We have written previously about the troubling personnel changes at the Township of Langley, focusing on the exorbitant costs of a slew of senior staff dismissals since the election of Mayor Eric Woodward, as well as the damage done to the institutional memory of the township. The significance of this goes far beyond finances and poor management decisions however and highlights an approach to public office in which personal allies of the Mayor find themselves landing good deals with the Township administration.

Examples of this apparent favouritism keep cropping up. When examining the hiring and staff turnover at the Township, it’s not just friends and campaign staff of Mayor Woodward who have been added to the municipal payroll, but even their family members. Among these new hires are:

• Dan Sheel, Mayor Woodward’s 2022 campaign manager who was hired as the Township’s Director of Community Initiatives and Projects, taking home $196,996 in remuneration last year

• Nick Hosseinzadeh, a younger member of the Woodward 2022 campaign team, who has the vague job title of Intergovernmental Relations and Communications Coordinator, but in reality is Woodward’s right-hand man, receiving $120,978 in pay last year

• Nick Sheel, son of Dan Sheel, who began part-time work as a community patrol officer the month Woodward was elected, but in May of this year was hired as a full-time Bylaw Officer.

The term nepotism doesn’t come up often in contemporary Canadian politics; we have come to expect basic professionalism in governance. According to this, the hiring of civil servants should be based on some measure of merit and comply with rigorous HR procedures. In fact, the standard that citizens expect our public office holders to apply is that even the appearance of favouritism should be avoided in order to preserve trust in our institutions. Clearly, in the case of the Township of Langley under Mayor Woodward, these basic rules for the fair and impartial exercise of public office are only honoured in their breach.