Fraser Valley Regional District – Brittany Alenius announced that she has decided to put her name forward for FVRD Electoral Area A Director, and one of the first conversations that came out of that announcement was actually a really interesting one.
From her social media:
There seems to be some concern that once someone sits at the regional table, their responsibility is essentially to represent the FVRD—not the community—and that being part of the Board means you can’t really question or push back on its direction.
I took some time to go back through the FVRD’s Code of Responsible Conduct because I think that’s an important concern, and I want to be really clear about how I see the role.
I don’t believe being a strong advocate for Area A and being a responsible member of the regional Board are competing responsibilities.
In fact, the FVRD’s own Code talks about actively listening to the opinions, viewpoints and needs of the community, creating meaningful opportunities for community input, diligently serving citizens and communities in a way that best serves their interests, and actively participating in debate. It specifically recognizes vigorous discourse and debate as part of the democratic process.
It also says that once the Board makes a decision, Directors have a responsibility to respect and uphold the decision of the majority.
To me, both of those things can—and should—be true.
If Area A residents bring an issue to me, my job is to listen, understand it, do the homework and bring it to the appropriate table. At that table, my job is to advocate, ask questions, participate in debate, build relationships and do everything I reasonably can to advance the needs and interests I’m hearing from our community.
Sometimes that advocacy will be successful. Sometimes the majority of the Board will decide differently.
If that happens, I don’t think accountability to my community suddenly disappears. I should be able to come back and say: this is what I heard from you, this is what I brought forward, this is how I advocated, this is the decision the Board ultimately made, and while I respect that decision and the democratic process that produced it, here is where we go from here.
I actually think anything less than that would be difficult to reconcile with the responsibilities the Code places on an elected Director to their community.
I’m not interested in fighting with the FVRD for the sake of fighting with the FVRD. That doesn’t accomplish much. I want to build good relationships with other Directors, staff and other levels of government because good relationships are how a lot of things get done.
But I also don’t believe good relationships require silence or agreement.
Some of the strongest working relationships I’ve built throughout my career are with people I have disagreed with, challenged, and occasionally been challenged by in return. Good advocacy means knowing when to collaborate, when to compromise, when to push, and how to disagree without destroying the relationship you may need tomorrow.
That’s much closer to my vision of what strong representation for Area A looks like.
I’m also genuinely interested in hearing how residents see this. What does accountability from your Area Director look like to you? What would make you feel like your voice was actually reaching the regional table?
