Vancouver Park Board seeks legal counsel

A Vancouver Park Board Commissioner is hoping some legal counsel will save the board.

Tom Digby is bringing forward a motion next week, asking for legal counsel to investigate Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s attempt to eliminate the Park Board.

He believes Sim’s motion is unconstitutional.

“In December, we were effectively mugged by the mayor in a surprise attack when he announced that he intended to abolish the elected Park Board,” Digby said. “It was completely unexpected because he had no rationale, he had no explanation for why the board had to be abolished now, after 135 years.”

At the time, Sim said the changes to the Park Board would allow the city to manage Vancouver’s parks and recreation services “more collaboratively and in harmony with the city’s broader perspectives.” He added the “system is broken” and cited the fact that Vancouver is the only municipality with an elected Park Board, as a reason to abolish it.

On Feb. 5, Digby’s motion, titled “Independent Legal Advice for Judicial Review of Mayor’s Motion,” will be presented at a Park Board meeting.

“We put together a very large counter response to the mayor and one of those components is, we need to retain legal counsel so that we can review what the city is doing,” he said. “We think the mayor is working way beyond his authorized jurisdiction under the Vancouver Charter.”

Digby says he’s working with three other independent Park Board commissioners, Laura Christensen, Brennan Bastyovanszky, and Scott Jensen, who say they were removed from the mayor’s party when they mayor’s chief of staff said they reportedly chose “not to support the mayor” on the dissolution of the Park Board.

He says all four of them have agreed an elected Park Board is a central facet of democracy in Vancouver, and he’s hopeful the motion will be a success.

“The reason (the Park Board has) existed for 135 years is to stand in the way and make sure the people’s voice is heard around important decisions about parks in the city,” Digby said.

Since joining together to fight back against the mayor, Digby says he has received hundreds of messages of support for an elected Park Board, including from former commissioners who “never agreed on anything historically.”

“This is not a battle (the mayor) is likely to win,” Digby said.

On Feb. 1, a different meeting will be held by City Councillors Adriane Carr, Christine Boyle and Pete Fry at City Hall to hear the public’s thoughts on the future of the Park Board. It will last from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and advance registration is required.

Digby says this is the first time a mayor has tried to abolish the Park Board, and he doesn’t think Sim’s motion will stick.

“I’m hoping we’ll get back on the regular course in fairly short order and we won’t need much legal involvement, because the rules are clear for everyone except this particular mayor,” he said.

The Leader Spirit has reached out to Mayor Ken Sim’s office for comment.