Richmond city Coun. Alexa Loo will represent Richmond at Metro Vancouver after Coun. Chak Au, who previously held the position, was elected in April as a member of Parliament for Richmond Centre-Marpole.
Au, while not resigning his council seat, has resigned his committee and Metro Vancouver appointments.
But the vote on May 12 to elect Loo was a narrow 5-4 decision.
Au's decision not to resign his council seat triggered the narrow vote, but it also led to a speaker trying to speak to city council on the issue and being shut down by the mayor as well as a later vote on the ethics of voting for paid appointments.
Several city councillors suggested Coun. Carol Day should be the third Richmond director at Metro Vancouver.
Mayor Malcolm Brodie nominated Loo and gave as his rationale her professional background as a chartered accountant and her involvement in Metro Vancouver, including on several committees.
Before the vote, Coun. Kash Heed called a “point of order” asking whether Loo should be voting for herself given that it’s a paid position.
This was rejected by the mayor.
According to the latest Statement of Financial Information from Metro Vancouver, Brodie received $50,694 in salary and $13,925 in expenses in 2024, Coun. Bill McNulty received $19,758, Loo received $11,214, and Au received $13,350.
Speaker wants to comment on committee minutes
Following the vote, Richmond resident Jerome Dickey, who has previously run for council and has written to the Richmond News saying Au shouldn’t retain his city council seat, addressed city council during a time reserved for public input into meeting agenda items.
Dickey wanted to speak about the Metro Vancouver appointments, but Brodie said that item was “non-delegable” (couldn’t be commented on by a delegation to city council) because it had already been voted on.
After Brodie asked him which agenda item he wanted to speak on, Dickey perused the meeting agenda and said he wanted to speak on the “receipt of committee minutes.”
He then started addressing Au, congratulating him on his election.
Brodie interrupted him and suggested Dickey’s intention was to speak about whether or not Au should resign from city council. This, however, wasn’t on the agenda of the meeting and therefore couldn’t be addressed at this point in the meeting, Brodie said.
“You can’t just speak on anything,” Brodie told Dickey. “You have to identify what it is on the agenda that you’re going to speak to, and I’m telling you whether Councillor Au should resign or anything about the committees or anything we’ve done is not delegable.”
He added that Dickey can’t speak about the agenda itself, rather he has to speak to some “substantive item that is on the agenda.”
Dickey then asked if he could speak on a non-agenda item, to which Brodie said no. To speak to a non-agenda item, members of the public have to contact the clerk in advance of a meeting and be put on the agenda, Brodie explained.
Dickey claimed the mayor allows other people to speak on items.
When Brodie told him he was ending his time, Dickey said he was “selectively shutting down democracy here because other times you’ve let…” At that point, his microphone was turned off.
“No, sir, I have not,” Brodie replied.
Heed calls for ethics vote
A week after the vote on the Metro Vancouver director’s position, Heed presented a motion at the next general purposes committee meeting calling on city staff to look at “legal precedents” of council members voting on “issues with personal financial interests,” and to seek a review from an ethics or conflict commissioner for guidance for council members.
“From an ethical standpoint, there are strong positions that a council member who holds a personal financial interest in a matter should refrain from both contributing to discussions and participating in the vote,” Heed wrote in the background to his motion.
Brodie told the other council members he didn’t see the point of referring the item to staff to investigate.
He noted it’s up to individual councillors to declare a conflict of interest.
This came up in relation to the appointment of a director to Metro Vancouver, Brodie said. But he said Richmond city council has made nine appointments to the regional board, and he wondered how a vote could be done if everyone has a conflict of interest and has to recuse themselves.
“I don’t know why we need to refer this (to city staff),” Brodie said.
“If it’s up to the individual, who cares what any ethics or conflict commissioner is going to have to say about it?"
Loo said that if both she and Day had abstained from voting, the result would have been the same.
“To use valuable staff time to look at this is a complete waste of time,” she added.
Loo further asked how far this idea of a conflict could be taken, questioning whether city council candidates should be allowed to vote in an election they’re running in.
“Is that where we’re going to go with this one? Are we going to go all the way with this one?” she said.
She added this issue has been “hashed out” in other venues, and it’s been accepted that it’s OK to vote for oneself.
In the end, the motion carried with Brodie, Loo and Au voting in opposition.
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