Mayor Green declares war on Township Councillors

In today's Langley Times - they reported Township Mayor Rick Green unveiling his 7 member "team" for the civic elections in November.  See here

A point of interest though - he directly attacks Township Councillors Jordan Bateman, Bev Dornan, Steve Ferguson, Charlie Fox, Grant Ward, Bob Long and Kim Richter and called them the "Six Pack plus One"

Councillors Bateman, Ward, and Ferguson - I understand because of the intense personal interaction between these Councillors and TOL Mayor Rick Green.  But I must profess - I was scratching my head when he said that Councillors Dornan, Long, Fox and Richter must go as well.  These Councillors rarely if ever (all of the times I've observed Township Council meetings) had any interaction with Rick Green at TOL Council meetings.  As such - it is my conclusion that Mr. Green feels that all 7 of these Councillors have voted as a "block" and because of how they voted, contrary to his wishes and his 2008 campaign platform - Mr. Green has decided these 7 Councillors should all go, save TOL Councillor Mel Kositsky

I believe TOL residents should be scratching their heads at both this move and comments from TOL Mayor Rick Green

Again - this move plus any others in the Township of Langley, relating to the civic election in November, will make this muncipality the one to watch on November 19th

SBF

Civic slate coming to the Township of Langley municipal election

As reported tonight - local Langley blogger and Township of Langley (TOL) Councillor Jordan Bateman reports that current Township of Langley Mayor Rick Green has formed a civic slate called "Vote Langley Now".  See his blog post here

Now, from what I read on TOL Politics - slates are not new but haven't been seen since the former LLT or Langley Leadership Team days of former Mayor John Scholtens.  It will be interesting to see how this development will affect this fall's TOL civic election and especially what impact it'll have on both the challengers to TOL Council this November and also current TOL Councillors Bev Dornan, Charlie Fox, Steve Ferguson, Grant Ward, Bob Long, Kim Richter, Mel Kositsky and Jordan Bateman


Please keep in mind that anyone watching TOL Council knows that TOL Mayor Rick Green has not gotten along with TOL Councillors Grant Ward, Steve Ferguson and Jordan Bateman

The TOL civic race will likely go down as being one of the important civic elections to watch in all of British Columbia

SBF

Update at 11:52pm Tuesday - Langley Advance is covering this development here and here

Heated Township of Langley Council Race coming

In this term of local government  - relations between Township Mayor Rick Green and his Councillors has been very acrimonious and he and Township Councillor Kim Richter have been isolated, when it comes to Budget Votes - both in 2009 + 2010 and as a result - Mayor Green announcing in 2010 that he wants a 2nd term and laying out his wish list.  See that blog post here

In the meantime - both of Langley's newspapers (Times/Advance) are full of stories and letters to the editor concerning Rick Green and whether or not he should step down relating to an investigation concerning himself and what Township of Langley Councillors should be doing as it relates to their relationship with Mayor Green

Which gets us to yesterday - Township Councillor Jordan Bateman, filling in for Alise Mills, on the World Today (Weekend) on CKNW with guest host Marcella Bernardo during a segment called "Life on the Right" got a call from clearly a Rick Green supporter challenging Councillor Bateman to his views on local taxation.  It is my view that Councillor Bateman recieved a small taste of what his constituents may deliver come this fall as he and his colleagues and Mayoralty/Councillor candidates for the Township Council go door knocking.  Already there is talk on the Internet about civic slates for the Township election race (slates or civic political parties are common place in places like Burnaby, Surrey, and Vancouver for starters)

Here in Williams Lake - the race for Mayor is starting to hear up with 2 letters to the editor in the Williams Lake Tribune - one in support of current Williams Lake Mayor Kerry Cook and one in support of Mayoralty Candidate and former WL Mayor Scott Nelson

In fact - the Township election may very well turn out to be one of the nasty civic races in all of British Columbia.  I imagine that people like Jordan Bateman and some of his colleagues plus others (who've announced or thinking about a run at Township Council) could very well be discussing this possibility and how that plays into their strategy for either a re-election bid or first timers - an election bid for Township Council

The AC/DC song "Highway to Hell" seems appropriate for the civic election in the Township of Langley, but I do hope that the civic election can settle some personality issues clearly on Township Council and that the next Township Council can move on to issues that need solving and not focus on petty personality issues between members of the Township of Langley Council

SBF