Briefly: Public outcry keeps Lisa Southern’s city hall watchdog office open
Bob Mackin
At a special meeting on Sept. 25, ABC Coun. Lenny Zhou tried to rescind his July 24 motion aimed at pausing Lisa Southern’s investigations, pending a review of her office. However, for procedural reasons, the best Zhou could do was ask to recess the meeting until April 9.
Vancouver integrity commissioner Lisa Southern (SBP)
“Over the past two months, I think I heard a loud and clear from the residents of Vancouver that they do not want to see this amendment move forward, and I agree with them,” said Zhou, who vowed to cooperate with Southern. .
The rest of council, including Mayor Ken Sim, unanimously agreed with Zhou.
Coun. Christine Boyle, who is running for the NDP in Vancouver-Little Mountain, and Coun. Rebecca Bligh were absent.
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“I, too, have heard from Vancouverites that the pause is not something that they want, and like everything else, we do listen to the residents of Vancouver quite a bit,” Sim said. “So to be clear, I’m unable to speak to the item and vote at this time, but I do think that councillor Zhou’s motion to recess today’s business is the correct path forward.”
The Sept. 25 meeting was adjourned from Aug. 6, when Sim blamed Green Coun. Pete Fry for filing a complaint to Southern’s office in the wake of two integrity commissioner reports issued Aug. 2.
ABC Mayor Ken Sim (YouTube)
In the first report, Southern dismissed a complaint from Sim’s top two aides against two Park Board commissioners no longer with Sim’s ABC party, Scott Jensen and Brennan Bastyovanszky. One of the park board commissioner’s complained that Sim used chief of staff Trevor Ford and senior advisor David Grewal to meddle in the selection of the Park Board chair before Sim announced that he wants provincial government permission to abolish the elected park board.
In a second decision dated Aug. 2, Southern dismissed Bastyovanszky’s December and April complaints of retaliation on a technicality.
Southern said the Code of Conduct Bylaw does not apply to Ford and Grewal, because they are politically appointed civic employees.
However, a template of the Mayor’s Office Staff contract, obtained by theBreaker.news, includes a clause that states the employee is “subject to and will comply with all policies applying to exempt employees of the City, including but not limited to the Code of Conduct.”
Neither Ford nor Grewal responded for comment.
Last February, Southern ordered Sim be reprimanded and requested to write a letter of apology to the third former ABC Park Board commissioner, Laura Christensen, for excluding her from a Dec. 5 meeting about his plan to abolish the Park Board. Sim publicly announced his plan the next day.
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