A Public Hearing can be the final part of the process and is attended by residents who are (often) very angry because they didn’t know what was being proposed. City Councillors, City staff and the development team are often incredulous that residents say they were unaware of the proposal when they have spent much time and money to inform residents. How absurd that the same methods of public engagement have been used consistently, for years, by stakeholders. This method often angers residents, yet they still have no inclination to change their public engagement methods.
If you are involved in a campaign with City Council, and the notices for the Public Hearing have been mailed to you, or appeared in the local paper, this chapter will help you understand the importance of the Public Hearing in your campaign, and help you prepare for it.
Please read the chapter on Development Information Meetings (available in the handbook) as it gives helpful information on how to find residents to fill the room where the Public Hearing will be held.
A Public Hearing is a legal requirement before certain issues can be voted on by your City Council.
It is also a time-honoured tradition in City politics. In every City stories are told of issues that brought the residents together to fight, with the final battle being the Public Hearing. For City Council and City staff, this is when the residents of your City will have their final say before the issue is voted on. City Councillors are supposed to come with an open mind, hear the reasons for or against the issue, and then decide how they will vote.
You are still looking for a reason to slow the process down, so remember to also campaign for those “refer’ or “defer” options—see The Process (available in the handbook). (Sometimes the vote will happen on the same night as the Public Hearing. The voting can happen very quickly, so make sure that members of your team are assigned to watch specific Councillors during the vote, so that you are aware how each Council member voted, instead of waiting for the video of the meeting to be uploaded.)
If the Public Hearing is for a minor change to a Policy document, often no-one attends to speak on the issue. Most likely, the Policy will then be voted on later in the Council meeting. In the last 12 years I have seen well-attended meetings, on issues that concern many residents, where the vote was still held later in the same meeting.
My City has changed, and now, quite often, an issue that many residents are concerned about will be voted on at a future Council meeting, to give Council time to appear thoughtful, and consider what residents have said.
Finding out about a scheduled Public Hearing could be the beginning of your campaign.
Somehow you have heard about a scheduled Public Hearing. You might not have received a notice in the mail or on your doorstep, because the subject of the Public Hearing isn’t in your neighbourhood. But you have concerns about the issue that is before City Council and you have decided to attend, and maybe even say something. Some cities have email lists of residents who want to be kept informed of certain issues.
The Public Hearing could be the last step in your campaign.
You want as many people as possible to submit correspondence, about this issue and attend, the hearing. Even if you must spend time helping those who hate to speak publicly, or those who tend to ramble, you will need as many speakers as possible.
All your conversations with other people should stress the importance of this meeting. Ask everyone you talk to, from your first conversation with them, to commit to being at the Public Hearing. The presence of many residents will let your City Council and City staff know that this issue is important and will significantly affect the lives of many residents.
If you are just learning about an imminent Public Hearing on an issue that will affect you, your neighbourhood, or your City, you need a way to slow the official process down.
I suggest you write immediately to your Mayor and City Councillors to let them know that you have just heard about this issue and the upcoming Public Hearing. Your concern should be focused on the process, and the short timeline, especially if this area of concern will affect many residents.
You will have only two weeks after the notice is published in the local papers until the Public Hearing. Unless you are in the habit of checking the Agenda weekly, or glancing through the local papers, it will seem your Council is not keeping residents informed about those issues that could have a far-reaching impact on your City. This is the usual process so let your (contained) anger help you fight more efficiently and effectively.
Who should be told about the upcoming Public Hearing?
Unfortunately, the City follows its policies and little thought is given to informing others in the city about the upcoming Public Hearing.
What does it say if you are a member of a group of residents that has been meeting for years, City Council knows about your group, the outcome of the Public Hearing would impact your area of concern, yet you are not informed and City Hall staff don’t even consider informing you?
It could be as basic as the Gardening Group not being informed about a vote on landscaping changes to the main streets in your city, when this group has been lobbying Council for years about making those streets prettier by adding more plants and shrubs.
You will want to find your City’s official documents about Public Hearings so that you can learn as much as possible about the process.
There will be several documents about Public Hearings and you will be able to find them on the City website.
- Among these documents are policies that determine when a Public Hearing is required, and statutes that regulate all local governments and provide general guidelines they must follow. In the Province of British Columbia, these include the Community Charter, and the Local Government Act. The policies also include timeline guidelines.
- A City document will specify what their ad in the local paper must include. The ad will also include information about where to send correspondence on this issue. Be attentive! You must send it to the indicated email address or it might not be included in the Public Hearing record. There will also be details about how to determine which residents will be directly affected by the issue, and how such residents will be informed.
- Notifying residents is far more complicated if your city does not have a local paper.
- You will also be looking for the opening comments that must be read at the beginning of the Public Hearing. These clarify what happens at the hearing.
- There could also be a document that describes policies and procedures Council must follow after the Public Hearing is closed. An example of this would be that City Councils are not allowed to receive any new information, with some exceptions, after the Public Hearing, and they are not allowed to ask for new information.
Even if you do find the documents that outline the policies and procedures your City must follow, they may be outdated, incomplete, or even miss several steps in the process that your City usually follows.
Unfortunately, I have noticed that some of the documents that I have found on my City’s website are not easy to locate, possibly because they have been taken off the City website while they are being revised. Official City documents are constantly being updated. There may also be separate documents on policies and procedures that must be followed.
I encourage you to find someone, at City Hall who can help you fully understand the policies and procedures City staff must follow. Even so, there may be discrepancies between what the official documents indicate, and the process the City actually follows.
If you are already involved in a campaign with City Council about a specific issue, and you receive a notice in the mail, I suggest you immediately ascertain how everyone you have talked to, or whose email address you have, obtained their notice.
I was amazed at how quickly residents would forget when, how, or even whether they actually received this notice. Knowing who, and when, and how could be very helpful details when corresponding with City Council about this issue. Remember, your goal is to slow the process down, and being able to inform Councillors about how little advance notice residents had about this Public Hearing could give them reasons to delay the Public Hearing. This is a very, very long shot, but may work as a delaying tactic.
I was also amazed at the irregularity of the process for sending or delivering these notices. Your City could also offer to send these notices out, for a fee. During my campaign, three notices were delivered to the households in my neighbourhood that had to be informed. For me, each notice concerned a Development Information Meeting (DIM). The first notice I received by mail, and the second and third were left on my doorstep.
Within City Hall, there will be a well-established process for mailing out notices, according to Public Hearing policies. They must be mailed before a certain date, but not after a certain date. I believe their goal is to have them in the mail by Friday afternoon, at the end of their business day and week.
I believe this process suits how many City Halls currently operate. They are following their policies and procedures; so what they are doing is correct and they cannot be sued. They often do not proceed to the next thought which is to ask, “What is best for residents?”
Surely, it’s self-evident that the City should consider how their policies and procedures affect individuals, neighbourhoods, and the city as a whole? Who wouldn’t be very unhappy if their children’s school, or some other agency, informed us of important meetings that were happening the next week? Most of us need at least two weeks’ notice to fit anything into our calendars.
Perhaps someone will suggest that we start to write emails to City Council. Would any of us expect to hear back within 24 hours, if we have never written to a City Councillor before? Or, if we include our phone number, would we imagine getting a phone call from a City Councillor to discuss our concerns?
Someone might know when City Council meetings are being held and suggest as many neighbours as possible should attend a meeting before the Public Hearing. But will anyone know that there are several types of Council meetings that they could attend and ask questions, rather than just the regular City Council meeting?
Would you think of phoning to schedule a meeting with the Mayor? Or would you just assume their schedules so busy you’d wait days or weeks to get a meeting? I once heard a Mayor express amazement at how few meetings City residents request.
Take a few moments and ask yourself if you think the City has informed enough of the residents who will be affected by this issue.
If you have the energy, you could also knock on doors to find out exactly which houses in your neighbourhood were notified about the Public Hearing. Then you will know how many residents the City informed about this upcoming meeting. And this could also help you in your discussions with City Council and staff.
Perhaps the City should have contacted all the residents on a street that will be affected by a proposed development, rather than just those within the required distance. This may be reason enough for Council to rethink their current policies and procedures and slow the process down.
While talking to your neighbours, ask them if they found out about the upcoming meeting through an ad in the local paper.
Can City Council and City staff really say they are concerned about the residents (who pay their salaries, after all), if none of them knew of the meeting because they don’t read the local papers—and the City was only required to inform residents through ads in the local paper?
At the Public Hearing you hope to persuade City Council with your arguments. Maybe you give City Council enough evidence of public concern that they tell the developer their plans need to change.
One of your goals is to make Council aware of all sides of the argument. When you keep your interactions with Council and City staff respectful, you aim to help them broaden their understanding of the issue. Repeating the same ‘sound bites (available in the handbook)’ simplifies the discussion and makes your points memorable. This is better than each resident expressing the same points using different words.
City Council is not allowed to re-hash an issue that was discussed at the Public Hearing, after the meeting is finished. What is new information?
City Councils are familiar with groups of angry residents coming to meetings and trying to discuss their concerns with City Council. Most such efforts peter out very quickly unless the issue garners enough concern among local residents, or a person or team emerges to sustain their interest.
The policies and procedures involved in bringing an issue before City Council and residents, appear very thorough. But because City staff are often very busy, they often just follow the usual procedure, without really taking the time to think through each step of the process.
Residents often know the history of an issue or development and can add valuable insights. Or, they may simply have the time and motivation to think more deeply, and perhaps more clearly, on each aspect of the development.
One regional example that I know of is where the Fire and Rescue Services approved a development, according to the current guidelines. Later, one of the circular entrances was found to be too small for a fire truck to turn around in. The drawings looked good, but the details weren’t checked. Would this be ‘new’ information that City Council couldn’t be informed about after the Public Hearing?
Often the Province must approve a development, because of an environmentally sensitive area. What if local residents find, through their own research, that the development plans were given only a cursory look, and that the Ministry staffer overlooked something significant about how this development will affect the environment? Shouldn’t this information be brought to the attention of City Council?
There could be a sign in sheet for those who wish to speak at the Public Hearing.
If there will be many residents attending the Public Hearing, there might be a sign-in sheet for speakers, to help the meeting run more smoothly. You might go to the meeting undecided about whether you will say anything. Even if the meeting has sign-in sheets, when there is a “Call for Speakers” you can still decide to stand up and say something. Numbers matter. Council and City staff will take note of how many residents attended the Public Hearing and how many residents spoke.
There will usually be three ‘Calls for Speakers’ before the Mayor announces that the Public Hearing is closed.
The Public Hearing policy will specify an opening statement which refers to procedures, conduct by those present, written submissions, who is attending the meeting and who will speak.
I advocate that, during the first ‘Call for Speakers’, residents only tell how they were notified about the Public Hearing. This could cause Council to slow down or stop the process while they discuss what the residents have experienced.
During the second and third ‘Call for Speakers’ is when I suggest residents respectfully share their concerns about the issue (see Start with a Bang! available in the handbook). At each ‘Call for Speakers’ everyone must still ‘Dash to the podium.’
Take the time to find out what other issues in your City have generated a big turnout at Public Hearings.
I looked up the minutes of the Public Hearings for several past contentious issues in our city. I was surprised how few people were recorded attending these meetings, and quite astonished how few people spoke, considering the depth of feeling about these issues in this city.
It will take tenacity (and two weeks of your life) to pack the Public Hearing, but the strategies I propose will help you with this campaign.
Hold your own ‘Hearing from the Public’ meeting
In British Columbia, Canada, discussions are underway to eliminate a Public Hearing for some development proposals if certain criteria are met. If you are hearing about an issue late in the process and also find out that there will be no Public Hearing, then perhaps you could hold your own ‘Hearing from the Public’ meeting.
Give it a try. What’s there to lose? This could be two weeks that will go down in local history—or at least be a story you can tell at family gatherings for years to come.
The Mayors and Councillors that I have talked to over the years are wonderful people who are committed to serving the residents of their City. They are, however, elected officials and do receive a salary. I don’t recommend that you threaten an elected official during your campaign. But if you have gathered a large team and have a significant following on social media, and Council knows about these numbers, this lends added weight to your concerns.
What can be accomplished in two weeks? Gather some other disgruntled residents, put into practice all the useful tips from this website, and find out!
First, find a venue and pick a date. Then inform your City Council so that (hopefully) they delay their final decision. Next, inform media to let them know what is being planned. They like unique stories. How about putting your own ad in the local paper? Recruit your team, troops and your ‘extras.’ Make this an event they don’t want to miss.
A thoughtful comment—Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM)
“Founded by local governments to provide a coherent voice in dealing with senior provincial authority, the UBCM has kept local interests and thinking on the agendas of every BC government for the past 100 years.” (Patrick J. Smith, Director of Governance Studies, Simon Fraser University. Flyleaf, Union of British Columbia Municipalities: The First Century)
In April 2024, UBCM hosted a “Housing Summit: Housing BC Together” to help elected officials and senior City staff understand the new housing legislation. I talked to/heard many elected officials comment on the failure of the province’s public engagement strategy to keep them informed of what was being proposed.
But the process has been rushed. New information/policy manuals are rapidly coming from the province to clarify. City staff are scrambling to help City Councils understand. I have been to four Council meetings to hear staff reports since the new legislation appeared in April 2023. I am sure adjustments will be made in the coming months and years.
What is being proposed is a shocking change to Public Hearing policy, with little or no advance notice. Let us hope that UBCM calls for changes to what is being proposed.
Therefore . . .
To hold your own hearing will be a groundbreaking move.
The first ‘Hearing from the Public’ meetings is a novel approach that could raise public awareness of the usual process and of your area of concern.
Your opponent is a large bureaucracy with a lot of lawyers.
But the moment must be seized and the attempt must be made.