TEAM SLAMS ABC’S STEALTH-AND-SECRECY STYLE OF GOVERNING

Integrity Commissioner Finds ABC’s Actions Deprived the Public of Participation and Undermined Democracy  

VANCOUVER (Aug. 26, 2025) – A report by the city’s Integrity Commissioner that slams ABC’s stealth-and-secrecy style of governing shows that City Hall needs a thorough house-cleaning, says TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.

The report found that Mayor Ken Sim and seven ABC city councillors intentionally violated City policy by holding closed-door meetings about Vancouver’s climate plan and upgrades to Moberly Park. 

Integrity Commissioner Lisa Southern doesn’t mince words: “If Council Members meet with quorum outside of an open meeting, discuss City business, and do so in a way that moves that business along the spectrum of decision making in a material way, there is a problem,” she writes. 

“They are depriving the public of participation in the policy development and decision-making processes that serve to build public trust and confidence in local government. Democracy is undermined.” That echoes TEAM’s longstanding concern about ABC’s disdain for democratic procedure.

“Inside dealing behind closed doors is sadly in keeping with ABC's MO,” says former TEAM City Councillor Colleen Hardwick. “Someone should remind Ken Sim and ABC who they were elected to represent: Vancouver residents. Clearly, holding private de facto council meetings does not serve the public good.”

Having learned nothing from its mistakes – as described in the Integrity Commissioner’s judgment last spring against ABC Park Board commissioners who violated the “open meeting” rule – ABC President Stephen Molnar boasted that elected officials would continue to caucus in contravention of the Vancouver Charter.

Southern’s report comes on the heels of the unexplained departure and ultra-fast replacement of Vancouver’s City Manager. That debacle raised so many questions that an Alberta-based lawyer has been appointed to review the process. And after the City refused to release details of the former City Manager’s severance package, Mayor Ken Sim added to the confusion by vowing to make it public when council meetings resume this fall.

This is what happens when a City Council doesn’t think the public deserves to know what it’s doing.

In July 2024, ABC tried to freeze the Integrity Commissioner’s work and silence public oversight of what goes on at 12th and Cambie. We owe a debt of thanks to Councillor Pete Fry for initiating the complaint that kiboshed that scheme and resulted in the report made public yesterday. 

“This type of autocratic behaviour is consistent with the Provincial Government's initiative to close down public meetings,” says Hardwick. “All this adds up to an assault on local democracy.”

The best way to fight back is to elect a TEAM majority in the 2026 civic election. TEAM campaigned on a promise of transparency in 2022 and will do that again next year.