Union of BC Municipalities: Its Point Being? (Part 2)

This follows
Union of BC Municipalities: Its Point Being? (Part 1)
28 June, 2018
directly below this post.

Both are a look at 2 particularly egregious rules - rather undemocratically foisted on municipalities by BC government. This left unaddressed directly by the UBCM, the organization ostensibly supporting municipal well-being.

Items 1 and 2 are explored in Part 1 and Part 2 respectively:
1.
Extending municipal terms of office from 3 to 4 years - without prior consultation of the directly concerned yet.
2.
Having mayors - always uncomfortably - double as Chair of Police Boards - with Vancouver the largest municipality of them.

The Gap Between 2 Chairs
As per Victoria's justice system Mayor Kozak functions as Chair of the Nelson Police Board (NPB) as well. 

Not by choice!

The order to have the mayor perform extra-duty not part of mayoring - with an often adversarial position towards her own office - is counterproductive.
And definitely whacko!

And mayors cower, have been cowering for ages. Why and since when - its history - to be looked at later in this post.

With the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) nowhere in sight. 

Wondering ...
Does Mayor Kozak (have to) compromise when she is one and the other at the same time?

Does she do her Chair prep at the cop-shop or the mayor's office - using mayor-time/resources? In either location. 
Like - how much additional manpower from City Hall - at the taxpayers' expense - is necessary to have this thing sort-of done?

Is her legal staff as mayor the same as that of the NPB?

Does City Hall's non-disclosure rule apply to the mayor?
Does it apply to the NPB Chair?

Like - does whoever-she-is talk to herself?
As in at night over doing the dishes:
'Can we talk?'
'No, we can't - weeell we shouldn't.' 

Does this drive her nuts? 

Ridiculous?
Yes, it is!

All coming down to separation of power - impartiality. Our judicial system here ignoring this concept of fundamental importance in a spectacular manner!

When previous Police Chief Holland attempts to get a zillion bucks through the NPB to keep imaginary hordes of barbarians from the gates, and his attempt is ultimately rejected by whom? at City Hall: where is the mayor positioned in all this? Steering this way-over-the-top NPB budget-proposal towards City Hall acceptance as NPB Chair to then promptly rejecting it as Mayor once delivered there? 

Recusal from one or the other would/should have to apply to the whole very lengthy process. Leaving the NPB without its Chair. Or the City without its mayor.

When Holland ends-up complaining about the proposal's rejection to Victoria (surely blaming Kozak as mayor - yet in tandem with her as Chair?): how does Clayton Pecknold, Director of Police Services, objectively connect with Kozak as one and/or the other? Long-distance. At the same time. Or what!

Musical chairs - down the rabbit hole!

To make the/a mayor's, chief-constable's and police board's function more on-point - after ineffectual grumblings among BC police about this for years - both: the British Columbia Association of Chiefs of Police (BCACP) for its force and the UBCM for its municipalities need to make a joint decision towards resolving/dissolving this issue.

Separating work of the police(-board) from that of mayor - a gain for literally everybody:
Representing their members, they write 2 white papers with their particular perspective.
Keeping the news-media - thus public - informed throughout. 
Then reps meet to ultimately combine these papers in one concise position. This position is fine-tuned by both memberships and - once accepted - brought before the BC Ministry of Justice, other relevant agencies and the news-media.

As for a PB Chair: engage an additional Director and choose one among the group to be Chair, possibly based on seniority or in rotation.

The bottom-line for this: the work of a mayor's Office and police department has been compromised - interfered with - for years by fusty colonial mindsets.

One seriously must wonder whether the current set-up could survive a court-challenge.

What History?!
2 letters to Michelle Mungall, Nelson-Creston MLA, on the Mayor/Chair topic - before 2 re-elections - elicit no response from anyone in her camp. Not surprised I let it go then. Not this time though, what with the municipal election for Council/Mayor coming-up- and that for a 4-year term. As in: who may want these jobs - seriously.

I connect with, attempt to connect with several individuals/groups in the thick of it all, asking a few very basic questions about the origin of this anomaly.
Not interested in exploring rights or wrongs with them but its history only, which hardly is participatory-democratic in its inception and application.

A
In what year was which mayor - for the first time - made to take on chairing his police-board?
B
What was the reasoning behind it?
C
Who instigated this?
D
Who/which agency instituted this?

When/if there are replies - they uniformly do not answer the questions:
1.
Mayor Kozak has no specific answers, neither has Frances Long, Admin Director.
2.
In several responses - not to the questions - I receive extensive material from the British Columbia Association of Police Boards (BCAPB) on policing and the Association's aims. Not interested in all that I ask again to just have my simple questions answered.
Nothing - except that Stacey Perri, BCAPB, volunteers:

"With regard to your question related to the mayor of a municipality being the Chair of the Police Board: the question of whether the mayor of a municipality should or should not Chair a Police Board has been in the public arena for many years; yet in British Columbia it appears there has not been a definitive resolution to the question."

This is interesting - while not related directly to my inquiry - but never mind "it appears there has not been a definitive resolution": she doesn't know?!
Basic historical information on the origins of Mayor + PB Chair seems elementary for them to have; Perri ducks and weaves, never acknowledging my questions-as-are.
3.
After several attempts at connecting with her, Shiloh Perkins, Exec Assistant - Nelson Police Dept/Board - following a confab with Perri - ?! - sends me the same immaterial material. Also ignoring my questions.  

Unless both have problems with reading-comprehension: is there more to this? Whatever - it does not help inspire trust in police-boards in general and those who run them in particular. 

I have yet to hear from:
4.
NPD Chief-Constable Paul Burkart
5.
The British Columbia Association of Police Chiefs (BCAPC)
6.
The same Clayton Pecknold who deals with Holland's attempt - together with PB Chair Kozak - to get his superbudget funded - despite Mayor Kozak. 
7.
Wally Oppal - whose 1994 report The Independent Commission of Inquiry into Policing in British Columbia recommends scrapping a mayor chairing the municipal police-board. While the report leads to many reforms in policing - mayors chairing police-boards is not among them.
8.
JAG Policing & Security Branch
 
From 4. to 8. have had a reasonable amount of time to reply: what/who is preventing them from doing so?!

Scary in both scenarios - term-increase from 3 to 4 years  and Mayor/PB Chair: the UBCM - ostensibly nurturing municipalities - is bowing to capricious authoritarian elements in Victoria.
Its upcoming gab-fest would be the appropriate environment for members as a unit to move both points forward decisively.

BUT!

Seeing that this is in September, also the time for incumbents to declare their next-term intentions: with 4-year burn-out attendance could be way down - see Part 1 - as many may not run again. Even if they do - there's no guarantee they'll be re-elected.
So - considering that municipalities - as in tax-payers - are paying for these freebies: why should they this year? At Whistler yet!
The timing for this convention is bizarre!

ITS POINT BEING?

End of original posting yesterday.

Right after putting this post online I finally receive a text-reply from Oppal - over his phone and clearly on the run: getting my name totally wrong for starters, clearly not remembering my message to him, not familiar with this post, giving me info I didn't ask for - not answering my questions.

Communication today! (Another story!)

Then - I find out that my idea all along and responsible for my insistence to get behind this: the Mayor/PB Chair construct may be colonial - is correct. 
Literally!
By 1917 a mayor also is Commissioner/Chairman ex officio of the Board of Commissioners of the Police. Two other members are an alderman and an outsider. 
Only British subjects can be on the police force.  
The Mayor/Chairman arrangement is a simple - and for him probably rewarding - way of concentrating municipal power in one person. 
As reported at the time: this is about "friends in high places".

While procedure and the Board name have been streamlined somewhat over generations - the Mayor/PB-Chair(man)-ex-officio construct as such has not. 
But as for power ...

What I am thinking now: what with extensive information on the topic easily discovered by local historian Greg Nesteroff - everybody else I approach surely has access to the same. Knowing that colonialism - hush now, you hear: don't bite the hand that feeds you! - is alive and well in shame-on-you Victoria BC.  


  
Image Credits:
Zundapp-Janus 



A link to this post is sent to all individuals/organizations listed below:

Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM)
ubcm@ubcm.ca

Wally Oppal, QC
woppalqc@boughtonlaw.com

BC Association of Police Boards (BCAPB)
stacey.perri@gov.bc.ca

BC Association of Chiefs of Police
engagement@bcacp.ca

Clayton Pecknold, Dir. of Police Services
sgpcsb@gov.bc.ca

JAG Policing & Security Branch
sgpspb@gov.bc.ca

Deb Kozak, Mayor/PB Chair
dkozak@nelson.ca

Paul Burkart, Chief Constable - NPD
pburkart@nelsonpolice.ca

City Council
nelsoncouncil@nelson.ca

Shiloh Perkins, NPD/NPB - Exec Assistant
sperkins@nelsonpolice.ca