Work to abolish the Vancouver Park Board is facing challenges behind the scenes due to a directive from the elected body ordering staff not to cooperate with the transition team.
Global News has obtained the latest internal communication from Vancouver city staff outlining progress so far in work to eliminate the park board, along with what are seen as priority actions.
The internal update from the city’s deputy manager makes multiple mentions of park board staff being directed not to engage on issues related to the transition.
“This creates unique challenges not normally encountered in restructuring efforts and means we cannot finalize plans until we can validate some information with the parks and recreation management team,” the memo states.
“As soon as the transition happens, we will connect with the parks and recreation management team to discuss this work and how we will engage staff moving forward.”
Because of the effective gag order, the deputy city manager says the transition team has resorted to filing freedom of information requests rather than speaking directly with park board staff.
ABC Vancouver City Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung called the communication blackout “a real shame.”
“Because we want to have their input into the process, and we want to make sure they are informed as well,” she said.
The no-cooperation order was passed by a majority of park board commissioners in December, three of whom split with ABC Vancouver over Mayor Ken Sim’s plan to abolish the elected body.
None of the four non-ABC commissioners were available for an interview on Wednesday.
But former park commissioner and BC Conservative candidate for Vancouver-Little Mountain John Coupar said the board was right to fight its own abolition.
“The board has democratically issued those instructions to staff, which is entirely appropriate,” he said. “We don’t believe that Ken Sim has a mandate, he didn’t run on it, he wasn’t elected on it, there was no public consultation.”
According to the progress report, city staff still expect legislative changes to allow the board’s dissolution to come soon after the October provincial election.
The transition working group has already reviewed all park board policies and bylaws and is now reviewing city bylaws with an eye to eliminating duplication.
The group has also reviewed how other cities manage their park-related business and is preparing recommendations on how the public can engage in park matters if authority were moved from the park board to city council.
That work will be presented to council in a broader update on the transition expected in November.
“I think this is an exciting time to actually be able to look at how we can deliver better service to the public, and if that allows for operational efficiencies, and we expect that it will, that will allow us to reinvest more into better services for the public and better parks,” Kirby-Yung said.
The update includes a list of priority actions the city believes it could tackle within the first six months of folding park operations under council authority. Those include greenspace, tree and fountain management; road design and maintenance; water and sewer maintenance; seawall maintenance and parking management.
Longer-term priorities include management of marinas and docks, bylaw enforcement, bikeshare and e-scooter management and a development review.