Good afternoon. Welcome to
Vancouver City Council. Today
is Monday, June 15th, 2026. I'm
Anne McEnerny Ogle mayor for
the city and we are in our
workshop. It's 5:00. This is
the community forum pre
planning with Joy and William
City Manager. Did you have
anything to add?
>> No mayor.
>> Okay.
>> Well good afternoon, mayor
and council members Joy Fowler
and William Cooley here from
the Engagement and Access
Department here to just provide
you an update in preparation
for the community forum. And
we'll just go ahead and dive
right in. We'll go over the
community forum. Expected
outcomes. The Q two forum
specifics plan and just
planning for next week's forum,
and then have some open
discussion with all of you to
see if there's anything
additional that we need to
think of or that that we need
to be mindful of. Just a high
level overview of the community
forum outcomes that we all
discussed a few months ago,
really making sure the topic
focus forums are based on what
your priorities are, also
ensuring that a small group
discussion allows for some
deeper engagement, as well as
invitation to community groups
and organizations for expanded
outreach. Just like we had last
time with more youth, more
community groups joining, and
then post forum summary to
support next steps and just
strengthen the continued
relationships. So what I'm
going to do now is turn it over
to William, who will just share
a few additional items for you
to review and for us to discuss.
>> Thank you Joy. As Jerry said,
fantastic to be with you today.
It's always exciting when we
get to join you a week before a
council forum. So very happy to
be doing that. As Joy mentioned,
our forum next week will be on
Monday. This will be our second
forum of the year. It'll be
held from 630 to 8 p.m. at the
Vancouver Arts Hub. This is our
first time holding a forum at
the Arts Hub, so it's a really
fun opportunity to bring
community members into that
space, a space that's of course,
already really active, but has
not hosted the council before.
Our conversation topic for the
day is going to be focused on
how we as a community in a city
are building an environmental,
environmentally sustainable
city. Feedback from the forum
will help to inform updates to
our Climate Action Framework,
which are currently ongoing.
And I know I think Rebecca and
Lexi joined you a few weeks ago
to talk about kind of how this
will fit into broader outreach
in terms of the agenda for
folks who might be listening in.
This slide includes a table. So
on the left hand column is our
time. The center is activity.
On the right hand side is the
person responsible. So earlier
in the day, around 3:00 or so,
we're likely going to be having
a significant number of folks
setting up at the forum. This
is a little different than in
the past when we've been at a
community center, because we're
bringing all of our tables and
chairs in. So we'll be making
sure that, of course, those all
get set up in a way that's
accessible to everyone. We've
got a lot of support from staff
at the Arts Hub, so I want to
thank Christine Richardson for
all of her assistance. Already
had a great check in call with
her earlier today to make sure
it's a seamless process for the
community. When they arrive
around 5:00, we'll start
setting up for the council
dinner and have some space
dedicated in the side where we
have kind of some of the
meeting space it's currently.
Christine warned me the tables
for the council dinner might be
a little bit covered in paint,
so we'll probably bring either
a drop cloth or some
tablecloths with us, but we
will be at frequent reminders
on Monday that we are in an art
space, which will be pretty fun.
At 6:00, doors will open to the
community, so we'll kind of
give them that warm welcome,
invite them as they come in. As
always, when folks are checking
in, we're listening for what
are the topics folks want to
talk about? What's brought them
to the conversation that
evening? And then at 630, we'll
open the forum. So invite the
mayor to share some welcoming
remarks, do kind of some short
facilitator introductions at
the table, and then invite
community members to take part
in small group conversations.
Depending on the number of
attendees we have, we may have
between 6 to 10 people per
table. And so we're going to be
starting with the kind of core
six tables of the City Council
have the mayor, of course,
circulating around the room, as
she often does, joining folks
for a little bit of time, which
is great, but we have the
ability to accommodate up to
ten tables total. So if we have
a really large number of RSVP
coming in over the next few
days, it's not going to be hard
for us to accommodate that. And
then we'll end at 8:00. As
always, we're really trying to
make sure we are good stewards
of any public space we're in,
so we're going to try to make
sure we're completely closed
out of there by 830, which is
what we agreed to. And then
across our conversations, we
have four kind of core
agreements that we ask folks to
be mindful of. The first is
when you're communicating with
each other, to allow others to
speak, to listen without
interruption. We phrase that as
communicate respectfully, but
we want to explain to consumers
what we mean when we say that
because we know folks have a
different attitude or a
different orientation toward
respect. We also ask that folks
are aware of the time. If
there's someone who speaks a
lot, create some space for
others to be able to share and
be mindful to limit their
speaking to 1 to 2 minutes so
that everyone has a chance to
contribute. We ask that folks
also stay on topic. We know
community forums are a chance
to talk about a really wide
range of things, and as we've
been prepping our facilitators,
we want to welcome folks to
take the conversation in a
direction that makes sense for
their table. At the same time,
our facilitators are going to
try to bring people back to the
topic at hand as much as we can.
That's just to ensure that
everyone has a chance to
contribute. And then lastly, we
welcome folks who want to just
be in a space of listening, but
we also want them to always
feel that they can be an active
participant. So the way we
describe that at the table is
let folks know they can listen,
they can ask questions, they
can share their feedback in a
format that works for them.
That could be through writing.
It could be verbally, it could
be with one of us after the
meeting ends. But making sure
that everyone has the
opportunity to contribute. And
then lastly, we have our draft
discussion questions here. I
think you all in your packets
received a copy of the meeting
design itself, but for those
who might be listening in,
we'll be starting the
conversation by kind of rooting
it in a sense of time. So when
we think about climate issues,
we think about environment. We
want folks to be thinking about
the past, the present, and the
future. So our first question
to them is, what do you love
about Vancouver that you want
to pass on to future
generations? From there, we'll
go into kind of three core
questions, each, which has a
range of potential follow ups
or kind of separate
conversations. The first
relates to concerns that
consumers have. We're really
curious, of course, about their
ideas, about the things they're
passionate about, but we want
to create some space for also
folks to express anxieties or
worries. We also want invite
them to think toward the future.
So the way our questions phrase
right now is thinking 15 years
into the future, what would it
look like if we're successful
in addressing Vancouver's
climate needs? And then lastly,
we want to talk a little bit
about the work that's going on
right now, community wide and
that the city is leading. So
we've asked folks to think
about the actions that they
would want to prioritize or to
see our community focus on in
the future. And with that, I'm
happy to take any questions,
any discussion.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Councilor Fox.
>> Yes. Thank you for putting
all these materials together.
One of the things that I was
considering is kind of some
folks don't understand perhaps
the differences between
environment and climate. So I'm
wondering how we kind of level
set that conversation because
even in your opening remarks,
you kind of switched the two up.
And so I'm just, you know, to
get the feedback that we want
perhaps on is it on climate
change or is it on the
environment?
>> Well, I think I know when we
were talking about creating the
forum around your three
priorities, we know climate
action is one of the priorities.
And so that was where we got
where we started. And then I
know working with the Climate
Action team, I think the
environment kind of work, I
think they work in tandem with
one another. But I think it's a
good idea for us to kind of
make sure we're denoting
exactly what we mean so that
people can come in with some
good discussion.
>> And it might be nice if
staff could put together some
posters or something to really
focus on some of the actions
from our plan. So if folks
maybe don't know or are not
familiar, they could still
engage by kind of roaming
around and taking a look at the
information and seeing if
something resonates with them.
And then my final kind of
comment or suggestion is, I was
thinking it would be nice if we
could ask folks a question
about how comfortable they are
with making their own changes
to improve climate change or
climate change outcomes, along
the lines of, you know, have
they been considering any like
purchasing an EV or solar
panels or changing the energy
systems in their house?
Something along those lines.
And if that one's too big of a
question, could even fall or
could break it up and ask them
kind of what are the things
that they are doing now to help
the environment and climate,
and what things would they
consider doing, you know, in
the future for them? Okay,
wonderful.
>> Thank you.
>> Councilor Perez.
>> Thank you. I wanted to add a
question to the list that
Councilor Sarah Fox was sharing,
but I also wanted to kind of
step out a little bit and talk
about the larger effort. So
I'll start with the question
that I wanted to add. Another
question is more about how
people are feeling right now
with the climate change. So
more instead of what are you
doing now? How are you feeling?
So just to ensure that we're
able to get those who are
feelers and okay, so I'm going
to go back to the bigger
question. I was going to ask
about the larger effort. So
last time we met, I had asked
for whatever happened to the
last community forum, the
report out. And what I would
like to see is like a couple of
things. One is this is what we
learned from the last forum
that we're adopting and using
in this forum. That way we're
as a learning organization,
taking the, the opportunities.
And then secondly, how are we
letting the public know who did
attend or who want to know what
was said or shared? Let them
know what what we heard. And it
could be a simple something on
the website that says, this is
what we heard from you. And
then just not a long list, but
just quick little info graph of
some of the key things. That
way people can resonate with
the issues that the rest of the
public are, are bringing on
board. And most importantly,
that folks know that we are
listening and that we heard.
And I think that's the most
important thing, is to let the
public know that we're out
there to listen. And this is
what we heard. Now, what we do
with what we heard is a
different thing. And for us to
work on separately. But it's
important to let the public
know that we did hear them.
>> I think that's a really
wonderful idea. I know we did
the recap and we have it. I
know William and I will be
reviewing it after the second
forum, just to make sure that
if there's any action items
that we need to take as a team
or things we need to do
differently. And I do believe
that based on the feedback that
was shared from the last forum,
we are taking that into the
next forum just around whether
it's some specifics around set
up or engagement around, you
know, food or things like that.
So we're hearing what people
are saying and taking that into
consideration.
>> I appreciate that, but
there's this other part of the
substance of what's shared, the
actual.
>> The actual.
>> Right tangibles that people
are bringing. And is there, is
there anything that needs to
reach us or something that for
us to also hear what was shared
at the other table, separate
from reading a document?
>> Okay. I think William can
answer that.
>> Yeah. I think there are a
few things, and some of them
are probably not going to be a
surprise to those of you
because you're constantly
engaging with the community.
But at the last forum, there
were a lot of comments about
communication and kind of
feeling that that constant
challenge of the larger media
landscape, it can be hard to
follow along with what's
happening at the city. So we
had some conversations
afterwards about sort of how we
do our co promotion, how we
share information across city
channels. I think we also know
that our communications team
does a really stellar job. And
so we heard that as well. So as
always, we're hearing kind of a
mix of feedback where some
folks are saying, hey, this is
meeting my needs and others
saying, no, you know, I'm
having a hard time following
along or I wish I would have
known earlier. And so that's
something for us to not only
reflect on, but then to build
into some of our planning. So
for example, on the topic of
climate in the work that the
Climate Action Team is doing in
preparation for the Climate
Action Framework update, we've
put a lot of effort into
thinking about how we make sure
that coming out of this
conversation on Monday, folks
are invited to follow along to
participate in the process,
because that idea of being part
of a conversation that
seemingly ends and just doesn't
go anywhere is another piece of
feedback that folks shared. And
it's, I will say it's, it's
often because of the systems
that we work within. So we
might, for example, point in
saying, oh, well, we talked
about that at a city council
workshop two weeks ago, but the
number of folks who follow
along closely with the council
workshops, it's not reflective
of the number of people who
care about the topic. So as we
move forward, that's one of the
biggest things we're going to
be doing is trying to keep
people engaged. And then
another thing around that was
trying to make sure folks are
invited to follow along and
participate in more active ways.
So I really appreciated
Councilor Fox, your comments
about kind of actions people
might take or things people are
already doing, because that's
going to be part of our
conversation. And one other
thing I forgot to mention is
that we're going to have
members, of course, of the
climate team with us. So
Rebecca and Lexi, as well as
Zeke, are going to be joining
us. So they'll be available to
help answer questions. There'll
also be leading some activities
that happen before as folks
arrive, to engage them a little
bit further and sharing some
ideas they have. So we really
want them to be included as
part of the process.
>> All right. Thank you.
>> Councilor. Councilor
Soelberg.
>> No. Oh, no. All right.
>> I'm going to assume that all
the councilors are available
for this next week. Okay.
Nodding heads. So we'll need
all of those tables because
it'll be in the beautiful arts
hub. You're setting up 330 to 4,
5:00. Staff arrives to set up
dinner. So councilors might
want to show up at five ish and
then 6:00 the community comes
in and we get to start the
actual program at 630,
finishing at 8:00, and then
clean up and get out by 830.
Okay. We can do that. Thank you
so very much.
>> All righty. Thank you all.
See you next week.
>> You betcha. Thank you.
>> All right, councilors, it's
515. We're going to go and grab
dinner and have an executive
session concerning the
performance of a public
employee. Our CW 42.30.1101 G
from, let's say 520 to 630.
Then we'll be back for our
regular council meeting at 630.
Thank you.