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Volunteers on several longstanding municipal advisory committees in West Vancouver have been told their advice is no longer needed at municipal hall.
At its last regular council meeting of the year, members of West Vancouver council voted to disband several committees, including the heritage advisory committee, design review committee, lower Caulfield advisory committee, Gleneagles community centre advisory committee and community engagement committee.
In the motions which council voted on to dissolve the committees, council indicated they were making the changes to make “district processes more efficient, particularly in light of staff resource constraints and new provincial legislative requirements.”
Council is proposing to replace the regular committees with citizen panels, which would advise on the same issues, but meet only when requested by staff seeking input on specific topics, rather than on a regular schedule.
The decision to disband the latest committees follows similar moves earlier in the year. West Van’s arts facilities advisory committee was disbanded in April and its art museum advisory committee, community grants committee and public art advisory committee were disbanded in September.
Council has indicated it intends to strike new committees to consolidate some of that work, including an arts and culture advisory committee, a planning committee and an awards committee. An environment committee has also been created.
Mayor Mark Sager said at the meeting West Vancouver is not eliminating citizen involvement. “In fact, we are very grateful for all the people that are involved,” he said. “It’s simply a change from a committee that has a regular schedule, and it goes to a panel which can be called as required. And that process will save our staff an enormous amount of time.”
Sager added, “I think most of the people who are volunteers and serve on these panels and committees will also be grateful.”
Development consultant Michael Geller, who served on the district’s heritage advisory committee, said he found out his committee was being disbanded from a colleague.
Geller said he can understand a desire to streamline some of the committees, especially as the mandates and memberships of some committees appear to overlap. But he added it would be a mistake to cut out advice from knowledgeable volunteers in the community.
Members of the heritage advisory committee weren’t happy about the way they were informed their services were no longer needed, writing in a letter that they were “dismayed” by the decision, which will make West Van “the only Lower Mainland jurisdiction without a body advising on heritage matters.”
“Given the importance of ‘heritage’ and ‘character’ to the livability, sustainability and the economics of West Vancouver’s neighbourhoods, we believe that the best quality advice on the broad range of heritage-related matters requires a group with skills, experience and focus on heritage,” members of the now-defunct committee wrote in a letter to council after finding out the news.
Elaine McHarg, who was a member of two former committees, said she understands that committees can be time-consuming, particularly for staff. “They need to be of high value,” she said.
McHarg said she was a little surprised the decision to disband wasn’t announced to committee members earlier. “Nobody knew ahead of time that it was coming down,” she said.
Jatinder Sidhu, a former member of the district’s community engagement committee, said he feels disbanding the committees is about council’s need for control.
A year ago, Sidhu said he was surprised to discover his term as a volunteer on the West Vancouver library board also wasn’t being renewed by council.
“If you try to play politics with volunteer committees … people are not going to join them,” he said.
At the meeting where the latest committees were disbanded, Coun. Sharon Thompson said council does value the contributions of volunteers but wants to ensure their time is used effectively. “We’ve just seen a peek at the budget this year. We have some real challenges ahead and I think it’s really important that we use everybody’s time wisely in the year to come,” she said.
Coun. Nora Gambioli was the sole council member opposed to disbanding the committees.
“I will be diplomatic by saying I think it’s going to come as a big surprise to the volunteers on all these committees,” she said. “I don’t think this is the right way to go about this.”
