Vancouver city council to vote on appointment of representatives

Vancouver city council is debating Wednesday whether or not to make changes to the city’s roster of acting mayors, deputy mayors, and duty councillors.

The roles — which come with a boost to councillors’ paycheques — are usually shared between all councillors, regardless of political party, but Mayor Ken Sim reportedly wants to keep it to ABC Vancouver councillors only.

Green Party of Vancouver Coun. Pete Fry thinks the motivation is in response to his and others’ criticism of ABC motions and policies in recent months.

“There is a financial element to this, so it could be viewed as some kind of financial punitive measure or financial coercion for the ABC councillors to go along with this, because this does have to be a vote of council to approve the mayor’s initiative.”

ABC Coun. Peter Meiszner tells 1130 NewsRadio that the mayor has heard people are occasionally surprised to see an opposition councillor show up as acting mayor when they’re expecting Sim or one of his party, but Fry says he doesn’t buy that explanation.

“That’s not accurate, and it certainly doesn’t account for the very specific excision of the duty councillor, the role which is technically supposed to represent Council, not the mayor at all,” said Fry.

He says the council has been “quite partisan and highly charged” since the 2022 election, but he hopes to challenge some of the division that defies “the democratic principles of local government, and indeed, the Vancouver charter.”

Before the meeting began, Meiszner said he was still undecided on how he would vote.

“I’m approaching this in a really collaborative fashion, and I would say that we have a really good relationship. So it’s unfortunate that there is, maybe that perception out there. That’s certainly not how I approach my work. I’m here to serve Vancouverites, and that includes working with the opposition.”

Vancouver city council met at 9:30 on Wednesday morning. The meeting is expected to run into the evening, though the “Appointments of Council Representatives” is one of many items on the agenda.