A group of neighbours, friends and members of the Hillcrest Community Centre Association is urging users of the facility to purchase a membership so they can vote at the next annual general meeting.
The Riley Park/Hillcrest Grassroots Group is concerned a small number of directors who sit on the centre’s board, including president Jesse Johl, are recruiting members from outside the community to retain their seats at the AGM which, as ordered by the B.C. Supreme Court, must take place on or around Oct. 31. To vote at an AGM, users must purchase their membership more than 30 days in advance.
Former Hillcrest board member Jennifer West told the Courier the group is so concerned the centre’s users are unaware of the conflict and drama taking place with Johl and several other directors that members of the group are standing in the facility’s parking lot handing out pamphlets detailing the problems.
“We want to have a fair and democratic AGM,” said West. “I don’t know if it’s true or not, but we’ve heard Jesse will be busing people in to vote.”
West said they are also concerned about the association’s money Johl has spent defending himself and the association’s board in court. Johl recently defended himself in a B.C. Supreme Court case launched in April by four members of Hillcrest’s board of directors — Ken Charko, Jennifer Palma, Jaimini Thakore and Eli Zbar.
The suit, which was also aimed at the Riley Park/Hillcrest Community Association, included accusations of everything from financial mismanagement to wrongful dismissal from the board to sexual harassment. As well, Johl, on behalf of the association, is embroiled in a B.C. Supreme Court case alongside five other associations, launched against the park board in August 2013. The Hillcrest association is paying for its portion of those legal fees.
And this past May, the park board launched a lawsuit against Johl and the Riley Park/Hillcrest Association claiming it had been unable to obtain a copy of the group’s financial records. The association is paying for those court cases.
According to Vision Vancouver park board chair Aaron Jasper, Johl has spent close to an estimated $200,000 of the association’s money in court costs. West is named as one of the respondents in the court case between the Riley Park/Hillcrest Centre and 11 others.
The pamphlet details the group’s concerns and points out issues it feels the community needs to know. Under the heading, “What’s Gone Wrong?” is a list of “facts” including, “One of the directors has been banned from the building due to abusive behaviour towards staff.” As the result of claims of harassment of staff, Hillcrest secretary/treasurer Todd Constant was given a three-month ban from the centre by park board general manager Malcolm Bromley. In an audio recording heard by the Courier, a voice, said to belong to Constant can be heard screaming and swearing at West and others who attempted to attend a meeting of the Hillcrest board.
But, West said, the park board, staff and members of the group have agreed Constant will be allowed to attend Hillcrest for the AGM. West said Johl is insisting the meeting be held at Kensington Community Centre and conflict over the location is one of the reasons a date for the meeting has not been set.
Johl says no date has been set because the Supreme Court ruling left four Hillcrest directors who filed the case against him still on the board.
“We can’t get a consensus on anything,” said Johl. “The judge said all resolutions must have two-thirds consensus to pass, but every time a motion comes up it fails.”
Johl laughed when asked by the Courier about several rumours involving him including the claim he lives in South Surrey and that he has been conducting mass membership drives at the Ross Street Temple with plans to bus in dozens of members to vote for him at the AGM.
“I actually find that racist,” said Johl. “One of them actually said to me, ‘Why don’t you go back to Surrey.’ If I was Asian, would they have said go back to Richmond? I grew up here and have spent my whole life using that centre. That’s why it’s so important to me.”
Johl says he was forced to spend almost $50,000 of the association’s money defending himself and the organization in the April lawsuit.
“Supreme Court isn’t cheap,” said Johl. “The case was ridiculous and it never had to go to court. I had already sent out the financials to several of them.”
Johl suspects one of the respondents in the court case is behind a spate of cyber bulling, during which ads for sexual favours were placed online that included home phone numbers and addresses for several of the Hillcrest board members.
“These ads invited people to come over and have sex with our spouses,” said Johl. “One of the guys has a young baby, do you know how dangerous that was?”
As for financials, Johl says audits for 2012 and 2013 prove “the books are clean.”
But, Jasper says, regardless of what the books show the community is “fed up” with the drama under Johl and some members of the board.
“This used to be a high-functioning board that used to plow its profits back into the community,” said Jasper. “But what can we do? As the park board we are not allowed to get involved with these associations so we can only sit back and watch.”
Jasper said the park board had no choice but to launch a lawsuit against Johl and Hillcrest as the result of the lawsuit initiated by the six associations.
“When your partner sues you for 50 per cent of your assets, you have to respond,” said Jasper. “We have a system in place for our associations that has worked great for years. You could make a deal on a handshake.
Unfortunately that system can also go the other way.”
HILLCREST TIMELINE
2001
- The park board and 22 community centre associations begin negotiating a new joint operating agreement (JOA). For more than four decades, the service model used allowed associations to work and raise money independent of the park board.
2009
- The Vision Vancouver-dominated park board adopts four new principles to be used in relation to community centre associations, including equity among centres, access for residents to a network of centres, protection of vulnerable populations and financial sustainability. That fourth principle resulted in the park board taking $600,000 from the city’s richer community centre associations to save several staff positions.
2010
- A budget shortfall in the city’s 2011 operating budget puts those eight park board programming positions at risk again. The board tells the associations they will once again have to come up with the money if those positions are to be saved.
2011
November
- Discussion regarding the proposed JOA/four principles stall. Vision Vancouver park board chair Aaron Jasper says there are several points the board won’t budge on. The board wants all community centres to accept its Flexipass, purchased by users, as well as its Leisure Access cards for users with financial need. But the park board also wants to take control of the associations’ revenues, which some say will negate their ability to raise funds as a non-profit. In response, Sunset and Kerrisdale community centre associations seek legal advice on how to proceed and refuse to help pay for the eight programming positions at risk.
2012
October
- The Riley Park/Hillcrest Community Centre Association joins Sunset and Kerrisdale in the growing power struggle against the park board and threatens to end its longstanding partnership. Hillcrest threatens to remove equipment purchased by the association, including exercise machines, weights, skates, bats, balls, yoga mats, tables, chairs, kitchen appliances and programming supplies.
2013
March
- By now the associations from Riley Park/Hillcrest, Kensington, Kerrisdale, Sunset, and eventually Kensington, community centres have dropped out of negotiations with the park board.
June
- The park board announces the July launch of the universal OneCard to replace individual community centre memberships, with hopes the six associations will be on board for September.
August
- The six dissident associations file a lawsuit against the park board in B.C. Supreme Court, with Hillcrest association president Jesse Johl claiming the introduction of the OneCard was the straw that “broke the camel’s back.”
- With the September deadline for acceptance looming, the park board sends a letter to Johl saying the OneCard will be accepted at all community centres in September, whether the JOA is ratified. The case included a request for an injunction against the OneCard and also involved what the six associations call breaches of the current and interim JOA.
- The park board then launches its own lawsuit against the six associations alleging breaches of both the standing and proposed JOA. The park board followed up with letters telling the associations that in three months their JOAs would be terminated and they would be evicted.
September
- Park rangers are placed temporarily at Hillcrest, Killarney, Hastings, Kerrisdale, Kensington and Sunset recreation centres over the Labour Day long weekend as security following what Jasper calls “harassing” behaviour by a board member of one of the six community centre associations.
2014
October
- A Supreme Court judge decides an injunction isn’t necessary as the park board had already backed off on insisting the OneCard be used at the six centres. Both sides call a victory.
January
- The B.C. Supreme Court temporarily halts the attempted eviction of the six community centre associations by the park board.
April
- Four directors of the Riley Park/Hillcrest Association launch a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court against that same association and Johl. Affidavits filed in court included accusations of everything from financial mismanagement to wrongful dismissal from the board to sexual harassment. The group joined by members of the community attempt to oust Johl and several other directors of the Hillcrest board and form their own association.
May
- The park board launches a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court against the Riley Park/Hillcrest Community Association saying it’s been unable to obtain a copy of its financial records.
August
- A B.C. Supreme Court judge nullifies the June 26 annual general meeting of the new Riley Park/ Hillcrest Community Association and orders a meeting be held on or before Oct. 30. Justice Lisa Warren’s written Aug. 22 verdict overturns the election of the 14 new directors and restores Johl as president and Todd Constant as secretary/treasurer. Until a new board is elected at an annual general meeting, the judge ruled Johl, Constant, Steve Mah, Nick Despotakis, Peter Thanis, Eli Zbar, Jaimini Thakore, Jennifer Palma and Ken Charko would make up the board. It was Charko, Palma, Thakore and Zbar’s who filed the court action in April.
