Something remarkable happened today:

The NPA voted AGAINST replacing the City of Vancouver& #39;s Fire Chief! Indefinitely, but at least through the 2021 budget.

In the middle of two public health emergencies!

Just wildly irresponsible. #vanpoli
Here& #39;s what happened. Council was considering a budget outlook report from staff. Councilor Dominato introduced the amendment below (highlighted yellow).

Note the "moratorium on filling vacancies...until such time as city revenues have returned to 2019 pre-COVID levels."
Who the heck knows when THAT will be!

Staff promptly warned council that this be a HUGE problem. The City provides essential services. People in critical roles sometimes retire, or move on, or whatever, and their roles need to be filled.
A blanket ban on filling vacancies would prevent the City from functioning properly, as many critical roles would not be filled. Staff specifically mentioned the following current critical vacancies:

-Fire Chief
-Chief Equity Officer
-Chief Engineer
-GM of the Park Board
Staff were perfectly clear that, if Dominato& #39;s amendment passed, the city wouldn& #39;t be able to fill these (and other) critically important positions.

AND THE NPA VOTED FOR IT ANYWAYS https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤯" title="Explodierender Kopf" aria-label="Emoji: Explodierender Kopf">

Those green "yes" votes were knowing votes to NOT hire (among others) a new Fire Chief!
This, btw, isn& #39;t the first time the NPA has knowingly voted in a way that they surely hoped wouldn& #39;t actually pass, because if it did they would blow up the city& #39;s ability to function. https://twitter.com/pwaldkirch/status/1260430185356234752">https://twitter.com/pwaldkirc...
The NPA likes to pass itself off as a Serious Party of Business, but they& #39;ve repeatedly shown they& #39;re happy to risk blowing it all up for the sake of posturing. They know most people don& #39;t watch council and think there aren& #39;t any consequences to votes like this.

Are they right?
By the way, I& #39;m focusing this thread on not hiring a new Fire Chief (here& #39;s an article about how he quit while I& #39;m at it) because it& #39;s so obviously contrary to the party& #39;s professed values of being Very Serious, but I was personally more disturbed... https://www.vancourier.com/news/vancouver-fire-chief-leaving-post-for-job-in-alberta-1.24150190">https://www.vancourier.com/news/vanc...
...by their willingness (particularly Cr Hardwick) to throw equity funding under the bus. Imposing an indefinite ban on filling the (already budgeted for) Chief Equity Officer role is not. cool. https://twitter.com/pwaldkirch/status/1280985075992064000">https://twitter.com/pwaldkirc...
I particularly appreciated Cr Boyle& #39;s intervention. If the NPA wants to cut funding for something, ok: but be direct about it! Trying to impose cuts in an unplanned, ad hoc manner by just imposing a blanket ban on filling vacancies is irresponsible. https://twitter.com/pwaldkirch/status/1280990313998282753">https://twitter.com/pwaldkirc...
So there you have it. Today was the day the NPA tried to prevent the City of Vancouver from replacing its Fire Chief, indefinitely.

What a council this is!
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