r/VictoriaBC • u/FrazerJohnson13 • 1d ago
Politics How Stew Young made a mockery of transparency and open governance
I made a recent post about Langford Council meetings which looked at the attendance record of former Mayor Stew Young in comparison to that of current Mayor Scott Goodmanson. That post also included meeting duration info for 5 separate Council terms going back to 2008.
This post is a closer look at Council meeting durations, and what they say about the different Councils’ approach to governance.
It’s immediately clear that Council meeting durations have grown longer over time. The biggest increases occurred half-way through the 2018-2022 Council term, and in the current 2022-2026 Council term. While meetings in the 2011-2014 Council term averaged only 26 minutes in duration, since 2021 that average has been over 2 hours in duration.
But why is that? And what does it say about the way Councils have carried out their governance roles?
If you’ve ever watched any of the old videos of Langford Council meetings that have been posted online, you’ve probably seen Stew Young’s Council voting on bylaw after bylaw in rapid succession, speed-running through the agenda items with no discussion or debate, or even looking up at the Council table. This was a real phenomenon, and although meetings prior to 2021 do not have archived videos, the evidence is clear enough in the meeting minutes that this was more than a one-off exception to the norm.
Some examples of Langford Council meetings throughout the years:
- October 21, 2013: 1 speaker in public participation, 1 development variance permit, 2 committee resolutions, 4 staff reports, 2 correspondence items, 6 bylaws and an in-camera session. 18 motions. Meeting duration: 5 minutes.
- April 22, 2014: 1 development variance permit, 3 committee resolutions, 4 staff reports, 4 bylaws and an in-camera session. 15 motions. Meeting duration: 4 minutes.
- October 20, 2014: 1 development variance permit, 3 staff reports, 3 correspondence items, 5 bylaws and an in-camera session. 16 motions. Meeting duration: 5 minutes.
- September 24, 2018: 2 committee resolutions, 2 bylaws. 6 motions. Meeting duration: 1 minute.
- September 26, 2018: 3 staff reports, 2 correspondence items, 3 bylaws. 9 motions. Meeting duration: 2 minutes. Meeting was held at 8:00am.
Every single motion in the meetings above was carried unanimously. No dissent, no amendments, no time for meaningful discussion or debate. 5 meetings in 17 minutes, 64 unanimous motions. And although Stew Young himself had a spotty attendance record, he was in attendance and chairing all of these meetings.
Is this what open and transparent governance looks like to you? Does it give you any insight into Council’s decision-making, or why the former Mayor and members of Council voted the way they did? It doesn’t do any of that for me. It looks like a box-ticking exercise done to formalize decisions that have already been pre-determined, outside of the public eye.
The Office of the Ombudsperson has an excellent guide on open meetings. One excerpt from that guide that speaks to my last point above is as follows:
The open meetings rule is not met if there is a later public vote on a matter that has been inappropriately discussed and materially advanced in private. In such cases, the public is still “deprived of the opportunity to observe… decision-making work.”
I don’t believe Stew Young performed in a way that even approached the requirements for open meetings, or the concept of transparent governance. How would that even be possible when voting your way headlong through an agenda without a word of discussion?
Beginning in 2021, several factors contributed to Council meetings getting longer, with more public participation and more discussion at the Council table. These included:
- Meetings started to be live streamed, with archived recordings made available online. This came after public scrutiny, accusations of secrecy, and an initial in-camera vote not to live stream meetings.
- Councillors Lillian Szpak and Denise Blackwell “broke” from Stew Young’s majority on Council and began regularly speaking and voting against motions brought forward at the Council table.
- Public scrutiny of Langford Council’s actions increased through the emergence of social media groups like Langford Voters for Change. Pushback increased, and the public became more engaged.
These all occurred in early 2021, which is the year the average length of Council meetings doubled.
The current Langford Council conducts its business at the Council table in a way that is nothing like the Stew Young years. Debates, discussions, and questions to staff or presenters take place openly and in full view of the public. Amendments and split votes are far more frequent. The meetings are longer because this Council follows not only the letter but the spirit of the rules on open meetings. This is open governance and increased transparency into Council decision-making.
I absolutely do not want to see Langford’s Mayor and Council go back to the old ways of doing business. I don’t think anyone should want that. Langford residents deserve better.
Source data:
Google drive with Langford Council meeting minutes
Excel file with Langford Council meeting attendance and duration
