of the process.”

He expressed surprise that Atwell said the process chosen by council was disrespectful.

“I believe that the mayor believes that a standing committee should have been struck to undertake the work of a governance review, but council clearly has endorsed the process it has taken,” Plant said.

“What makes things interesting for me is that I was the one councillor who was willing to serve on the standing committee and would have been fine with either process.”

City-Spaces Consulting Ltd. has been paid $6,000 thus far to recommend how to proceed with a citizen-led committee.

Meanwhile, the formation of the focus group that will make recommendations about committee members is still in the works. Advertisements for members might not go out for a couple of weeks, said Saanich chief administrative officer Andy Laidlaw.