Sunday, February 7, 1999 - North Shore News — 3 north shore news SUNDAY FOCUS The imp Concerns raised over the use of district council communications Martin Millerchip News Reporter martin@usnews.com COUN. Ernie Crist’s bare-knuckled brand of free speech and its ramifications on council policy has long been a hot topic for North Vancouver District council. Crist, in his own words, “has had to fight constantly to preserve democ- racy in a banana republic.” But the latest round in that fight has fed others to describe a pattern of communication that they label “personal attacks,” “very inappropriate” and “bullying.” On Monday night, council debated changes to its policy on secretarial services supplied to individual councillors. Two issues dominated debate: volume and content. Crist initiated the review of secretarial services last November. He chal- lenged the need for a councillor to get the prior approval of the mayor or municipal manager before writing (on district letterhead) to a senior level of goverament. Crist won that point Monday when council agreed to amend its policy and remove the requirement for prior approval providing that all correspon- dence prepared by statf for an individual councillor states that the views con- tained in the letter “do sot represent council.” Said Crist: “Why should I have to ask anyone’s permission. Why shouldn’t I be able to communicate with a senior level of government. ’'m an elected official — I have to go to an employee to ask if] can send a letter out!” Council also instructed staff to report back on a system that would either allocate each councillor a finite amount of secretarial expense or some other form of limiting the service. During debate nwo councillors expressed concern that the secretary hired by council to provide assistance with correspondence is being mis-used. “Whar I'm very concerned with is campaigning through the use of correspondence,” said Coun. Glenys Deering- Robb. She said there had been examples of councillors responding to every signature on a petition. “Our citizens have a right to a response, ves, but our citizens are not expected to carry the freight on 200 letters . ed tee and close to $500.” = Added Coun. Janice Harris: “Paper flies like snow and cach flake costs 55 cents.” Mayor Don Bell told the meeting that council had allo- cated $12,000 for its own correspondence budget and anoth- er $12,000 for stationary supplies. According to some coun- cillors, the secretary who was added fast vear to support coun- cil’s communication needs is paid a salary of $42,000. Bell later told the News that ovo councillors alone incur approximately 90% of the costs involved. When pressed he acknowledged that Crist was responsible for 63% of the secretarial work while Coun. Trevor Carolan added another 26%. Municipal clerk Dennis Back claritied thar he had tracked the demands un his staff throughout 1998. Said Bell: “Councillors have the right to write let- gees ters and communicate with district residents, but z ¥, unnecessary copies and circulation can get out of hand if there aren’t some common-sense guidelines in place. My concern is that it (the sceretarial service) is being used in a responsible way the public would teel comtortable with. “As we move closer to an election it becomes a question of how we can satisfy ourselves that this is not unnecessary corre: spondence being used as an election campaign and being paid for by the raxpayer.” Asked to clarify, Bell said all letters addressed to mayor and council are replied to with a card from the clerk’s office acknowledging receipt. “But some councillors write their own letter to acknowledge receipt and say that it has been referred by them to staff. That is wasteful when it is being done by, for want of a better term, as an advertising vehicle for the councillor.” Neither North Vancouver City nor West Vancouver District provide ded- icated secretarial help to councillors. While the city has one secretary that provides help as required, in West Vancouver alt requests for secretarial sup- (port are vetied through the municipal manager. But the question of what is appropriate for staff to distribute on behalf of councillors also engendered debate. Council policy requires that correspon- dence sent by one councillor is copied to all members of council Council adopted a policy that stares: “Requests for preparation or for- warding of correspondence for councillors which contains personal charges or verbal attacks upon the character or motives of other members of council, members of its committees/commissions, the statf or public will not be per- formed by the clerk’s office.” Decring-Robb requested that e-mails be included in the definition of cor- respondence since they were “a public document.” “We’re being abuscd by those on council who see fit to go hunting for us at all times.” Added Carolan, pointing to a thick brown folder full of papers: “I have what I refer to as ‘the psycho document’ received from one member of coun- cil. I don’t really know what is going on with some of this.” Councillors later told the News that there is a pattern and style of com- munication from Crist that is personal and can be vicious. Examples of e-mails sent from Crist that the News has obtained include one to Coun. Lisa Muri that told her she had “a loud mouth” and was “igno- rant, inexperienced, naive, precocious and presumptuous.” Another labels city and district director of recreation Gary Young “an tance of being Ernest | ft Hy Oe te Uy i HU H apologist of mediocrity, a tool of avo-bir machiavel- lian manipulators.” Another, sene to Janice Harris, uses the word “witch hunter.” A follow-up from Crist then clarifies chat a witch-hunter is one “who votes in favour of a motion by an exceptionally stupid mayor” ... “and like their erstwhile cousins in Nazi Germany are asa rule cowards and none too bright.” The e- mail goes on to connect witch hunters to German fews in Nazi concentration camps who become part of the guard sys- tem, An e-mail sent to mayor and counci} a few days after Deering-Robb lost her breast to cancer wishes her a speedy recovery and then goes on to use the analogy of the need to rid the organization of the virus “intro- duced and = nurtured by one Murray Dykeman” and goes on to refer to “the resistance to surgery” from within council. Former district. councilor Pam Goldsmith-Jones told the News it was the accumulation of personal attacks by Crist that was the deciding factor in her decision not to seck re- election. “The e-mails he sent me were so difficult to deal with | asked the clerk to stop sending me anything from him of a personal nature. It was very, very difficult. What makes me so angry about Ernie’s tactics is that they make it so difticult for councillors to do their job in good faith.” Bell, too, sees a pattern of behaviour and communication style from Crist. “The problem I have with Crist is a self-contessed approach of ‘If you're not with me you’re against me and if you go against me you'll pay a price.” Council concern over Crist’s in-your-face, combative style and anger led toa recent, and doubtless tongue-in-cheek, request in-camera as to whether a psychological assessment of Crist would be possible.” But to one staff member and a volunteer board, Crist’s cavalier e-mails are no laughing matter. The e-mail Crist sent to Gary Young was the subject of an in-camera meeting by the board of the recreation commission. Legal options were discussed. Chairman Maureen Curtis told the News. “It’s OK to be critical of the rec commission; but it’s not appropriate to get into personal attacks and I would consider some of those statements inappropriate.” Said Young, “We are responsible for respecting the office of democrati- cally elected officials. It’s not our job to respond publically to charges, it’s our job to sit there. But I don’t mind saying it’s very difficult to sit there when the material presented is inaccurate and hurtful.” Coun. Crist answers his critics Martin Millerchip News Reporter martin@nsnews.com COUN. Ernie Crist isn’t backing down from any- one. Told by a reporter chat the News had received a number of his e-mails dating back sev- eral vears with complaints abour the content, Crist responded: “This issue is absurd. EF will express myself. Twill hit them where necessary until they learn what is appropriate. 1 will not be intimidated by these guys, “These are all red herrings. The real issue here is they don't want me to express myself. They want to deprive me of making motions. “Em providing leadersh I’m bringing forth the initia- tives. I'm trying to do the job Mayor Bell should be doing.” Regarding his e-mail to council that used cancer as an extended metaphor just after Coun. Glenys Decring-Robb had had a mastectomy, Crist said: “I'm sorry about being insensitive but if Decring- Robb’s provoking me, what do you expect. They have attacked me constantly from day one.” With regard to his ¢-mail to director of recreation Gary Young, Crist responded, “I'm raising questions about the ree commission they don’t like and they (council) got me out.” Crist also referred to a reporter’s previously published opinions in a News’ council report card. “Your position is that [ have a bad relationship with people. I don't. They have a bad rela- donship with me.” Asked abour the use of the term “witch hunter” in appar- ent connection to Coun, Janice Harris, Crist said: “Es it appropriate to witch hunt? That’s the question. I will not be intimidated. Harris dogs it in public all the time, Deering-Robb calls me a liar in public. “They don’t like my ideas but they haven't got the guts to say so. “This style thing is a red herring, an excuse to cover up necessary policies that they don’t want to see, that make them look bad. “Little people will always assail you not on the issues but on personalities. “In a proper democratic forum these things can be min- imized, but Don Bell deliber- ately creates the atmosphere. He creates it, he promotes it, he encourages it. “There is no fevel ef parlia- ment where there is no con- flict. Watch Victoria, Why would it be any different here? So it’s important not to be dragged down to the level of personal subjectivity.”