Re: Editorial: West Vancouver owes residents a code of conduct
Dear editor:
Every now and again an idea, offensive and incredibly stupid in equal measure, surfaces from among the faceless, nameless apparatchiks who populate our country’s obscenely bloated and increasingly bossy Nanny-State bureaucracy. The latest local example proposed by municipal staff here in West Vancouver is a code of conduct for members of our district’s elected council.
Who is to administer and enforce this code? Why, the municipality’s chief administrative officer, of course, someone who supposedly takes direction from and reports to council. And what happens to a naughty elected representative who has been found in breach of the code? Why, he or she is to be sent to a “mandatory training session,” an obedience school surely, as directed by the chief administrative officer.
What next? For a second or subsequent offence against a bureaucrat’s sense of decorum are they to be sent to re-education camps and forced to perform a stint labouring in the fields? How very Maoist. No need for People’s Republic of China representatives to interfere in our government when our own Red Guards are already in residence.
According to a staff briefing document accompanying the proposed code, “no public engagement or outreach was conducted” respecting this proposal. There’s a surprise. Why would you bother to consult the people as to whether such a code is necessary? Could it be, as was telegraphed in the penultimate paragraph of a recent letter to the editor on this subject, that the existence of such a code will make it less challenging to introduce a similar one for members of the public next?
The previous West Vancouver council evidently rejected a staff proposal to impose a “respectful communication” formula on anyone wishing to have dealings with our district government. Their wise example ought to be followed in this instance.
This utterly unnecessary nonsense is as arrogant as it is pernicious. It is a breathtakingly naked attempt at self-aggrandisement by petty-fogging bureaucrats seemingly intent on usurping power from democratically accountable representatives.
If the people of West Vancouver find the conduct of one or another member of our local council to be unacceptable, we have the right and the responsibility to work against their re-election. Meanwhile, council ought not to have their time wasted by having to consider this twaddle.
David Marley
West Vancouver
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
