Going door to door with our now elected mayor in the fall of last year it was quite revealing to hear what bothered the residents of Lions Bay. Of course, the usual things such as the highway, trees and parking all of which will remain issues for as long as we live here. More crucially there was a deep divide on how the village was being run. For every person commenting how a poorly functioning and overly bureaucratic village office was affecting Lions Bay culture and its residents enjoyment of living here, there was a person who would say the opposite and go out of his or her way to say how well the village was being run.
The election in the end was not that different from what we see on national levels all over western democracies, people push for change but in the end never give a wide enough mandate to make that really happen. And so it is in Lions Bay where, after a rough start with one freshly elected councillor resigning, it appears there is deep division. Now that is fine, the question then becomes how can we overcome these divisions and work together as there is quite a bit on the Lions Bay plate to resolve, think about water, infrastructure in general and the ever increasing risk of a major fire wiping the place out. These issues do above all require one thing: collaboration to plan and then bring in the expertise you need to execute.
Council apparently was not as divided in its termination of the CAO and it was somewhat unusual to see all the anger and excitement over it, it was an event that looking back was long in the making and the voters created the situation where that was finally possible. With a shortage of municipal staff provincially it was not a surprise to see a number of people vacating the office. The uncertainty of new management and possibly good offers elsewhere accelerated the exodus. These are normal things and actually create unique opportunities to redefine the operation, its staffing and immediate future. It also created the moment to address other concerns that came up repeatedly during the campaign: Lions Bayers were frustrated at not having residents working for the village. It sometimes created communication issues, and it was also felt that staff sometimes lacked the commitment and interest to identify with real local issues. Well, we are beginning to see deep local expertise being recruited and no, this is not cronyism as some have argued. The latter is when you appoint friends regardless of their qualifications. Not the case here, we have very solid people filling up the key vacancies. It should be noted that many residents have successfully worked in the village office over the years which has resulted in a very positive long-term benefit for all.
So why is the village then still divided and what is there to gain to keep stirring up noise and conflict with more than three years to go for this mayor and council? Why do we have to witness antics like silencing the mayor’s message, opposing routine motions and seeing an angry and biased debate on some online media pollute the atmosphere in this community? We are getting into the weeds and run the risk of ending up in two camps where every micro issue is debated ad nauseam at the council level and on social media. It actually seems that people have moved passed political or philosophical ideas around our village, areas where we often can and should come to some sort of agreement. It has become personal now, without any care for the issue or facts at hand. It is a dangerous and unhelpful trend.
What we need to do is to get back to building compromises, agree that we can never get exactly what we want, but that when we listen and collaborate we may actually get things done that are good for the village. And if we want to preserve this spectacular seaside mountain resort – which is what it is – we need to get together and solve the bigger threats that are facing us right now. The deep divisions may end our way of life before a fire does. Let’s not let that happen.
Note: this was written before council's decision to let the new building inspector, Mike Jury, wasting a great opportunity to invest in local talent that could benefit the village for a long period of time.
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