Vision Vancouver trades transparency for realpolitik at Olympic Village

This week, the public got a firsthand look at realpolitik--Vision Vancouver-style.

The centrist civic party and its mayor, Gregor Robertson, won a landslide victory on a promise of providing more transparency and accountability at Vancouver city hall.

A cornerstone of its campaign was  a pledge  to change the NPA’s secrecy regarding development of the Olympic Village.

In this week’s real estate column in the Georgia Straight, I wrote about a staff report on affordable housing at the Olympic Village.

The report was written on February 16 and went to council on February 17, just as Finance Minister Colin Hansen was releasing the B.C. budget in the legislature.

The media’s attention wasn’t on city hall that day, as you can imagine.

This “Late Distribution” report came to the attention of COPE councillor Ellen Woodsworth at 6:45 p.m. Monday night (February 16), according to her comments at council  the following day.

“Given the significance of this report, I really would like a report from staff why it was handled in this manner,” Woodsworth said at the February 17 council meeting.

City manager Penny Ballem then stood up and apologized for the “tardiness” of the report.

“It was my decision on receiving this report to get it out this week and to get that process started with your permission," Ballem said,  "and then be able to have a robust discussion with the public involved at a time when we had a comprehensive laying out of all the various options.”

The staff report outlined how the cost of 252 units of affordable housing at the Olympic Village had gone up from $65 million at the  start of the planning process  to about $110 million today.  

Vision Vancouver councillor Raymond Louie pointed out that this  works out to about $440,000 per unit of affordable housing.

The cost of a nearby community centre has risen from $28.5 million to $35 million.

Normally, if members of the public want to speak to council about a report, they are given a chance to do this at a committee meeting before the matter goes to a vote.

This time, seven or eight people requested to speak to this report, according to staff at the February 17 meeting.

However, the Vision Vancouver-controlled council decided to vote on the recommendation to have staff report back on the issue without hearing from the speakers.

The report was handed to council on a Monday night. It was voted on less than 24 hours later while the media were distracted by the provincial budget. And the people who requested to speak to the issue were told to take a hike.

COPE councillor David Cadman summed up the situation quite well when he said, “Obviously, normally when people ask to speak, we don’t say, ”˜Well, in two months you’ll have an opportunity to speak when this is fully fleshed out.’ We give them an opportunity at the time. Something that they say may influence the nature and the specifics of the report.”

That didn’t seem to have much effect on the Vision Vancouver members.

Transparency is a wonderful word when  someone is  running for office; it’s not always so desirable after  the election for those who  gain power.