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conflict-of-interest questions remain about vancouver councillor peter meiszner
douglas todd: former burnaby city planner raises questions about whether coun. peter meiszner was in a potential conflict of interest when he was conducting city business while still owner of a media outlet focused on the real-estate industry
aug 15 2024
5 minute read
first-time vancouver city councillor peter
meiszner owned urbanyvr, a development industry online media outlet, when he was elected in october 2022.
arlen redekop
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for the past month vancouver’s integrity commissioner, lisa southern, has been dealing with inquiries about whether a new councillor was in a potential conflict of interest.
peter meiszner — who owned urbanyvr, a development industry online media outlet, when he was first elected in october 2022 — is a member of the majority abc vancouver civic party and an enthusiastic advocate of increased housing density.
it was meiszner who introduced the contentious motion in october 2023, to greatly reduce the protection of up to 38 mountain view corridors in the city, which staff said would give developers the chance to sell an extra 10 million to 20 million square metres of new floor space . meiszner said he wanted to address the “unprecedented housing crisis.”
critics, however, say council’s decision on july 10 to weaken view-cone protections hands the development industry billions of dollars in windfall profits by suddenly allowing taller and wider buildings in more locations.
robert renger, a former burnaby city planner, began sending a series of emails on july 16 to the integrity commissioner about whether meiszner’s actions as a councillor while owning urbanyvr were a potential conflict of interest.
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renger told the commissioner in july that meiszner’s email and photo were still on the website of urbanyvr.com.
meiszner, who has a background in journalism and communications, founded urbanyvr magazine in 2016, frequently writing for it.
the online media outlet, which relies on real-estate advertising and sponsorship, showcases residential, commercial and industrial property projects throughout metro vancouver.
after he contacted the integrity commissioner, renger was told that meiszner had sold urbanyvr on april 30, 2023. that was about seven months after the october 2022 election, when the first-time candidate attracted 63,275 votes, giving him the fifth highest tally.
in response to postmedia’s questions, meiszner said this week, “there is no conflict.”
that’s been confirmed, meiszner said, by the integrity commissioner. “out of an abundance of caution, i sought the integrity commissioner’s advice on several occasions to ensure i was not in a conflict of interest.”
while renger appreciates meiszner sought the commissioner’s advice, his ongoing concern is that, according to the city’s website, which includes a calendar of councillors’ meetings, meiszner frequently met with major vancouver-area developers while still owner of the online magazine, which is almost entirely dependent on real-estate industry advertising, as well as while he was negotiating its sale.
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“any motion or vote by meiszner that affects the interests of a firm that is an actual or potential advertiser or content sponsor for urbanyvr.com could be seen as a potential conflict of interest,” renger told the integrity commissioner in an email.
the vancouver charter says councillors must not at any time use their office to influence any decision “if the (council) member has a direct or indirect pecuniary interest” in the matter.
in response to renger’s questions, southern said meiszner had been “prudent” in contacting her office for advice.
in an aug. 6 letter to renger, the commissioner said, “as you are aware, i dismissed your complaint as i determined that councillor meiszner was not in a conflict of interest and there was no or insufficient grounds for concluding that a violation occurred.”
she said she wanted to be clear that meiszner “was not under investigation, nor was i of the view that there was an open complaint against him.”
renger said the integrity commissioner dismissed his complaint because meiszner’s motion and vote regarding view protection occurred after the council member had sold urbanyvr.
the integrity commissioner had earlier told renger she could not make a ruling on his inquiries because the time period he was asking about — when meiszner was owner of urban yvr and meeting with major developers — had occurred more than 180 days earlier.
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given that the commissioner had told him the case “would fall outside my jurisdiction” because of the time lapse, renger replied to southern on aug. 6: “i do not think it can be said that you determined that councillor meiszner was not in a conflict of interest regarding these actions.”
southern has not replied.
after spending decades as a planner for the city of burnaby and later as a consultant for new westminster, renger believes when meiszner still owned the media outlet he should have declared himself in a conflict of interest regarding city decisions involving real-estate development.
“i think it looks bad that he didn’t,” renger said, while acknowledging it was responsible of meiszner to on several occasions seek the integrity commissioner’s advice, including recently on if it is all right for him to vote on whether to suspend her work.
in july, the abc majority on council signalled its intention to temporarily suspend investigations by southern, maintaining they want a third-party review of her office’s mandate regarding councillors’ ethical obligations and it would be unfair for the commissioner to continue work that might end up being outside the new scope.
meiszner said urbanyvr is now owned by glacier media/rew and that he has “zero involvement.”
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“i was in active discussions to sell the website before i was elected to council and that sale was finalized in 2023,” he said by email. the sale price, he said, is confidential. he noted the site is now “mostly dormant.”
the urbanyvr.com website is still operating, even while the last article appears to have been published in the fall. the site promotes itself as a provider of quality real-estate development coverage, including on architecture and urban planning — “offering outstanding value for advertisers through display advertising and sponsored posts.”
in the media business, “sponsored posts” are articles that favourably highlight brands or projects, which advertisers pay for directly. urbanyvr boasts today that it reaches “over one million engaged readers annually.”
last week, non-abc members of vancouver city council, especially councillors pete fry and christine boyle , expressed strong opposition to the suspension of the work of the integrity commissioner, a position brought into being by former mayor kennedy stewart.
in light of the controversy, on aug. 6 mayor ken sim led an effort to postpone the vote on the proposed bylaw that would have stopped the integrity commissioner from continuing to produce reports until as many as three months after any review into her work is done. the vote is now slated for sept. 25.
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