So:
The new chair of the Translink board of directors says media will not be allowed into regular board meetings. Dale Parker says the most effective process for developing strategic plans is without the public or media present.
The arrogance is breath-taking. And, to date, so is the passivity of the response.
Some who believed the previous incarnation of TransLink was too messy, too parochial and too political point to the YVR Board as an effective example of administration.
Here’s the difference: YVR is essentially the landlord of a single-use, self-contained facility. They don’t plan the rest of the region, though they have an impact on it. However, the moment they impinge on other jurisdictions (say, when proposing a new bridge), they know they have to consult and cooperate.
TransLink is a very different animal: it effectively controls the shape of this region. Its priorities affect our future, personally and directly. The idea that they can do strategic planning in private, announce their conclusions and expect us all to acquiese is, at best, naive. And at worse, an intolerable presumption of power that cannot and will not be accepted.
However, Parker does say the public will be invited to address the board roughly four times a year.
It’s enough to make one want to join the Bus Riders Union.
Gordon- you are one of the smartest, most able former public servants I’ve ever met. Steeped in history and a long-term perspective, you are a treasure- a public intellectual who is a sincere, sometimes lonely advocate for many necessary changes. But I have to be honest in stating a troubling thought that has been with me for many months. You have railed against Gateway and Kevin Falcon again and again. In your latest post, you rightly condemn the “arrogance” of Translink’s new policy. But your consistent responses remind me of the Russians, who faced with all manner of corruption and abuse for decades, would patiently say: “If only the Czar knew about this!” If only the great man, at the seat of power knew, he would end this terrible policy. So, Gordon Price, if only the other Gordon, the Premier, your former boss, the brilliant mayor, knew about the new terrible, undemocratic policies of Translink, he’d intervene. If only he knew! Do I have to state the obvious? The man you support, Premier Campbell, supports every one of these moves. Kevin Falcon works at the pleasure of Gordon Campbell. Are we supposed to believe that Kevin Falcon is an out-of-control renegade, freelancing these huge changes? How can anyone support Campbell and yet detest Falcon? I know you’d never vote NDP, and I know you have tender memories of Gordon Campbell as mayor- but even so, being anti-Falcon and pro-Campbell requires a prodigious and dismaying feat of political contortion that only feeds cynicism. We all have our blind spots, so I understand if it’s psychologically impossible for you to bring yourself to openly oppose a friend, a man you admire, a man you worked with closely for years. But if you truly want an end to such bad policy and an end to “passivity,” is railing at policy without blaming the supreme policy maker productive? Solely blaming Falcon for Gateway and Translink is like blaming Rumsfeld for Iraq. It’s convenient, and comforting, but it doesn’t solve the problem. To use your own powerful words: such delusion is not worthy of the Gordon Price I know.