Surrey Councillor Doug Elford's motion to have city staff produce a report on the implications of expanding council from nine to 11 members was defeated on a five-to-four vote on Monday night by Mayor Brenda Locke and her four Surrey Connect councillors.
Surrey council currently has eight councillors and, of course, a mayor. Elford presented his notice of motion on May 12 asking for council to direct city staff to provide a corporate report "on the implications of an expansion of city council from eight members to 10, plus the mayor.
He warranted his request by noting Surrey is on its way to becoming the most populated city in B.C., is at a "pivotal moment" in growth, its population is diversifying, its neighbourhoods are expanding, "and the needs of our constituents are more varied and complex than ever before."
"Council needs to address our capacity to deal with urgent issues including border policies, transportation, housing, public safety, infrastructure, economic development," Elford argued. He noted the Community Charter under Section 118 (2) allows for the expansion of city council "by two members through city bylaws without provincial government approval."
Elford on May 26 stressed the intent of his motion was to request a corporate on the "implications" of adding two councillors to the table. "I will welcome debate and provide the reasons why I put this motion forward if it is supported by my colleagues," he said. "I was elected to make decisions that I consider what is best for the city of Surrey and I know my fellow councillors share similar sentiments. I am hopeful that they see value in this debate and support this motion going forward."
Councillor Linda Annis supported staff investigating this as Surrey's population is almost as big as Vancouver's "if not bigger, and geographically it's as big as Vancouver, Richmond, and Burnaby combined and I think the addition of two more councillors would be very helpful."
Councillor Pardeep Kooner said before the vote that if staff were to explore the issue they should look at "the current average hours that each of the councillors are doing now. I think we need to look at whether full-time councillors is an option because that is also the case in the City of Vancouver."
Councillor Mike Bose said he'd hope, if Elford's motion was supported, that the staff report would include the mechanisms by which it would happen.
Councillor Harry Bains questioned how much it would cost in terms of additional space, support staff, "all the costs for taxpayers. I mean, could we use 10 councillors? Yes. Are we doing OK with eight? Yes. I think at this point in time with Surrey residents the last thing that they want is two more councillors, I don't think, in the financial crisis that we're in, the affordability issues I don't think people want to pay for two more councillors to see at this table."
Councillor Rob Stutt said he doesn't believe having 10 councillors because Vancouver does "is an acceptable argument."
"I'm interested in information but I'm far from being able to support moving forward with increasing the number of councillors," he said.
Finally, Locke torpedoed the idea of "even considering" Elford's motion. "To me there is absolutely no point in asking staff to do work that is going to be a waste of time," she said. "We're already asking a lot of our staff so I don't want to ask them to do more work."
"Tonight we're being asked to spend scarce taxpayer dollars," she said.
"For two political seats it doesn't make any real sense to me and I think, with all due respect, the priority is absolutely wrong in this case," Locke added. "Residents have told us loud and repeatedly that they're number-one concern is public safety. Nobody's ever told me they need to see more elected politicians. Nobody told me they need to see more councillors sitting up here."
Elford's motion was defeated with Locke, Stutt, Kooner, Bains and Gordon Hepner voting against it.
"It may be the time in a few years down the road," Locke said, "but today is not a time for us to be spending more money on elected politicians and it's certainly not a time for us to be wasting our staff's time with something that, for me, I have no intention of supporting, not at least in this election cycle of hours."
