Well, that’s an hour of my life that I won’t get back.
I went to a city council meeting Wednesday morning with the intention of turning around a story on the ongoing overdose drug death crisis facing this city and the rest of the province. Instead, I left after councillors got into a tiresome political spat that NPA Coun. Elizabeth Ball quite rightly described as “juvenile.”
On the agenda, was a report recommending council spend $370,000 on mental health support for firefighters and a response plan to keep drug users from dying in single-room-occupancy hotels.
Pretty important stuff.
Deputy city manager Paul Mochrie took some questions from councillors around such issues as police enforcement, budget and what the city was doing to involve the urban Aboriginal community in responding to the crisis.
All of the back-and-forth was moving along as it normally does until Vison Coun. Andrea Reimer requested a vote on the funding be delayed until the only listed speaker, Karen Ward of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, showed up to talk to council. Reimer said Ward had no access to a phone or email and may not have known discussion about the opioid crisis was moved from the bottom of the council agenda to the top.
For Reimer to vary the agenda, it would have to go to a vote. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is when the meeting went sideways.
NPA Coun. Melissa De Genova got the pot boiling by accusing Reimer, who chaired a previous meeting, of making a person who was late to the chamber by five minutes wait eight hours to speak to council. So no, De Genova added, she didn’t want to vary the agenda. Neither did her two NPA colleagues.
Reimer later called the accusations “egregiously infactual” and warned she will rise in future meetings to call out councillors telling “outright lies.” NPA Coun. George Affleck and Vision Coun. Raymond Louie got into a spat after Affleck asked why Mayor Gregor Robertson wasn’t in the chamber – leading him to conclude Vision didn’t have the required eight votes to approve the $370,000 in funding, so they wanted to vary the agenda to allow the mayor time to show up.
Then Louie said something about De Genova being in and out of the room several times during the meeting. De Genova responded saying she was on “medical leave.” That exchange was followed by Vision Coun. Kerry Jang announcing he was getting up to go to the bathroom. He later returned and said: “That felt good.”
Louie kept talking, only to have his own Vision colleague, Coun. Heather Deal, who was chairing the meeting, cut off his mic. Not sure I’ve ever seen that before. On and on they went until it came to a vote, which Vision thought they lost because they only had seven votes.
The meeting continued, with Jang moving a motion to approve the $370,000. Then Louie surprisingly called a point of order on his own party member. He had done some math, he said, and told council they didn’t need eight votes to vary the agenda, but a two-thirds majority. So after all that, the item – as per Reimer’s request -- was moved to the afternoon session.
De Genova wouldn’t let it go, asking if the mayor would be present at that time.
“Alright, we’re going to stop this now,” Deal said. “That’s enough.”
I’m not sure what happened after that. I packed up my computer, grabbed my coat and shook my head all the way back to my office, where I banged out what you just read. Not the most riveting piece but I had to get this nonsense on the page.
Meanwhile, 215 people died of a drug overdose in Vancouver last year.
Update: Council eventually got to the report in the afternoon, with Vision, Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr and Ball voting in favour of the $370,000. Aflleck and De Genova voted against, citing several reasons including a request for more consultation and concerns the city was taking on expenses that should be paid for by the provincial government. They voted after some Vision councillors suggested the NPA would be blamed for more deaths, if they didn't support the funding. Affleck said it was "the most inappropriate thing I've ever heard in politics." De Genova asked whether Reimer was accusing of her of being "a murderer." Council will meet again in two weeks. Mark your calendars.
mhowell@vancourier.com
@Howellings
