Park Board Commissioners, l-r: John Irwin, John Coupar, Dave Demers, Gwen Giesbrecht and Tricia Barker (both obscured), Stuart Mackinnon, and Camil Dumont. On the far right (with a beard), the one, the magnificent Malcolm Bromley, Park Board GM.

VanRamblings has spent much of the month stating to anyone who would listen that there’ll be some politics at City Hall, and a whole bunch of politics at School Board, but the saving grace in municipal politics in Vancouver is our Park Board — where there’d be no politics, just good caring folks who have the best interests of Vancouver’s parks & recreation system at heart. Oh how wrong and naïve we were. Alas and alack.

The same sort of procedural wrangling that infected Council last week visited Park Board last evening.

Once again it was an amendment to amendment hellscape, this time around it was at the Park Board table, though, with a no-nonsense, takes no truck from anyone, by the book Gwen Giesbrecht in the Chair. Before we continue, note should be made we believe Ms. Giesbrecht can do no wrong — we’re so in her corner, we’ve moved in and set up permanent residence.

The first item on the agenda: setting up a VanSplash Advisory Committee, to advise Park Board on how to move forward on the VanSplash report.

VanRamblings happens to know that the eminence gris at Park Board (and one of the finest men we know), John Coupar (along with his colleague Tricia Barker) believes that the controversial VanSplash Aquatic Strategy has been talked and consulted to death, and that any reasonable person would know that Park Board should just get on with things, build much-needed community neighbourhood pools, preserve, renovate & update Templeton and Lord Byng pools, and jettison the neighbourhood-intrusive Olympic destination pool the authors of the VanSplash Aquatic Strategy threw their support behind — a plan vehemently opposed by community pool advocates, and the neighbourhood surrounding Connaught Park.

In an effort to play nice (realizing he and his colleague didn’t have the votes to quash the VanSplash Advisory Committee), Commissioner Coupar moved an amendment that would turn the attention of the Advisory Committee to preserving both the Lord Byng and Templeton pools (both recommended for closure in the original iteration of the VanSplash Report).

But Park Board Committee Chair Gwen Giesbrecht, no fool she, and one of the most well-experienced Board chairs in Park Board history, was having none of that palaver, no siree, Bob.

Not only would the amendment hamstring the new Advisory Committee, the mandate of the Committee had not yet been made clear — the amendment was ultra vires. On the advice of the clerk — with whom Commissioner and Park Board Committee Chair Giesbrecht consulted, and who advised the amendment was not an amendment, but a whole separate motion that would have to be put on notice for a future meeting — causing Ms. Giesbrecht to rule the amendment out of order. Bear with us — the amendment will live on to fight another day, in another form (and pass).

Lulled to sleep, yet? Okay, okay — we’ll leave VanSplash for now.

Topic 2: Where the (Ugly) Politics Comes in. 

Chair Giesbrecht called for a 5-minute break after the contentious “debate” on the questionable VanSplash Advisory Committee. Fine & dandy with us!

Given that we’re a snoop, we listened in on a conversation Park Board Chairperson Stuart Mackinnon was having with former Park Board Chair, Anita Romaniuk, where he was exclaiming to her how he’d consulted with all of the Commissioners before assigning them to their Park Board liaison and other responsibilities.

Migawd, it’s been a long time since we’ve heard such codswallop.

Earlier in the day, we had been advised that Chairperson Mackinnon had not assigned John Coupar as the liaison to the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens — perhaps the meanest, most off-putting, partisan act by an elected official in this or any other term. Colour us mightily disgusted.

The Bloedel Conservatory, now inexorably linked to the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, is entering its 50th year, which it will celebrate next December 9th. John Coupar’s claim to fame in Vancouver politics, as a former member of the Board of Director of the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, was in convincing the Gardens Board to take over the Bloedel Conservatory at Queen Elizabeth Park, when the previous Vision Vancouver Park Board wanted to shut it down. John fought against the closure, found the funding to keep the Conservatory alive, such that the Conservatory thrives to this day. John Coupar loves the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens and the Conservatory atop Queen Elizabeth Park.

At their worst and their meanest, the Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioners would never have dreamed of denying John Coupar the job of liaison to the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens and the Queen Elizabeth Park Conservatory / Aboretum. But Stuart Mackinnon has done just that.

And in its 50th anniversary year.

Whose father was the founding curator of the Bloedel Conservatory? Gosh, could it be John Coupar’s father? Hmmm, yep, it was.

And who was present at the opening of the Bloedel Conservatory / Arboretum on December 9th, 1969, standing next to the father he loved, and who passed on to him his love of parks? Gosh, could that boy standing next to his dad at the opening of the Conservatory on that chilly Tuesday morning, December 9, 1969 be John Coupar? Yer darn tootin’ it was …

John Coupar had asked Mr. Mackinnon to be re-appointed as the liaison to the Conservatory in its 50th year, so he might help prepare for the anniversary. But Stuart Mackinnon?

He all but told John Coupar to go to hell.

VanRamblings being VanRamblings, we queried Stuart Mackinnon on his decision to strip John Coupar of his liaison responsibilities to the Conservatory, particularly in its anniversary year, and the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens. His voice dripping with a haughty and indifferent mix of derision and condescension, he simply looked down on us and said, “Thank you for the input, Ray,” and walked away, nose held high in the air.

In Vancouver folks, this is what we call petty politics of the worst kind.

Update: Park Board Chair Sober Second Thought. John Coupar Appointed as Liaison to Van Dusen + Conservatory for 2019

Consistent with everything VanRamblings knows about Park Board Chairperson Stuart Mackinnon — whom we have long known to be a heart-filled person of conscience, and one of the finest men it has been our privilege to come to know — Chairperson Mackinnon, engaging in sober second thought, re-thought his original assignment of responsibility to the Bloedel Conservatory and the Van Dusen Botanical Garden, and less than 18 hours after the publication of today’s VanRamblings column, appointed Commissioner John Coupar as Park Board liaison to the Bloedel Conservatory + Van Dusen Botanical Garden for the 2019 calendar year.

VanRamblings would like to thank community members Dave Pasin and Elvira Lount for helping bring the above matter to resolution.

And don’t think that it was Mr. Coupar alone who was made subject to Stuart Mackinnon’s non-consultative decision-making. John Coupar’s good-hearted NPA colleague Tricia Barker had asked Stuart Mackinnon if she might be the liaison to the Seniors Advisory Committee at City Hall — given that Ms. Barker is a certified personal trainer who works with seniors in building a healthier, more productive life, while facing the challenging aspects of aging. Chairperson Mackinnon assigned Ms. Barker as the liaison to City Hall’s Youth Committee instead.
Commissioner Barker asked Stuart Mackinnon if she might be assigned as liaison to the Dunbar and Kerrisdale Community Centres, where she knew and had worked with staff. Instead, Stuart Mackinnon assigned Ms. Barker as the liaison to the Champlain Heights and Killarney Community Centres.

Note. Revised Park Board Liaison appointments by Park Board Chair Stuart Mackinnon have been made, that correspondence to Commissioners dated November 20th, the appointments effective January 1, 2019, or sooner.

Lest you be left with the impression the Park Board Committee meeting room is Dysfunction Junction, let us assure you that is not wholly the case.

Whatever Mr. Mackinnon’s faults — after all, whom among us does not have faults? — he cares desperately about Vancouver’s parks and recreation system, and long has been a staunch advocate for our parks system. The same is true for each of the other electeds at Park Board: truth-teller Camil Dumont, take no guff Gwen Giesbrecht, heart-filled Dave Demers, passionate John Coupar, parks advocate extraordinaire Tricia Barker, the mighty, velvet-gloved and oh-so-bright John Irwin, and just about our favourite person on Earth, Park Board General Manager Malcolm Bromley.

Parks and recreation is in great shape with the above-named persons.

On to the second to last item in today’s VanRamblings column, as our beloved and persons of conscience Park Board Commissioners unanimously approved a $35,000 grant to the Queer Arts Festival, the motion moved by Commissioner John Coupar, seconded by Tricia Barker, and amended by Gwen Giesbrecht to raise the sum to $35,000 — which motion and amendment passed with, as we say above, unanimous consent.

In 2019, the Vancouver Park Board will meet 21 times, with a month break in August, and only one meeting in each of March (spring break), October and December. Chances are the Board will meet more often than that, tho.

For instance, although the Park Board Commissioners meet in open session, next, on Monday, December 3rd, Chairperson Mackinnon announced to his fellow Commissioners on Monday night that there’ll be a Budget Committee meeting on the evening of Wednesday, December 5th — chances are, there’ll be more than one budget committee meeting, as there will also likely be community consultative meetings throughout the year.

Compensation for all their hard work? The Park Board Chair receives $21,346 per year in compensation, whereas our Park Board Commissioners are paid $17,077 for each year of their tenure — for what generally works out to be a 35 – 40 hour week, although most Commissioners put in more hours than that, in their liaison work, and in work in the community.

Little known fact: the Park Board meeting schedule mirrors that of Vancouver City Council, with Park Board meeting on Monday evenings, and Council meeting all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.