langleywatchdog…. and more!

Being elected and serving your community on a Municipal Council is a significant responsibility that brings with it some serious sole searching in the decisions you are tasked to make on behalf of all taxpayers. Whether you run as an independent or as part of a team of like-minded candidates there will always be differences of opinion among all members of Council, (I know, I have been a part of both) however respect and decorum are essential for a well-run Council. Debate and difference of opinion is good and healthy, it is how you deal with it at the Council table with ALL members of Council that is important showing respect for all!

So, to a key question to all members of Council that should be asked – why did you run for Council? For most, in my experience, with the exclusion of many I have had to work with or who I have observed on our Township of Langley Council, normally elected members have priorities on what they want to accomplish? Unfortunately, during the past couple of decades Township of Langley Council has been populated by those being directed by outside forces, I have written about much of this in past BLOG Posts. What has gone on over the last couple of decades in the Township of Langley is hard to imagine or believe, but it is true as I found out.

To the point above, it is called finding your “RELEVANCE” as a sitting member of Council!

The worst situation that a sitting member of Council can find themselves in, is being branded IRRELEVANT! However, that is exactly the position that Councillor Richter finds herself in, it isn’t something that just happened, based on her performance over the last few decades she has been irrelevant for years – in my opinion!

This BLOG Post has been a long time in coming, God knows there has been a considerable amount of material to support my view over the past 16 years, since I first met her. Yes, I know she has been seen by some as the conscience of Council since first being elected in 1999. In reality nothing could be further from the truth if you really follow her actions at the council table. What has she accomplished other than dysfunction?

An opposing view during debate is good, an opposing view for the sake of opposing and being a constant disruptive voice on Council for purely political reasons is quite something else. The well publicized Township of Langley Council dysfunction over a number of years has had a number of contributors and guilty parties; however, there is a “Common Denominator”.

It has been well known that through the tenures of Mayors Kurt Alberts, Rick Green, Jack Froese and now Eric Woodward, Kim Richter has been a very difficult member of council to work with, in the opinion of many. It is not about disagreeing; it is about being disagreeable and disruptive. It is about a non-constructive participant within the body of council!

Why on a long list of issues over the years has she not argued vociferously to reach a final conclusion on an issue that raised her ire; she will ask a question on an issue but never follows up as though the theatrics of asking the question was her only interest in the issue? It is the theatrics of asking a question being her only purpose, she hopes those observing the meeting will think she knows what she is talking about.

A quiet negative vote on council while she is trying to calculate the direction of the political winds on many issues just doesn’t cut it.

Just in my term (2008 – 11) there was the introduction of Community Amenity Contributions (CACs), the Mufford Crescent Diversion, Landfill on Agricultural Land, Athenry, and the Langley Events Center financial boondoggle among so many others. OH yes and there was her appointment to my “Mayors Standing Committee of Finance”, her silence was deafening!

Where was she when we were going through many of those fights? The list is long and significant, I could write this whole BLOG Post on everything pre the 2022 election, but I digress.

So, to the issues immediately at hand, just in the first year of the current council? After watching most if not all Council meetings in the first year of our current council, I cannot sit back any longer without speaking up. Watching her repeatedly ask questions of staff, on many procedural issues that she knows the answers to; after all she has been on council for 23 years. Her posturing to the audience in chambers and on live-stream is nothing more than theatrics designed to try to impress.

First – Constant fight at the Council table as to the current council moving forward on their promises to build the infrastructure long ignored by previous councils which she has been a part of going back a couple of decades!

The current Council majority under Mayor Eric Woodward ran on a platform of not only building the infrastructure, long ignored by previous Councils as they continued to approve development in the Township; he spelled out their plan as to how this investment in infrastructure was going to be paid for; development would finally pay for itself, but no, Kim Richter continues to object.

A big part of this council’s plan was the introduction of a competitive CAC program and an annual review of Development Cost Charges (DCCs). These plans were well presented during the last election and anyone who has been on council as long as Councillor Richter has, knows how that works, only too well. While Kim Richter was only one member of past councils, in 2008 as Mayor I introduced CACs to the Council of the day through a couple of seminars put on by the then Manager of Real Estate Services for the City of Vancouver with respect to their very successful CAC program. A review of my previous BLOG Post tells the story of what has been missed to the detriment of all citizens of the Township of Langley since 2009. She has to take responsibility for not publicly exposing and dealing with the reality of no CACs and the lack of annual updates in the DCC program over so many years.

Her making noise is all about politics, and not about real issues. She has done this consistently since day one. It is all about theatre! In my last BLOG we pointed out that the Township taxpayer has lost out on an estimated $500 million minimum in lost CAC dollars and a $200 million shortfall in DCCs, for a total of approximately $700 million, that bill put on the backs of taxpayers, until now. This was all due to the inaction of past councils of which she was a member.

In one year, our current council has raised an estimated $150 million (with much more to come); on developments that they have approved since taking office, only after their relevant CAC program and updated DCCs were put in place. Those funds will go to pay for the infrastructure that has recently been approved which Kim Richter has voted against, in the majority of cases.

Second – During this year’s wild-fire crisis Municipalities and Cities throughout our province offered up fire-fighting equipment and personnel in an unequalled crisis affecting every area of our province. The Township of Langley did their part by sending a truck and crew to the interior to assist in that fight. In what I consider to be an unbelievable public statement, Councillor Richter, in a Facebook post challenged the Mayor, asking who authorized that contribution? This comment, despite the fact that there was a provincial state of emergency, is incomprehensible; I guess it tells us a lot about the person responsible for making that statement.

Third – Transit in and out of the Gloucester Industrial Park is non-existent; this argument goes back a few decades despite the fact all companies in Gloucester pay a substantial sum of money (In 2011 about $1.6 million annually) to TransLink as a part of their property taxes. To the best of my knowledge, I was the first to bring this issue up as Mayor and member of the TransLink Mayor’s Council (2008 – 11). I set up a meeting in March of 2011 for all companies operating in Gloucester, in the General Motors Board Room. Attending in addition to a large turnout of Gloucester and Aldergrove Businesses were two executives from TransLink, Councillor Richter and local media. The result coming out of that meeting, agreed to by all was that we would do an extensive survey of Gloucester companies and the town of Aldergrove to present to TransLink. To speed up that process I agreed that the Township of Langley would have an extensive survey conducted dealing with our transit deficit. Going back to Council to get approval, one Kim Richter was responsible for arguing against us paying for it, which, given the lack of support I had on Council that initiative died at the council table.

So to today on that issue, which she knows all about only too well, I was shocked to see Councillor Kim Richter opposing a recent motion by the current council to advocate to TransLink and/or the Provincial Government for a transit service or to transfer the currently collected TransLink tax portion of their property tax (now approximately $2.5 million annually) to another agency to provide that service. Imagine paying that amount for a service that you have never received? The motion was passed by Council, thankfully – Councillor Richter opposed.

Summary –

It just doesn’t end! This is not about controlling debate and/or any opposition, it is about how to handle yourself at the council table using common sense and being courteous to all.

When I was elected in 2008 against the odds of many, I arranged to meet with all members of Council for a coffee just to get to know each other before being sworn in. I remember saying at the outset of our individual meetings that they probably didn’t want me to be elected and like-wise with me about them but we are all elected to work in the best interest of our residents. I also remember saying that we can disagree without being disagreeable – Well so much for that effort, it went downhill from there.

All of that being said, it doesn’t take much on council to alienate yourself from the majority, and Councillor Richter continues to lead that parade, something that should embarrass her, but then again it probably does not!   

RG

I am working on a few posts at present that I believe are of significant concern to Township of Langley Residents, come back often for news of interest to Township residents.

Protect your Democratic Rights – Protect your NEIGHBORS Democratic Rights – stay informed, stay involved and VOTE!!!

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