Tuesday, June 06, 2006
TransLink shuffle likely after COPE punch-up
By Allen Garr
Vancouver Courier
November 26, 2003
Here's the story on Fred Bass. If the COPE city councillor survives as a TransLink director it will be a miracle. Larry Campbell wants Bass's head. And it looks like he's going to get it.
This assault on Bass is the latest and biggest punch-up so far in the fractious COPE caucus. What makes this different is the fact that, along with Jim Green, Raymond Louie and Tim Stevenson, COPE caucus chairman David Cadman is playing on the mayor's side this time.
The origins of this particular battle go back to the beginning of November. The day before the TransLink long-term funding plan came to council for approval, there was a COPE caucus meeting. Campbell and Cadman - two of the three TransLink directors who, along with Bass, represent Vancouver - wanted this plan passed.
Others in the region will oppose the plan. They figure they can use Vancouver's support as a bargaining chip.
They want a freeze on fare increases at least until transit service improves. They also want to change TransLink's proposed parking tax increase so it doesn't just hit downtown Vancouver businesses but is spread more evenly across the region.
But there was resistance from the left: Tim Louis, Anne Roberts, Ellen Woodsworth and Bass, still bent out of shape over the RAV line.
A raft of compromise amendments was worked out at the caucus meeting. Cadman figured a deal was reached. He was away for the following day's council session, but was stunned when he returned to discover Bass and the other three voted against the plan, which ultimately passed 6-4.
What was more amazing was a letter Bass wrote the day after the vote to TransLink directors and senior staff, in which he outlined why, even though the plan passed at Vancouver council, he was going to oppose it at the TransLink board.
When the mayor got his copy of the letter, his inner bully took full flight. He was on the phone to Bass, turning the air blue at full volume.
He was going to hoist Bass off the TransLink board and replace him with someone he could count on - Raymond Louie.
When Bass suggested a flesh meet so he could explain himself, Larry slammed down the phone. Bass wrote Larry a note of explanation and sent it down the hallway to the mayor's office.
Within minutes Larry, by now red-faced and raging, barreled down to see Bass, armed with the note and his two-word response scrawled across it: "Utter bullshit."
Larry threw down the note on Bass's desk, repeated that phrase and a few others, turned on his heel and headed back to his cave, um, office.
By the time Bass went public with his concerns about the TransLink plan, and the possibility it would cost him his spot on TransLink, his COPE allies were in a deep funk. Woodsworth, no stranger to the mayor's wrath, found his treatment of Bass "appalling."
In a remarkable demonstration of understatement, Bass told one reporter: "I think the mayor was unhappy that I took this position."
That prompted a flood of phone calls to city hall supporting the councillor who topped the polls in the last election, and attacking Campbell for pushing Bass around.
By then, though, Campbell and Cadman had discussed the possibility of getting rid of Bass and replacing him with Louie. Louie actually wants the spot. The extra dough it brings in doesn't hurt and he professes a longstanding interest in transportation.
The crunch will come in the next few weeks when the COPE caucus has to decide which three people will be nominated by Vancouver to the GVRD board, and then voted onto the TransLink board. With Cadman in Campbell's camp, the mayor has the majority. He just has to decide what hit, if any, COPE will take when he dumps the city's most popular councillor.
By Allen Garr
Vancouver Courier
November 26, 2003
Here's the story on Fred Bass. If the COPE city councillor survives as a TransLink director it will be a miracle. Larry Campbell wants Bass's head. And it looks like he's going to get it.
This assault on Bass is the latest and biggest punch-up so far in the fractious COPE caucus. What makes this different is the fact that, along with Jim Green, Raymond Louie and Tim Stevenson, COPE caucus chairman David Cadman is playing on the mayor's side this time.
The origins of this particular battle go back to the beginning of November. The day before the TransLink long-term funding plan came to council for approval, there was a COPE caucus meeting. Campbell and Cadman - two of the three TransLink directors who, along with Bass, represent Vancouver - wanted this plan passed.
Others in the region will oppose the plan. They figure they can use Vancouver's support as a bargaining chip.
They want a freeze on fare increases at least until transit service improves. They also want to change TransLink's proposed parking tax increase so it doesn't just hit downtown Vancouver businesses but is spread more evenly across the region.
But there was resistance from the left: Tim Louis, Anne Roberts, Ellen Woodsworth and Bass, still bent out of shape over the RAV line.
A raft of compromise amendments was worked out at the caucus meeting. Cadman figured a deal was reached. He was away for the following day's council session, but was stunned when he returned to discover Bass and the other three voted against the plan, which ultimately passed 6-4.
What was more amazing was a letter Bass wrote the day after the vote to TransLink directors and senior staff, in which he outlined why, even though the plan passed at Vancouver council, he was going to oppose it at the TransLink board.
When the mayor got his copy of the letter, his inner bully took full flight. He was on the phone to Bass, turning the air blue at full volume.
He was going to hoist Bass off the TransLink board and replace him with someone he could count on - Raymond Louie.
When Bass suggested a flesh meet so he could explain himself, Larry slammed down the phone. Bass wrote Larry a note of explanation and sent it down the hallway to the mayor's office.
Within minutes Larry, by now red-faced and raging, barreled down to see Bass, armed with the note and his two-word response scrawled across it: "Utter bullshit."
Larry threw down the note on Bass's desk, repeated that phrase and a few others, turned on his heel and headed back to his cave, um, office.
By the time Bass went public with his concerns about the TransLink plan, and the possibility it would cost him his spot on TransLink, his COPE allies were in a deep funk. Woodsworth, no stranger to the mayor's wrath, found his treatment of Bass "appalling."
In a remarkable demonstration of understatement, Bass told one reporter: "I think the mayor was unhappy that I took this position."
That prompted a flood of phone calls to city hall supporting the councillor who topped the polls in the last election, and attacking Campbell for pushing Bass around.
By then, though, Campbell and Cadman had discussed the possibility of getting rid of Bass and replacing him with Louie. Louie actually wants the spot. The extra dough it brings in doesn't hurt and he professes a longstanding interest in transportation.
The crunch will come in the next few weeks when the COPE caucus has to decide which three people will be nominated by Vancouver to the GVRD board, and then voted onto the TransLink board. With Cadman in Campbell's camp, the mayor has the majority. He just has to decide what hit, if any, COPE will take when he dumps the city's most popular councillor.
# posted by Larry @ 10:18 AM 
