Mayor Froese in finally recognizing the anger directed at him and this Council for their actions in Brookswood is now striking out in a sad, and frankly very desperate, fashion. Calling a Press Conference this Friday morning, Mayor Froese attempted to 1) Deflect blame from where blame should be directed on the Brookswood issue and 2) and NOW he is planning to revamp the Planning Process? Did I hear all of this correctly?
This will be short and sweet – The Facts! Don’t believe me, believe the Council Minutes!!!
One – In May of 2011 the Municipal Council of the day dealt with the Brookswood issue and I was absent! Minutes show who was at Council that day and approved the Brookswood Plan makeup and exactly what they approved.
(For the record I was away for two consecutive meetings due to me daughter’s serious life threatening illness. I am sure the residents of the Township forgave my absence.)
“When the petition from landowners to initiate a neighborhood plan process came before council on Feb. 14th, 2011, Green voted in favor of a motion to refer the petition to staff for a report on the implications of that idea.” Langley Times Nov. 7th. Confirmation of that fact has been reported in the both local papers.
Township of Langley Minutes / Verbatim copy follows of items pertinent to this issue. You can access the minutes through the Township of Langley archive web-site.
Regular Afternoon Meeting of Township Council
Monday. May 30th, 2011 at 3:00 PM
PRESENT: Acting Mayor, M. Kositsky
Councillors J. Bateman, B. Dornan, S. Ferguson, C. Fox, B. Long and G. Ward
Absent – Mayor Green and Councillor Richter
B. 1.
Griffith Neighborhood Advisory Group
Request by the Griffith Neighborhood Advisory Group to appear before Council to answer any questions with regards to the Brookswood/Fernridge Neighborhood Plan – Carried
F. 2.
Brookswood/Fernridge Community Plan Update and Neighborhood Plan
Report 11-66
File CD 6480-21-001
Moved by Councillor Ferguson,
Seconded by Councillor Bateman,
That Council authorizes staff to proceed with a process to update the Brookswood/Fernridge Community Plan, as needed, and to create a Neighborhood Plan as described in this report and set out in the form of a draft Memorandum of Understanding, provided as attachment C, including the hiring of planning staff and retention of consultants all at the proponents expense.
CARRIED (Unanimous)
Special Note: Please note, the motion that passed unanimously was by Acting Mayor Kositsky, Councilors Bateman, Dornan, Ferguson, Fox, Long, and Ward. Similar to other contracts and motions I uncovered while in the Mayor’s office (read Langley Events Center) the wording approved by Council gives staff complete control (a blank cheque) with NO referral back to Council for final approval. This is a practice that MUST be stopped!
Where was Mayor Froese after his election, when confronted by such community outrage over this issue? Why did he not review the process and the agreement which was obviously a conflict of interest?
TWO – Mayor Froese then announces, if elected, he will revamp the Planning process through a Special Committee? This would be another Blank Cheque of trust! Questions the community needs to ask themselves – Who would sit on it? What would the process be for establishing changes? How open and transparent would it be? Would it involve a Community Planning Committee fairly selected and fairly represented? Would it hold Open Public Meetings? And we could go on….
So let’s see if I understand this? We have a Mayor that promised addressing the Community Plan process in his 2011 election campaign and has done nothing for three years except voting for every development that came along despite public anger. We have a Mayor that openly disrespected literally thousands of residents submissions on a litany of developments by voting in favor, not recognizing residents wishes. We have a Mayor who is on record as saying he does not make decisions based on Public Hearings, petitions and other public input but has to consider those that did not come out to the meetings? This is a form of democracy that is NOT welcome in the Township of Langley.
NOW, we have just gone through 4 weeks of the Election Campaign in which this Mayor has defended and justified all of his actions in public debates, all candidate meetings and literature and NOW one week before election-day he recognizes a problem? Given his past history he is not to be believed!
Conclusion – The sitting Mayor on the eve of the election is being pushed by his handlers to respond to what are the real issues in this campaign, unfortunately Mayor Froese’s response at this late a date comes across as political, not sincere and not to be believed. Mayor Froese tried this new “revamp Township Planning” last night in front of over 450 people from all corners of the municipality and it received the reception it deserved!
Vote for REAL Change Nov. 15th NOT FOUR MORE YEARS OF THE SAME!
There will be more political NEWS in the days ahead. We are coming down to the home stretch. Don’t be swayed, stay the course and lets take back the Township of Langley for ALL of our residents. When in office I fought hard for you and listened to you. Lets get back at it!!
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