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City of Victoria | 2018-2022 | Mayor and council general discussion


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#6561 mbjj

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 02:38 PM

I remember Loveday coming to the library and manning the children's desk, lol. I think he was a "guest". Also a few years back we had Helps as a speaker at our yearly training thingy out at UVic. Egad, was she awful.


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#6562 Daveyboy

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 02:52 PM

Outside of CoV council, what other public realm jobs require a slam poetry background?

Uvic Social Justice Studies department?


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#6563 Mike K.

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 05:31 PM

Generally (and I'm not sure if this is actually a requirement in the Local Government Act or not) any salary increases beyond inflation will take place after the next municipal election

Not this bunch!

Recall they were set to give themselves a raise as one of the first orders of business following the 2018 election, which was supposed to be in the 2020 budget.

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#6564 Rob Randall

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 05:55 PM

I'm pretty sure Council can't give themselves a raise. They can vote for a pay increase that happens after the following election. So you're voting for a raise for the next council. Or yourself if you win re-election.



#6565 J_Loveday

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 06:22 PM

I am a Trustee of the Greater Victoria Public Library and I was their because I'm passionate about youth literacy and I support the summer reading club. 

I remember Loveday coming to the library and manning the children's desk, lol. I think he was a "guest". Also a few years back we had Helps as a speaker at our yearly training thingy out at UVic. Egad, was she awful.


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#6566 Mike K.

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 06:26 PM

I'm pretty sure Council can't give themselves a raise. They can vote for a pay increase that happens after the following election. So you're voting for a raise for the next council. Or yourself if you win re-election.


Yes they can, and Victoria council wanted the raise to come into effect this year, that’s why they wanted it considered to the 2020 budget.

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#6567 Rob Randall

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 06:28 PM

I remember Loveday coming to the library and manning the children's desk, lol. I think he was a "guest".

 

I am a Trustee of the Greater Victoria Public Library and I was their because I'm passionate about youth literacy and I support the summer reading club. 

 

I was going to say, what's wrong with volunteering at the library for kids? Jesus Christ.


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#6568 Rob Randall

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 06:30 PM

Yes they can, and Victoria council wanted the raise to come into effect this year, that’s why they wanted it considered to the 2020 budget.

 

I haven't read the rules on this but even if it's technically allowed it's been a tradition strictly adhered to over many years that any raise comes into effect after the following election. No doubt about that.



#6569 J_Loveday

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 06:30 PM

Initiating a governance review was one of my election promises in 2018. I have collated many of the governance issues that have arisen over the past 6 years and I'm proposing a process to address these issues in time for the municipal election in 2022. Here is my full report: 

 

The City of Victorias 2018-2022 Strategic Plan includes a high-level priority of Good Governance and Civic Engagement and a 2021 action to Complete a Governance Review. By conducting a targeted governance review, informed by Council, city staff, residents, and experts in civic governance, the City of Victoria has an opportunity to better align City processes with the City of Victorias stated values and vision of inclusion, civic engagement, and good and open governance.

 

 

 

The City of Victorias last governance review occurred in 2008, conducted by George Cuff, and much has changed since then, including demographic and population shifts, increased complexity of the issues facing Council, technological advances, and a new emphasis on diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation. Conducting a Governance Review in 2021 could help address governance challenges, improve transparency, and set up the next Council, to be elected in 2022, for success. To ensure the Governance Review is rooted in the espoused values of the City of Victoria, it is important that an equity lens is applied to this process.

 

           

 

Key Areas of Consideration for a Governance Review (to be fleshed out and added to through engagement with Council, City Staff, stakeholder groups, and residents):

 

 

1.     Improving transparency and ensuring accountability

 

Considerations:

 

·       Processes for effective Council decision-making including whose input is received and how that input is considered

 

·       Ensuring all correspondence and public input is received, read, and responded to appropriately and in a timely fashion

 

·       Clear definition of roles and responsibilities for Council, CAO, and staff

 

·       Improving transparency of work undertaken by Councillors on City appointed committees and boards.

 

·       Further limiting in-camera meetings and pro-active release of information

 

·       Tracking plans and reports and ensuring implementation of all approved plans

 

 

2.              Appropriate, consistent, and highly functioning advisory committee structures

 

Considerations:

 

·       The best process for advice and recommendations to flow to and from committees

 

·       Chairing of committees and role of council liaisons

 

·       Adequate support from City Staff to support committees

 

·       Ensuring that the time and expertise of committee volunteers is respected and honoured

 

 

3.              Length, frequency and scheduling of council meetings

 

Considerations:

 

·       Improving governance and access for residents by shortening the length of meetings and limiting how late meetings can run

 

·       Ensuring meetings are accessible and inclusive of residents from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences

 

 

4.              Technology and the changing nature of work

 

                        Considerations:

 

·       Role of virtual meetings and digital participation post-pandemic

 

·       Changes in governance, and expectations due to technological advances

 

           

 

5.              Respecting public input and building public trust

 

Considerations:

 

·       Public engagement that meets IAP2 standards

 

·       Council and staff hear from diverse populations representative of City of Victoria residents

 

·       Ensuring responsiveness to public correspondence and requests

 

·       Flexibility of City processes to work within Indigenous protocols and approaches in relationships with the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations and in activities relating to reconciliation efforts

 

 

6.              Defining the role Mayor and Councillors

 

Considerations:

 

·       What is the public expectation of the role(s)

 

·       What is the role of councillors as a neighbourhood liaison?

 

·       Is being a Councillor a full or part-time job?

 

·       If the role of Councillor is a part-time job, what can be done to limit the scope of work, provide support, or streamline processes?

 

·       If Councillor is full-time, what changes are required to recognize this expectation?

 

·       How should council evaluate its own performance?

 

·       Best practices for reviewing Council renumeration

 

 

It is recommended that an approach is undertaken that engages the working knowledge of mayor and council, city staff, residents, and an outside consultant with experience and expertise in civic governance. Consultation will be key to success and should occur in stages as the review process progresses. It is important that emerging governance issues can be tracked and considered as consultation advances.

 

 

Recommendation

 

 

That Council direct staff to schedule a Council workshop and a separate workshop for residents and stakeholders to provide input to further inform the scope and priorities of a Governance Review and the selection of a consultant;

 

 

 

And That Council direct staff to report back with a proposed work plan and engagement strategy for the Governance Review aligned to the scope outlined in this report and informed by input received at the workshops outlined previously;

 

 

And That Council directs staff to report back with a budget estimate for the Governance Review and include that estimate in the 2021 budget for Councils consideration;

 

 

 

And That Council appoints up 3 councillors as a sub-committee to guide the Governance Review process.

---------------

 


Edited by J_Loveday, 20 October 2020 - 06:31 PM.

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#6570 Mike K.

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 06:38 PM

I haven't read the rules on this but even if it's technically allowed it's been a tradition strictly adhered to over many years that any raise comes into effect after the following election. No doubt about that.


In 2015 CRD directors voted themselves a 100% pay raise.
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#6571 AllseeingEye

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 06:39 PM

That's hilarious. What a buffoon. Being on Council is whatever you make it. It can be very part time if you skim your materials and attend minimum meetings and make up your decisions on the fly. Or it can easily be 12 hours days if you allow it. Meetings with residents, site visits to all developments, reading every page of your agenda. 

 

Loveday's question is more "what is expected" and there's no answer to that. Just because you spend every waking hour on City issues doesn't necessarily mean you're more effective.

 

Yup - in the private sector, where in my experience people are actually held accountable for their actions, or lack thereof - I as a senior IT manager for the largest credit union in the country was part of a team routinely tasked by our CIO to "....work smarter, not longer: if you are spending all that extra time each day, every day at your job trying to get it right its a damn good bet you are being neither efficient nor smart...."

 

Damn straight.


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#6572 Midnightly

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Posted 20 October 2020 - 08:30 PM

i'd be more then happy if the Councillors were working part time as they should be... if that means they will drop all the fluff and useless stuff and focus directly on the key issues and priorities happening in the city... we don't need to have talks about horse and carriages every other year, we should not be spending multiple sessions to deal with a mural issue, right now key issues are policing, the homeless and camping in the parks, peoples safety, infrastructure and the covid fallout (huge financial loss for the city AND many businesses that may not survive) the city needs to go on a spending freeze

 

i'm still waiting to see some results on the tent spacing and the amount of ground space that it takes up (10ft by 10ft), someone recently posted about a bike chop shop in beacon hill that is in full sight for months just being ignored....you can put the signs up but i see a lack of enforcement


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#6573 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 02:01 AM

^ now consider that Saanich council does not even spend two minutes on murals gone bad, park camping, or horse carriages.

This city council chooses to get itself into all kinds of issues it could avoid altogether.
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#6574 AllseeingEye

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 07:06 AM

i'd be more then happy if the Councillors were working part time as they should be... if that means they will drop all the fluff and useless stuff and focus directly on the key issues and priorities happening in the city... we don't need to have talks about horse and carriages every other year, we should not be spending multiple sessions to deal with a mural issue, right now key issues are policing, the homeless and camping in the parks, peoples safety, infrastructure and the covid fallout (huge financial loss for the city AND many businesses that may not survive) the city needs to go on a spending freeze

 

i'm still waiting to see some results on the tent spacing and the amount of ground space that it takes up (10ft by 10ft), someone recently posted about a bike chop shop in beacon hill that is in full sight for months just being ignored....you can put the signs up but i see a lack of enforcement

 

 

You mean, for example, threatening to bring a class action against Big Oil - a legal fight that theoretically would take years if not decades in order to bring about desired changes, or - and my personal favorite - writing letters to Vladimir Putin of all people, an ex-KGB thug who could care less about what some non-entity called the City of Victoria says, thinks or does - that kind of fluff?

 

I would love to know how many hours - if not days or weeks of council time - was spent debating the merits of joining a lawsuit almost certainly doomed to fail or, during the Dean Fortin regime, waxing poetic and/or anguishing over the precise text and grammar included in the letter to the ******g Russian dictator? 

 

Meanwhile we have homeless and drug addled people in our parks, crime escalating in the downtown core, an affordability crisis, and potholes everywhere requiring attention......


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#6575 mbjj

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 07:09 AM

I am a Trustee of the Greater Victoria Public Library and I was their because I'm passionate about youth literacy and I support the summer reading club. 

Then why don't you do something about how poorly the employees are being treated? Still not  called back to work.


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#6576 rjag

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 07:40 AM

Jeremy, just because you put a motion forward does not excuse you from owning the mess at COV. Good Governance and Fiscal Management takes a backseat to experimental ideology. The actions of this Council over the last 1 1/2 terms are nothing short of embarrassing. 

 

We have a 27,000 name petition regarding the mess at BHP, a lawsuit by concerned Citizens against CoV regarding BHP. This council fiddles while Rome burns talking incessantly about removing ACAB from a taxpayer funded mural because feelings and stuff but you ignore the pleas of small businesses that are failing because of the persistent criminality and open drug use. You ignore the pleas of Citizens whose properties are vandalised and ongoing theft of property wherever these tent cities appear. Your anti-car rhetoric is creating congestion and more GHG's but yup lets ban a few plastic bags....

 

What skills do these people have sitting around that table that can contribute to the proper Good Governance and Fiscal Management of the City? Heck we have councilors decrying the evils of capitalism, playing identity politics, class warfare and all the foolish nonsensical ideas that die on 1st year University debate floors. This council strays so far out its lane its only surprising when they don't.

 

People in general dont give a crap about pronouns, they like horse carriages and cruise ships and all the money they bring here. We own more cars than ever, but we also like good bike paths not poorly thought out ones. My 83 year old M-I-L wants to enjoy the Park again, she doesnt want to be robbed for the 4th time (3 times are enough) she wants to sleep through the night with her window open without worrying someone may try to climb in...is that too much to frigging ask??????? 

 

All Citizens want is a good job, a decent place to call home & clean safe streets, safe schools and places to shop and recreate. In return they will happily pay their taxes to provide for the services to help other Citizens.  

 

Tell me that this is Victoria today....


Edited by rjag, 21 October 2020 - 07:51 AM.

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#6577 Nparker

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 07:42 AM

Well said rjag.


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#6578 sebberry

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 08:00 AM

All Citizens want is a good job, a decent place to call home & clean safe streets, safe schools and places to shop and recreate. In return they will happily pay their taxes to provide for the services to help other Citizens.  

 

Tell me that this is Victoria today....

 

Maybe it's time all the region's small business owners and parents of school aged children organize a sit in on the Johnson St. Bridge demanding the city change course.  

 

Oh wait, totally different crowd.  Council knows who they want to listen to.


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#6579 Mike K.

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 08:09 AM

Mayor Helps calls the actions of average citizens calling for change a waste of time, because she says she needs solutions, not complaints.

 

How many businesses have closed in downtown Victoria since the pandemic began?


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#6580 Nparker

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Posted 21 October 2020 - 08:17 AM

Mayor Helps calls the actions of average citizens calling for change a waste of time, because she says she needs solutions, not complaints...

If Her Worseship was making reference to the BHP petition, the solution was and is obvious: enforce existing overnight camping bylaws.


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