Council spat brings hearing to an early end
NPA councillor blames chair Louie for ‘bullying’ committee members
The veneer of civility papering over the political differences between the Vision Vancouver party and the opposition Non-Partisan Association and Green party was shredded Tuesday after four councillors walked out of a public hearing to protest their treatment by the chairman.
In doing so, the politicians propelled the city into new legal territory after City Clerk Janice MacKenzie had to declare the meeting ended as a result of a lack of quorum. Not in recent B.C. history has a municipal council meeting or public hearing been suspended because of the lack of a legal minimum of elected members, especially one created deliberately.
As of Wednesday afternoon, MacKenzie was meeting with the city’s legal team to determine the standing of the public hearing, which involved a property rezoning for a proposed residential tower at 3365 Commercial Drive and 1695-1775 East 18th Avenue.
Adding to the drama is the mysterious loss of a public cable feed for the crucial minutes when the action was taking place. Normally available for playback, the recording of what went on in council has still not been published on the city’s website.
The council breakdown took place late Tuesday night after the NPA and Green councillors disagreed with several rulings by Coun. Raymond Louie, the chairman of the meeting and also the acting mayor. Only seven council members were present for the public hearing; three Vision councillors — Louie, Heather Deal and Tim Stevenson; three NPA councillors — Melissa De Genova, Elizabeth Ball and George Affleck; and Green party Coun. Adriane Carr. The remaining Vision councillors and Mayor Gregor Robertson were absent.
What triggered the unprecedented walkout began with a relatively small disagreement over how long the public hearing should go. But by the end, the meeting had dissolved into an accusation by De Genova that Louie had “bullied” the councillors.
Carr and De Genova said Louie refused to entertain standard motions to extend the public hearing past 10 p.m., the time council must normally end. They said he then attempted to get Stevenson to refer the public hearing to a new date in order to get more information from staff, a tactic Carr said Robertson had ruled was inappropriate at other public hearings.
“It is not democratic to apply one set of rules to one group of people and another set of rules to another,” Carr said. “That is why I felt it was necessary to stand up for that principle of fairness and walk out.”
De Genova, who has earned a reputation for robustly challenging the Vision majority, said Louie appeared to “bully” opposition members.
For his part, Louie said the four councillors were engaged in “schoolyard tactics,” abandon- ing the public hearing when they didn’t get the answers they wanted.
“What you’ve just heard is a bit of political spin in order to deal with damage control they need as a result of walking out of council,” Louie told reporters. “It appeared to me to be an impulsive behaviour on their part where they were at a loss of what to do and decided to walk out.”
Coun. Elizabeth Ball, chair of the NPA caucus, said she grew exasperated because of what she said were Louie’s unfair decisions.
Beyond the normal politicking that takes place in a council split along party lines, the surprise end to the public hearing puts the city into uncharted territory.
Lawyer Raymond Young, who specializes in municipal and planning law, said he’s never heard of such an incident in B.C. But he said walking out of a meeting is not uncommon, particularly in the United States.
“It is a political tactic, and there are some states where it is actually illegal to cause a meeting to fail by deliberately creating a lack of quorum,” he said.
Whether the public hearing in this case can be salvaged is unknown. The portion in which members of the public could address council had concluded and the councillors were in the process of discussing the merits. Young said it might be possible for the city to resume the public hearing and preserve the public submissions portion, but without a doubt the city is into new legal territory, he said.
For his part, Robertson defended Louie and said the opposition councillors may have been confused about proper process.
It appeared to me to be an impulsive behaviour on their part where they were at a loss of what to do and decided to walk out