Saturday, April 26, 2014

Democracy - 'Nanaimo-Style'


One of the premises for adopting the City of Nanaimo Procedure bylaw is to make city council meetings more productive by limiting the amount of time allowed for public input. The author of the bylaw Mr. Mina stated (and I paraphrase) that a city council meeting is a meeting of council to which the public may watch. Couple that with the comment of Mr. Swabey that the public is not meant to participate and you have the basis for my angst as to where city hall would now wish to lead us.

I have long since been of the opinion that staff see the councilors as children they have to put up with because they provide the shield that keeps staff not accountable for anything. Again, my opinion only, but I have often noticed what appears like patronizing attitudes from staff directed at councilors.

 One bit of rationale for limiting public engagement at council meetings is that there should have been ample time for public input prior to the actual meeting of council. That may apply in some jurisdictions, but is far from the norm in Nanaimo.

Many times, the first time the public is aware of an issue, is when it is published as an agenda item on the Thursday preceding the council meeting. Arguably many decisions are made with far too little time for a subject to be scrutinized before making the final decision. How the members of council have time to consider agenda items is cause enough for concern, let alone members of the public who may have no familiarity with an agenda item whatsoever prior to the Thursday before a Monday meeting.

There is far too much trust put in the recommendation of staff in my opinion, who seem to demand blind faith in their ability to provide the best advice. Public input seems only tolerated when it is required by legislation but is avoided under the veil of the in-camera process as often as possible. The opportunity for meaningful public input in the new annex ($20 million), the colliery dams ($2 million & counting) the Wellcox property $11 million and counting for a plot of land we don't control 80% of, are just a few examples of ZERO public input before being told what our masters have decided.

These three examples are all decisions that could have been made out in the open if council and staff placed any real value on doing the will of the people. They have turned democracy on it's ear, and we have allowed it through apathy, lethargy or just plain stupidity.

Get a copy of the Procedure Bylaw of the City of Nanaimo (revised March 18, 2014) and compare the changes to how they want to conduct YOUR business. If it doesn't trouble you, then roll over and go back to sleep.

The biggest threat to democracy is not incompetent or crooked politicians, nor is it the fault of the bloated civil service with all their golden wages and benefit packages............... no dear reader, the biggest threat to democracy is a complacent, apathetic, disengaged, uninformed electorate.

allvoices

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