By
Stanley Tromp, Vancouver Sun, 23 Apr.
2007
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A senior adviser to Premier Gordon Campbell under
scrutiny for possibly breaking lobbying rules met with the province's top politician at least seven
times on unspecified topics before officially registering as a lobbyist, according to
appointment calendars obtained by The Vancouver Sun.
Ken Dobell is a former deputy
minister with a desk in the
premier's office complex in
Vancouver, where he serves as a $250-an- hour "special adviser,"
overseeing some of the province's biggest projects and issues.
The widely respected civil
servant added lobbying to his role on April 5, 2006, when he began working for
the City of Vancouver to seek money from the provincial government, records
show.
But Dobell did not register
as a lobbyist for six
months, even though rules stipulate lobbyist
consultants should file within 10 days of beginning a contract, or face fines
of up to $25,000.
In an interview on Friday,
Dobell said that during the review of his lobbying registration, he will
explain the reason for the apparent delay.
In effect, during that
six-month period, Dobell was both a paid adviser to the premier with high-level access and under contract with the city to lobby the provincial
government on multimillion- dollar issues, a fact that was not disclosed
officially until November.
The New Democratic Party says
these dual roles represent a potential for conflict of interest.
Dobell continued to meet with Campbell on a regular basis
during the six months when he was under contract as a city lobbyist, according to copies of
the premier's appointment
book, which were obtained under freedom of information legislation for The Sun
by freelance journalist Stanley Tromp.
The diary does not specify
the subject of the meetings
or how long they lasted.
But the premier's appointment book, which
sets out dozens of meetings
each month taken by Campbell, does indicate Dobell had frequent access. In an
interview, Campbell said he knew his adviser, with whom he has worked since his days as Vancouver
mayor when Dobell was city manager, was doing the lobbying work.
From April 18, 2006 to Oct.
18, 2006, Dobell met with
his boss seven times, according to the calendar.
At the time he registered as
a lobbyist for the City of
Vancouver on Nov. 23, Dobell also declared he had been lobbying on the city's
behalf for cultural funds since April. At the same time, he also declared that
since Sept. 1, he had been lobbying for the city on a $300,000 contract on
housing matters, an area where the province is spending hundreds of millions of
dollars.
After registering as a lobbyist, Dobell met with the premier twice, according to the documents.
But Campbell said that in
Dobell's role as special adviser, for which he can earn a maximum of $230,000 a
year, Dobell met with him
many other times besides those listed in the appointment book.
Campbell said he did not know
why Dobell appears to have delayed registering as a lobbyist. But he said he knew his special adviser was
working on the city's behalf and saw no conflict.
He also said most of the meetings he had with Dobell from April to October
were about the softwood lumber dispute, an area in which Dobell was advising.
"Ken Dobell has an
unimpeachable record in terms of his service to the public," said Campbell.
"Ken Dobell has been a highly regarded and respected public servant ...
for three and a half decades now."
The New Democratic Party has
questioned the propriety of a special adviser working inside the premier's office while being a lobbyist and is calling for
changes to the province's lobbying laws. It is planning to press the matter
further and question Dobell's roles today in the legislature.
Norman Ruff, a University of
Victoria political scientist, said it would be a mistake to question Dobell's
integrity. But he did say the controversy shows the need for more transparency
to deal with the hundreds
of lobbyists in the
province.
"Ken Dobell is an inside
insider," said Ruff. "That's why we need people to register as lobbyists and the rules to be
enforced. In lobbying, it's best to recall the last words of Goethe: 'Light!
More light!'
"It's part of politics
but it needs to be transparent."
Campbell said he sees no
reason for Dobell to give up his desk in the premier's office. He said that desk is "not exclusively"
used by Dobell, adding that Dobell uses it only when he is working on
provincial government business.
B.C. privacy and information
commissioner David Loukidelis announced Thursday he
is doing a "fact-finding review" of why Dobell waited at least six
months before putting his lobbying activity on the record.
Loukidelis said he hopes his
examination will prompt a debate on the rigour of
British Columbia's method for registering lobbyists. That computerized system was set up by the
Liberal government after it came to power in 2001.
Dobell said in an interview
he welcomes the privacy commissioner's review, and will cooperate fully.
He said it would be incorrect
to assume his meetings with the premier mean he was lobbying at the time. That, he
says, is because as a special adviser to the premier, overseeing some of the government's major
policy areas, he is charged with
reporting on broad subjects such as softwood lumber issues and the province's
ports.
Dobell also sits on a number
of boards involving the 2010 Olympics and the Vancouver Convention Centre, and
stickhandles intergovernmental relations.
Dobell said it has always
been clear to everyone what his various roles are.
"The mere fact that I
met with the premier doesn't mean I dealt with any of those points
[regarding lobbying] you raise," he said. "Both governments have been
completely clear I do stuff for them and that I'm involved with them. That's as public as
can be."
The premier's daybook
shows that at times Dobell was not alone in his top-level meetings.
On May 1, the premier met with Dobell and Rusty Goepel, a Liberal fundraiser and a member of the board of
the 2010 Olympic Games Vancouver Organizing Committee, on which Dobell also
sits.
On May 19, the premier's schedule shows a meeting with Dobell and Forest and Housing Minister Rich
Coleman. The premier's
appointment calendar does not say what that meeting was about, but forestry issues were at the
forefront at the time.
However, Coleman is also the pointman on the province's new housing strategy, which
involves a major push to develop old housing units of the Canada Housing and
Mortgage Corp. with the
cooperation of the City of Vancouver.
Those projects, which will be
worth millions of dollars, will be pushed forward in the months and years to
come by the provincial government.
They are expected to involve
selling developers the right to "densify" the housing projects, a
move that will require city rezoning, and create multimillion-dollar profits
that the government hopes to use to create more social housing.
MEETING THE BOSS
The calendar of Premier Gordon Campbell (left)
shows scheduled meetings in
the premier's Vancouver
office with adviser Ken
Dobell (right) during the period in which Dobell worked as an unregistered lobbyist for the City of
Vancouver. Some key entries in the premier's
daybook.
April 4: Meet with Dobell and an unnamed
cabinet minister
(April 5: Dobell later says
this is when he began as a paid lobbyist
for the city on cultural grants.)
April 18: Meet with Dobell
May 1: Meet with Dobell and Rusty Goepel
May 5th: Meet with Dobell
May 19: Meet with Dobell and Housing Minister
Rich Coleman
June 19: Meet with Dobell
Sept. 1: Dobell later says
this is when he began as a paid lobbyist
for the city on housing.
Sept. 21: Meet with Dobell
Oct. 18: Meet with Dobell
Nov. 23: Dobell is registered
as a paid lobbyist. He
declares he began working for the city in two areas: on April 5 (cultural
grants) and Sept. 1 (housing).
Dec. 9: Meet with Dobell
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