We have a lot of questions for Rich Coleman given his unwillingness to tell you, the voter, what his assets are; all other candidates are living by the rules, what is he hiding? We say that for a number of reasons, but for a start is the well documented 2008 meeting I had with Rich Coleman in his office when he said to me “WE are OK with the job the Mayor is doing” and “you have been making noises about some land deals” (Dixon Pit to a local well-known family) …. “I want you to know WE are OK with them?” A question he has never answered is – who was he talking about when he said WE? In another thread of leaked emails initiated by Joel Schacter (which we outlined in detail in a previous post) there was talk about how to “Take Green Out”? (The 2011 election.) What were they and are they afraid of?
All of this plus the outrage by so many on-line and in Social-Media on the “Blind Trust” Issue caused me to investigate the legislation and rules surrounding a candidates Financial Disclosure. A Legal opinion was received – so on the heels of that we submitted the following letter to Elections BC, our local Election Officers, and the Minister of Municipal Affairs. Residents / Taxpayers / Voters of the Township of Langley should be absolutely outraged. Read On:
William Richard (Rick) Green
#407 – 8067 207th Street
Langley B.C. V2Y 0N9
778 705-9282 / Cell 604 866-5752 or email creeksidefarms@shaw.ca
September 12th, 2022
Ms. Darlene Foxgard Chief Election Officer, Elections B.C. Complaint for Investigation
Mr. Bob Wilson, Asst. Election Officer, PO Box 9275 Stn Prov Govt,
c/o Township of Langley Municipal Hall, Victoria, B.C. V8W 9J6
20338 65th Ave., Langley B.C. V2Y 3J1 via email – investigations@elections.bc.ca
Dear Ms. Foxgard, Mr. Wilson, and Elections B.C. Investigations:
URGENT Re: Filed Mayoral Nomination / Financial Disclosure for one Mr. Richard Coleman
This letter is being sent on behalf of a wide number of Township of Langley taxpayers and registered voters. We are writing to register a serious complaint with respect to Mr. Richard (Rich) Coleman’s filed Nomination Papers, specifically his Financial Disclosure section. It is clear in reading the rules / legislation governing Financial Disclosure filings that Mr. Richard Coleman has breached the rules governing this act. In his filing dated September 1st, 2022.
Mr. Coleman does not properly declare his assets as required – within Assets S.3(a) of the Statement of Disclosure. “List the name of each corporation in which you hold one or more shares, including shares held by a trustee on your behalf” and within Real Property S.3 (f) “List the legal description and address of all land in which you, or a trustee acting on your behalf, own an interest or have an agreement which entitles you to obtain an interest.”
As outlined in the Financial Disclosure Act, effective August 24th, 2022, in Section 4(a) all candidates for local elected office must comply with disclosing any and all items outlined in Section 3 as required within Section 4, all interests in business and land as applicable.
In the attached filed Statement of Disclosure in S.3(a) all that is listed is “Blind Trust.” Based on confirmed legal advice, this seems to clearly contravene the above noted sections requiring complete and transparent disclosure of personal, business and land interests, or arrangements to potentially acquire/hold any such interests in the future. We can find no qualification or exception for a “Blind Trust” or definition of such within the Financial Disclosure Act to avoid disclosure of these interests as they may or may not exist.
We, the taxpayers, and voters within the Township of Langley expect that all of their nominated candidates for the upcoming Oct. 15th, 2022 Municipal Election are held to the well described transparent legislative rules surrounding ALL nominated candidates. Taxpayers and voters must have the confidence that they know the holdings (not value) of any individual nominated to or elected to a Municipal Government office.
In our collective memory, after decades of municipal political activity we cannot remember any candidate using “Blind Trust” as a way to improperly hide their assets and/or holdings information from the voter.
We urge immediate action to force compliance of Financial Disclosure Rules or the withdrawal of his Nomination – Given the timing of the nomination period just ending last Friday September 9th 2022 at 4:30 PM and the election timing of October 15th, 2022 we request immediate action by all authorities to enforce the rules, regulations, and legislative requirements as are clearly outlined. The rules do not exempt a private citizen as has been suggested; for if that were the case the rules would not pertain to anyone currently not in elected office. That would obviously be an irresponsible decision.
Elections B.C. is the agency mandated to enforce the legislation and rules, in no way should the taxpayer / voter have to go to court to enforce the legislation that is in place. Telling voters to go and pay for a court action is neither fair as to its personal taxpayer costs nor practical in terms of its timing.
If there are any questions and/or additional information required, please feel free to contact me at any time.
Sincerely,
W.R. (Rick) Green
Former Mayor Township of Langley (2008 – 2011)
Cc Minister Nathan Cullen, Mini. of Municipal Affairs muni.minister@gov.bc.ca
Megan Dykeman MLA megan.dykeman.mla@leg.bc.ca
Consider the following: We have a candidate running for mayor, a former MLA and Provincial Cabinet Minister that stepped away from politics in the wake of the recent Money Laundering Scandal / Inquiry.
Money Laundering Inquiry: Now Rich Coleman likes to suggest he was cleared of any wrongdoing, however reading the final report by Commissioner Cullen, he had some unpleasant commentary about Minister Rich Coleman’s lack of response to an obvious and immediate serious problem. NO Rich, in fact in reading his report you were seriously labelled with at best irresponsibility! That is quite damming for a cabinet minister!
Rich Coleman’s Background: What is Rich Coleman’s background? Well, he was a short-lived member of the RCMP before becoming a developer in the Township of Langley, before running for the B.C. Liberal Nomination, and becoming our MLA. He seems to have always had a serious interest in land development, noting his comment to me re the Dixon Pit property earlier in this post. But interestingly his ongoing interest in property in the Township of Langley followed him to Victoria. He was the Minister responsible for housing which followed him for a number of years regardless of the Primary Portfolio he held; that number of years was quite unusual. Just saying!
The following is taken directly from Wikipedia on September 12th, 2022 – In January 2007, as BC Forests and Range Minister, at the request of Western Forest Products, Rich Coleman approved the removal of 28,283 hectares (approx. 70,000 acres) of private land from three coastal tree farm licenses along the south-west coast of Vancouver Island and transferred ownership of these lands in totality to Western Forest Products.[7] Minister Coleman announced this decision about eight months after his brother, Stan Coleman, joined Western Forest Products as their manager of strategic planning.[8]
In response to the many concerns and allegations of this land giveaway, the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre requested an official investigation by the Auditor-General’s Office of British Columbia.[9] On July 1, 2008, BC Auditor-General John Doyle released his report, “Removing Private Land from Tree Farm Licenses 6, 19 & 25: Protecting the Public Interest?”[10] In his report he “condemned former forests minister Rich Coleman for allowing a forestry company to remove land from three tree farm licenses for residential development, citing the possibilities of conflicts of interest and insider trading by government staff.”[1
Holborn Properties / Little Mountain B.C. Liberal Government land development scandal. The B.C. Liberal government that was in power at the time of the 2008 deal gave Holborn $211 million in interest-free loans on an 18-year term, the agreement shows. Interest will not accrue on that loan until Dec. 31, 2026. The contract shows that the sale price was $334 million, but the province says only $35 million has been paid by Holborn. When an $88-million credit given for social housing and the initial down payment are subtracted, the developer still owes the province $211 million. Also in the deal was an additional $88 million in low-interest loans for non-market housing, repayable by 2050. The Little Mountain lands sit between Queen Elizabeth Park and Main Street, just south of Nat Bailey Stadium. The six-hectare site was home to 224 units of social housing that existed from the 1950s until the land was sold in 2008. Holborn initially pledged to build 1,400 market value homes and 234 units of social housing. But the site has remained untouched ever since the existing buildings were demolished in 2009. Coleman was responsible for this file!
Selling off 100 Crown owned properties with an estimated value of $800 million in order to balance the provincial 2013 budget. This by any standard is wrong, you do not sell off capital assets (actual value unknown until sold) to cover operating costs. It is the law of diminishing returns. So, what do we sell off next year? This is like selling the family silver to pay today’s food bill, what do we sell tomorrow? Coleman was responsible for this file!
Mufford Crescent Diversion plan was initiated by the then B.C. Liberal Government: TransLink was the lead agency for this project, an overpass over the rail line and Glover Rd. through the historical Hudsons Bay and Bella Vista Farms making over 300 acres of prime agricultural land impossible to farm which would have been removed from the ALR. It was designed and approved without Public Consultation, supported by B.C. Liberal MLA Rich Coleman.
The then B.C. Liberal Government were furious with me getting in their way of what can only be described as a serious land deal. The remainder of my term was very interesting because of it, I was a target of the B.C. Liberals from that point on.
After winning the 2008 election Mayor Rick Green, as promised in the campaign, advised the ALC that he was holding two Open Houses and a Public Meeting providing public engagement on a project the ALC had just privately approved. This process saw over 1,000 people participating with 97% in opposition. This was the measure of public interest and public opposition. Mayor Green received abusive opposition from his Council plus verbal (in-person) and written threats from then Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon; if we did not want the money, he would move it elsewhere! Mayor Green told falcon to go ahead. (Despite the threats he never did move the money, it was a bluff.) While it took two years, we were successful, the ALC, thanks to Chair Richard Bullock, denied the application, based on a proposal put forward by Mayor Green ion a private conversation. The proposal was returned to the funding partners for a better option. It is interesting that Chair Richard Bullock was removed from the ALC shortly after that event by the then B.C. Liberal Government. Coleman was primarily responsible for fighting against the wishes of Township residents supporting the original proposal.
In summary: As we stated in a previous BLOG post, Rich Coleman is running to prevent change from the current status-quo. He does not want any change from what has been happening over at least the past two and a half decades. This period of time has been very fruitful for friends and insiders in the development community.
So, to the question in front of all of us – Do you want to continue with status-quo with no attention paid to needed infrastructure, but all attention will be given to friends and insiders? I do not and we hope you will agree with us on October 15th, 2022.
After reading all of the above, do you really want Rich Coleman as your Mayor? For the sake of our kids, our families, and our grandkids, let us get this right!
RG
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