WEST Vancouver councillors may have breached the rules for public hearings, putting the rezoning of Hollyburn Mews on shaky legal ground, according to a lawyer experienced with municipal procedure.
Council watcher George Pajari sought a legal opinion after two councillors, Shannon Walker and Trish Panz, had indicated in the public hearing last spring that they had spoken to residents in private in between the two dates of the public hearing.
"Courts have consistently said that for councillor members to meet with proponents or opponents of a development project outside of the public consultation process is a problem," said Andi MacKay, a lawyer with the firm Washington MacKay George.
"The reason for the rule was to give everybody, whether the proponents or opponents, the same access to the council as others," she said.
Walker said during the public hearing that a conversation with a resident made her reconsider the significance of a letter-writing campaign against the proposed development. Other speakers also raised a similar issue with the letter-writing campaign during the public hearing.
Pajari complained to council at the time, arguing the Local Government Act was breached when councillors discussed a development in private after a public hearing had begun. Any presentation must be done in the hearing, according to Pajari. The district sought a legal opinion itself, and Bob Sokol, director of planning, responded that the outside conversations simply repeated information that was presented at the public hearing, and thus were no problem.
Mayor Pam Goldsmith-Jones went so far as to say gathering as much information as possible is "exactly what the public expects of us."
MacKay disagrees, saying it appears to her the rules were breached. "I had a look at all the cases that have decided things like this, and it's not hard to see that a court would not be particularly pleased with that kind of thing occurring."
Hypothetically, she said that could make the law susceptible to a challenge. MacKay was counsel for a similar case against the District of North Vancouver arising from a staff report given after the public hearing. That case ended in 2005 in the district's favour, but MacKay said this one is more clear cut.
Pajari said he had no intention of a legal challenge, which he said would be pointless anyway, since council can just pass the same rezoning again.
"The reason I'm incensed isn't that the this particular public hearing was contaminated. We all make mistakes, things happen and whatever," he said.
"I just want to ask them not to do this again." Jessica Delaney, spokeswoman for West Vancouver, said the district remains confident in the legal opinion they received after the initial complaint, and felt there was no need to revisit the issue. "In the case of this specific council no new information was received," she said.
Walker, who didn't stand for re-election in November, also said the issue is done with. "According to our lawyer it was fine," she said, and was backed up Panz.
"We did have our municipal lawyers look at it and we wouldn't have proceeded if we felt there was anything compromised," Panz said.
Walker said Pajari's complaints on this and other issues are a waste of staff time and district money, calling it a "distraction," and arguing proper process was followed.
"I think it's important to ensure that process is followed and proper protocols are adhered to, but at the same time, honestly, there are so many other issues that need to be dealt with," she said.
