Citing a “respect for safe workplace concerns,” Islands Trust staff have been directed to remove recordings of the September Trust Council meeting from the body’s official website –– and to fast-track plans for a trustee education session on meeting conduct.
Near the end of a wide-ranging Executive Committee (EC) agenda that included several in-camera discussions, trustees agreed the audiovisual record of the most recent public meeting of Islands Trust Council (ITC) should no longer be offered online.
Without elaborating during the public sessions, the EC voted unanimously, directing staff to remove nearly 14 hours of recordings. By the next day, links to videos of three days of sessions Sept. 24-26 were gone from the meeting’s page, although at press time the recordings themselves were still accessible to any who had saved the link.
Minutes for that meeting were not yet available, although delays for official minutes –– particularly for larger, longer meetings –– are common; draft minutes for Trust Council’s Sept. 25 and Oct. 3 Committee of the Whole meetings were online at press time.
Trustees spent much of the Oct. 30 meeting discussing an approach to a growing incivility noted in meetings, pointing to the September ITC meeting as particularly onerous –– if not necessarily unique –– and pondering plans to revisit a code of conduct discussion before the next meeting slated for December.
“Some action is needed,” said Gabriola Island trustee Tobi Elliott. “A way to address the conduct from September’s Trust Council in the December meeting is necessary, because if we don’t, then it looks like that behaviour is OK –– and it’s not.”
Committee members had previously called September’s meeting a particularly toxic one between side chatter, disrespect for the chair, speakers and staff –– and what Elliott characterized as “tearing it apart and then asking ‘why does it not function properly?’”
EC also unanimously directed staff to continue to investigate a facilitated code of conduct session for a future Trust Council meeting –– an issue ironically deferred from the September meeting –– “as soon as practicable,” and committee members discussed whether to make time during the upcoming December ITC meeting or to host a special session in the spring.
“There are risks associated with [delay],” said ITC chair and Thetis Island trustee Peter Luckham. “I think we need to acknowledge that there are people that feel these meetings are unsafe, and that there’s a lack of respect.”
Staff noted a packed December agenda, and the reality that despite the EC’s responsibility for training trustees, given their already busy schedules it could prove difficult to find a date for a special session all could attend.
“I can see both sides,” said Mayne Island trustee David Maude. “A standalone session, I think, would be way more valuable. But I also understand logistically that you might get a lot of trustees not attending because of that.”
In a roundtable review at the EC’s Oct. 9 meeting, Legislative Services director David Marlor had warned trustees that name calling or otherwise attacking staff was a violation of provincial workplace rules, and the risk existed that staff could begin an action against the Islands Trust for allowing bullying or intimidation in that workplace.
“We need to raise the bar with how we conduct ourselves, the language that we use,” said Elliott Oct. 30, “[realizing] what effect some of our behaviour is having on the workplace.”
Elliott added that if there were complaints coming forward, a review committee struck, and “whatever disciplinary action or mediation” is required, she would support a standalone workshop over some statements at the beginning of December’s ITC meeting.
“We can send a strong message,” said Elliott. “And I would be prepared to be a personal bearer of the message, of the impact that poor behaviour, poor use of language and poor workplace practices are having on me as a trustee –– and staff could perhaps speak to it as staff.”
Ultimately the EC agreed Luckham should address code of conduct expectations at the beginning of December’s ITC meeting –– where Luckham may, as Maude put it, “read [trustees] the riot act,” although the agenda item will be along the lines of “conduct that supports better decision-making.”
“At the very start of it is the very best time,” said Lasqueti Island trustee Tim Peterson. “And then run a tight meeting.”
Luckham agreed, saying putting off at least addressing the problems to March’s ITC meeting would be “far too late.”
“If we survive December Council,” added Luckham. “I’m sure we will, but whether or not all of us survive is the question in my mind –– and that’s at a staff level, as well as at a trustee level.”
