A controversial sewage plant build, sinkholes, lawsuits, massive staff turnover, a municipal employees strike and accusations of bullying - Sechelt's now on the map for all the wrong reasons.
I've covered Sechelt council since I started at Coast Reporter in July 1999, and in all those years I've never seen so much staff turnover. Since the current council was sworn in at the end of 2011, two senior staffers have been fired and eight more have left for other jobs.
Conjures up images of rats fleeing a sinking ship for me.
Many who have left have alluded to problems at the District, but none has been willing to put their name to any accusations in print.
Now striking unionized staff are saying their workplace is "toxic" and they point to bullying as the problem.
No one will finger the specific bully(ies) responsible, but the District is denying any bullying has taken place. "I certainly, if there has been any bullying, would have expected us to hear about it," Mayor John Henderson said in a council meeting last week.
The only conclusion I can come to is that someone's not telling the truth. Is it the 45 unionized workers or is it the mayor? I don't know for sure.
I do know this term has been tumultuous for the almost entirely new council of Henderson, Chris Moore, Darnelda Siegers, Tom Lamb, Doug Hockley, Mike Shanks and Alice Lutes. Shanks returned after a term away and Lutes was the only incumbent to survive an election campaign that blasted former councillors for their unwillingness to move forward with projects, even after much public discussion.
Henderson's council doesn't have a problem moving forward. Their problem, it would seem, is moving forward too fast, without enough public input. Of course, that's what councillors like Moore say they were elected to do, "to get on with it."
But does getting things done really have to mean circumventing the public?
If Sechelt residents have proven anything to me in the past 14 years, it's that they will have opposing views on every topic that comes to the council table, but opposing views don't mean things can't get done.
I look at opposing views as an opportunity to explore ideas from different vantage points. They give us the chance to look at plans in another light, and sometimes that illumination can show deep structural flaws that weren't noticeable on the surface.
Naysayers don't need to be silenced or circumvented, they need to be given the floor to air their concerns so those concerns can be given some thought.
The job of council is to listen to all those voices and make a balanced decision in the best interest of all of us. Those decisions might not be popular, but if given ample opportunity to speak, and if truly listened to, at least no one would feel ignored or less important than anyone else.
I think that's exactly the feeling some residents and striking workers have now.
This council still has a year and a half in office and a lot of bad or good can be done in that time. Even though the bad has consumed a lot of my ink lately, I'm an eternal optimist and hope to see many good things in the next 17 months. A good start would include opening all meetings to the public, posting all agendas well in advance and getting back to the bargaining table with the workers who help keep our municipality clean, safe and functioning. I'd also like to see any major expenditures in the future discussed openly with the community.
Just my two cents, but they could buy some much-needed positivity in Sechelt.
