Bob Mackin
A former city councillor is slamming Vancouver city hall for hiding the names and titles of the bureaucrats who run the $2 billion-a-year government.
On June 24, city hall quietly removed the staff directory from the website.
Vancouver city hall (Mackin)
A heavily censored, two-page document, obtained under freedom of information, blamed “increased harassment and threats to individual staff (within parking enforcement, park rangers and planning) and elected officials” for recommending the end of what was known as the “QuickFind” list and search engine.
There is no evidence visible in the document about any harassment or threat.
“These people are public servants, their salaries are paid by the public, they need to be public,” said Colleen Hardwick, who spent four years on city council before finishing third in the 2022 mayoral election with TEAM for a Livable Vancouver. “I question whether this is a political decision or a staff decision. Yes, ABC are the political brand du jour, but I rather suspect this is a staff move.”
Colleen Hardwick (Mackin)
The document showed that staff compared the websites of only two other area governments, Metro Vancouver — which “only provides info centre contact” — and City of Surrey — which “lists general dept/team emails; may not have a centralized contact centre similar to 3-1-1.”
theBreaker.news found Toronto and Edmonton both include staff directories on their websites.
Toronto’s is listed under the heading “Staff Directory, Divisions and Customer Service,” with downloadable staff lists, links to customer service standards for each department and complaints and compliments forms.
The B.C., Alberta and federal governments also maintain dedicated online staff directories.
Hardwick said Vancouver should follow Toronto and Edmonton’s disclosure of public employees, because “they’re working for a public institution, not a private company.”
City of Vancouver did as recommended by the document, removing the staff directory and replacing it with a nameless organization structure and referral to the 3-1-1 hotline. Unlike the website, it is open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
The document even suggested “reactive key messages,” such as promoting 3-1-1’s translation services in more than 170 languages. “Agents route questions, feedback, or issues to various City departments to respond as appropriate.”
Under the heading of “if pushed,” the communications department recommended emphasizing that the city is “committed to providing a safe and respectful work environment, and abusive conduct or comments toward staff are not acceptable.” It called harassment and threats “an additional reason for the removal of the staff directory.”
The removal of the staff directory was supposed to happen by June 21, but Kira Hutchinson of the communications department suggested it be delayed until after the weekend, in case a reporter noticed it missing. “We don’t want our after hours media person getting queries about it if we can help it.”
Randy Helten of CityHallWatch.ca (Helten)
Without a staff directory, the only opportunity for citizens to know who is working for them is the statement of financial information sunshine list published every April. But that document shows last names, first initials, annual salaries and expenses, but not first names or job titles.
A reporter asked city hall for a copy of the current organization chart for the civic engagement and communications department. On July 25, FOI case manager Kevin Tuerlings demanded a $60 payment, because he claimed it would take five hours for staff to search, compile and create a record. (The FOI law says governments cannot charge for the first three hours of service.)
A local government watchdog called the removal of the staff directory “lamentable” and part of a pattern under the ABC party, elected with a supermajority in 2022.
Randy Helten of CityHallWatch pointed to last December’s move to abolish park board elections and this month’s indefinite moratorium on integrity commissioner investigations and reports.
“Another erosion of the openness of our municipal government,” Helten said. “CityHallWatch would use the staff directory often, and we know that many of our readers would do so too. Ken Sim and ABC’s election platform included a section on transparency, accountability, and good government, but with this change, the city is going further into hiding. People should call on Mayor Ken Sim to bring back the online staff directory.”
Helten said he was skeptical about the reason for removing the directory and accused city hall of “cherry picking examples,” rather than looking at the best practices of governance and transparency.
“There’s a trade-off between hiding behind the shield of the city website versus being transparent and accountable to maintain the public trust in the municipal government,” Helten said.
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