At a meeting where White Rock city council was tasked with publicly addressing the contentious issue of changes to solid-waste pickup, claims of bullying and intimidation on the part of protesters were made by the mayor.
In the end, council voted Friday to move forward with the privatization of solid-waste pickup for commercial and multifamily units.
Before the meeting got underway, Mayor Wayne Baldwin addressed the council chambers’ standing-room-only crowd about what he called “unacceptable” incidents taking place throughout the community.
“Some members of our community seem to have lost their perspective and have moved from respectful democratic debate, which is the basis of our political system…,” Baldwin started, before being drowned out by outcries from the crowd.
The mayor threatened to adjourn the meeting if interruptions continued, then resumed.
“Recently, one councillor has been subjected to a movement to boycott his businesses, which includes posting flyers throughout the community and threats made to his employees. Another councillor, with a young family, has been harassed over the telephone and threatened unless he changes his vote. A third councillor felt sufficiently intimidated by protesters that a request was made for police presence at council chambers.
“In a city where we celebrate our volunteers and our community spirit thrives, this is particularly disappointing.”
(Baldwin later confirmed to Peace Arch News that plain-clothes officers were in attendance, and at the previous Tuesday's special council meeting as well).
After the mayor read from his prepared statement, the city's director of engineering and municipal operations, Greg St. Louis, presented council with a number of options, including rescinding its earlier decision – made in-camera on Dec. 15 – to eliminate multifamily solid-waste pickup.
However, city staff recommended council move forward with its initial plan – effective July 1 – and suggested three methods to aid residents:
• provide technical assistance to multifamily complexes to deal with procuring a private-waste hauler, by way of staff assistance or a consultant, at an estimated cost of $40,000 to $50,000;
• provide education to multifamily complexes – and single-family homeowners – on the objectives of sorting recycling and organic waste, at a cost of $10,000 to $15,000; and
• provide 12,000 'kitchen catchers' – small bins for collecting organic waste – to both single-family and multifamily residences, at a cost of $40,000.
Upon conclusion of St. Louis's report, Coun. Grant Meyer put forward a motion to vote on the three recommendations.
"I hope (this report) clears up some of the misinformation and lack of communication and education that happened previously," Meyer said. "That being said, I think we made the right decision before."
At the request of Coun. Helen Fathers, the recommendations were split into individual motions. The first – to continue as planned and to provide technical assistance – passed with Fathers and Coun. David Chesney opposed. The second – to provide education – passed unanimously. And the third – to provide bins – passed with Chesney opposed. After the meeting, Chesney told PAN he believes the city "let down the multifamily residents in White Rock."
"When 350 people turn out at the community centre, that's more than just the usual suspects that turn up at council chambers," Chesney said of the well-attended April 1 public-information meeting at which residents aired grievances about the city's plans. "There was nobody there speaking in favour of what the city was doing."
Ian Routledge, a condo resident who co-organized a March 23 protest at city hall, told PAN he was disappointed, but not surprised.
"It's them trying to apologize for how they've treated us," Routledge said. "It's not even about garbage. It's about how the city is treating its residents, with a total lack of communication through this whole thing."
Regarding the claims of harassment and threats, Routledge said Monday that he feels Baldwin's statement was "insulting."
"Freedom of expression is our right as Canadians," Routledge said. "If someone wants to put up signs to boycott a business, it's freedom of expression. The mayor has no right to tell people that they can't do that or that it's not right."
Routledge said the 'threatening phone call' in question was made to a councillor at a phone number listed on the city's website, and that the comment made was that "his political career would be over if he didn't change his vote."
"It wasn't a threat, it was a statement," Routledge said, calling Baldwin's comments "overboard and uncalled for."
"As a city official and city leader, I thought he looked very weak, scolding the people of White Rock in that manner. I would expect a leader of a city to be far more mature than that."
Routledge and other condo residents had planned to present as a formal delegation at Monday's regular council meeting, but decided to cancel their appearance after Friday's meeting.
"They're not listening to us," Routledge said, noting the group will get together later this week to decide what next steps to take, if any.
"To go there would just be more insulting than after the meeting last Friday."
After Friday's meeting, Baldwin acknowledged the city's shortcomings in handling the issue.
"The suggestions (staff) came up with today, they're really good ones, but they were ones that we should have done right at the outset," he told PAN. "We should have started that back in January. If we had done that, maybe things wouldn't have gotten to this point."