Choice for Mayor

[Urbane]

Now it would be nice to get back to a discussion of the candidates. While I started this as the "Choice for Mayor" there seems to be so little interest in this election I'm fine with this being the catch-all thread for the DWK election. Anyway, I'm still a bit undecided on my Council candidates. At this point I intend to vote for most of the incumbents but even if I were to vote for all of them I would still have room to vote for one more. Thoughts?

As to School Board I'm leaning toward Jerry Holowchak but I am impressed with Tina Pomponio's resume. Thoughts on them or on the other two candidates?

[waterwings]

As voting day draws closer it is prudent that everyone in the District of West Kelowna takes the time to vote.

Talk to your neighbour. Discuss the importance of their vote in any election.

We will all have to live by the democratic process in this election too!

[Urbane]

Predictions on any of the races anyone? Perhaps someone who's talked to a lot of people and/or attended the forums has a good idea. Parachute posted some predictions earlier on but anyone else? I think the vote for mayor will be close and I expect most of the incumbent members of Council will be returned. School Trustee? No idea.

[parachute]

When I listen to Findlater do I hear a “used car salesman”? NOT REALLY. Do I hear someone who I think really cares about me? NO. Do I hear someone who really and truly cares about the District? NOT REALLY. Do I hear someone who will be a full time Mayor? YES. Do I hear someone who absolutely thinks highly of himself? YES. Do I hear a Politician who likes being a big fish in a small pond (RDCO, DWK Mayor, Water Board, UBCO, Mayor Association)? YES.

When I listen to Neis do I hear a “used car salesman”? NO. Do I hear someone who I think really cares about me? I THINK SO. Do I hear someone who really cares about the District? YES. Do I hear someone who will be a full time Mayor? YES. Do I hear someone who really thinks highly of herself? PROBABLY. Do I hear a Politician who likes being a big fish in a small pond? YES and NO, since I think she likes fish but she was not -- and is not -- a “politician”.

I add up those “thoughts” and conclude that Neis is the better candidate to be my Mayor.

[Urbane]

When I listen to Findlater do I hear a “used car salesman”? NOT REALLY. Do I hear someone who I think really cares about me? NO. Do I hear someone who really and truly cares about the District? NOT REALLY. Do I hear someone who will be a full time Mayor? YES. Do I hear someone who absolutely thinks highly of himself? YES. Do I hear a Politician who likes being a big fish in a small pond (RDCO, DWK Mayor, Water Board, UBCO, Mayor Association)? YES.

When I listen to Neis do I hear a “used car salesman”? NO. Do I hear someone who I think really cares about me? I THINK SO. Do I hear someone who really cares about the District? YES. Do I hear someone who will be a full time Mayor? YES. Do I hear someone who really thinks highly of herself? PROBABLY. Do I hear a Politician who likes being a big fish in a small pond? YES and NO, since I think she likes fish but she was not -- and is not -- a “politician”.

I add up those “thoughts” and conclude that Neis is the better candidate to be my Mayor.

Two observations:

1. It seems as if there are virtually no issues in this campaign. In fact, this might be the most issue-less campaign I've ever seen. It seems to come down to who you like and who you don't like.

2. If the polls are to be believed the result for mayor will be a landslide. If you believe the poll on this thread or the okanaganpolls.ca one then Neis will win easily. Or if you believe the various radio station polls Findlater will win easily. The battle of the polls is certainly interesting.

[parachute]

2. If the polls are to be believed the result for mayor will be a landslide. If you believe the poll on this thread or the okanaganpolls.ca then Neis will win easily. Or if you believe the various radio station polls Findlater will win easily. The battle of the polls is interesting.

Hi Urbane, Your IFs are very important words, obviously. .....

But think about your two polls. Perhaps Findater's friends have radios while Neis's have computers? If that is the key reason for poll differences then in which demographic would radios or computers most likely be found? ;-)

[Urbane]

2. If the polls are to be believed the result for mayor will be a landslide. If you believe the poll on this thread or the okanaganpolls.ca then Neis will win easily. Or if you believe the various radio station polls Findlater will win easily. The battle of the polls is interesting.


Hi Urbane, Your IFs are very important words, obviously. .....

But think about your two polls. Perhaps Findater's friends have radios while Neis's have computers? If that is the key reason for poll differences then in which demographic would radios or computers most likely be found? ;-)

Except that all of these polls are taken over the internet. People who listen to one of the radio stations would be more likely to go on that station's website perhaps but in the end they're still voting on the computer. If my arm were twisted and forced to make a prediction I would say that Findlater will win 51-49 but I wouldn't be shocked if the vote goes the other way.

[Bestside]

Check out guxcon: http://forums.castanet.net/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=36376

[Bestside]

I like the direction that the current mayor and council has directed Jim (whatever his last name is) toward our financial security. Findlater has my vote ....

That would be Jim Zaffino, Chief Financial Officer DWK.

Considering that mayor Findlater has always directed Zaffino to reduce funding in our budget for our Financial security, what is the purpose of your comment?

Bestside needs to take a step back and consider just how at arm's length really works and try harder to be less subjective and more objective in his opinions.

You know the difference?

One of the reasons I'm voting for Doug Findlater is because of his fiscal responsibility. Here's an excerpt from his website:

At all times I believe we must ensure prudent levels of taxation and that value is received for tax money spent – and that there are visible results. Note that the current Council has maintained an annual tax increase that is significantly less than the Governance Committee projections of 5% annual increase for 5 or more years. By the end of 2011 (4 years after incorporation), the municipality will have accumulated approximately $20M, not including Sewer and Water Reserves. This is significantly better than the $16M projected by the Governance Committee after 5 full years of incorporation.

More: http://findlater.com/

In the DWK News July 2011 Findlater said the DWK has worked on keeping tax increases to less than 3%. The 2011 tax increase was 2.24%. This means the architects of the Governance study did not know what they were doing, OR they were trying to scare the electorate into amalgamating with Kelowna by projecting that 5% tax increases were required to incorporate.

Congratulations to the people of Westbank for ignoring the doom and gloom projected by devious people on the Governance committee, chaired by Findlater, and voting for incorporation anyway.

[waterwings]

quote="Bestside"]In the DWK News July 2011 Findlater said the DWK has worked on keeping tax increases to less than 3%. The 2011 tax increase was 2.24%[/quote]

You can direct me to "fly a kite", however, unless I have the necessary skills, determination, drive and know how one can only guess on what you would have to consider as high enough in the sky to be acceptable. So your statement is simply single minded to direct negativity toward your goal.


[quote="Bestside"]waterwings wrote:
Bestside needs to take a step back and consider just how at arm's length really works and try harder to be less subjective and more objective in his opinions

Yessirree: I do know the difference.

Arm’s Length

Contractors that are independent from you and your company will fall into the category of arm’s length contractors. Being independent means that you (or any other shareholders of your company) don’t have any blood ties (e.g., marriage, family, common-law partnership, adoption) with a principal or have control in the principal's company or non profit or profit society. In terms of the Tax Act, control is defined as “owning enough shares or influence to have the majority of the votes in the election of the board of directors.”

[Urbane]

In the DWK News July 2011 Findlater said the DWK has worked on keeping tax increases to less than 3%. The 2011 tax increase was 2.24%. This means the architects of the Governance study did not know what they were doing, OR they were trying to scare the electorate into amalgamating with Kelowna by projecting that 5% tax increases were required to incorporate.

Congratulations to the people of Westbank for ignoring the doom and gloom projected by devious people on the Governance committee, chaired by Findlater, and voting for incorporation anyway.

You're missing the other obvious option and that is that projecting tax increases into the future is not an exact science. So instead of congratulating Findlater and Council for keeping tax increases lower than had been predicted by the governance committee you attack the Governance Committee for not having provided precise predictions re tax increases. Would you be happy if Council had been raising your taxes by 3%? Elsewhere you've said that as a bedroom community we should be keeping our taxes down so it's really hard to follow your "logic."

[Bestside]

In the DWK News July 2011 Findlater said the DWK has worked on keeping tax increases to less than 3%. The 2011 tax increase was 2.24%

You can direct me to "fly a kite", however, unless I have the necessary skills, determination, drive and know how one can only guess on what you would have to consider as high enough in the sky to be acceptable. So your statement is simply single minded to direct negativity toward your goal.

You seem to be having trouble understanding [brackets] in quoting, among not understanding other things, so I tried to fix your attempt to "quote" from other posts.

In the above you are replying to what I posed to Urbane. You (waterwings) wrote:
"I like the direction that the current mayor and council has directed Jim (whatever his last name is) toward our financial security. Findlater has my vote ...."

And regarding your statement my question to you was:
"Considering that mayor Findlater has always directed Jim Zaffino to reduce funding in our budget for our Financial security, what is the purpose of your comment?"

Your reply is you don't know how high you can fly? Perhaps I was not clear enough... Findlater's leadership has actually reduced our future financial security vis-a-vis Jim wanting to increase our financial security to higher levels. So are you applauding Findlater for reducing our financial security against the advice of our Chief Financial Officer? Seems you are being totally subjective without considering the actual facts.

Bestside needs to take a step back and consider just how at arm's length really works and try harder to be less subjective and more objective in his opinions

You know the difference?

Yessirree: I do know the difference.

Arm’s Length

Contractors that are independent from you and your company will fall into the category of arm’s length contractors. Being independent means that you (or any other shareholders of your company) don’t have any blood ties (e.g., marriage, family, common-law partnership, adoption) with a principal or have control in the principal's company or non profit or profit society. In terms of the Tax Act, control is defined as “owning enough shares or influence to have the majority of the votes in the election of the board of directors.”

LOL, I was not asking for a definition of "Arms Length". I was asking if you knew the "difference".... , and I assumed you would clue in that meaning the difference between the two "subjective" and "objective" ...

but no problem.... we already know if you know or not...

[Bestside]

In the DWK News July 2011 Findlater said the DWK has worked on keeping tax increases to less than 3%. The 2011 tax increase was 2.24%. This means the architects of the Governance study did not know what they were doing, OR they were trying to scare the electorate into amalgamating with Kelowna by projecting that 5% tax increases were required to incorporate.

Congratulations to the people of Westbank for ignoring the doom and gloom projected by devious people on the Governance committee, chaired by Findlater, and voting for incorporation anyway.

You're missing the other obvious option and that is that projecting tax increases into the future is not an exact science. So instead of congratulating Findlater and Council for keeping tax increases lower than had been predicted by the governance committee you attack the Governance Committee for not having provided precise predictions re tax increases. Would you be happy if Council had been raising your taxes by 3%? Elsewhere you've said that as a bedroom community we should be keeping our taxes down so it's really hard to follow your "logic."

Again you ignore the point... my "logic" was not about failing an exact science exercise... it was about the Governance committee deliberately trying to con Westsiders into amalgamating with Kelowna.

I said that is what they were doing right from day 1, and that our property taxes should/would be a lot lower than what they projected as long as we govern towards continuing to be a bedroom community and not falling into the trap of believing residential tax payers subsidizing business development will result in lower residential property taxes. (See the contradiction?)

So why would I congratulate Findlater when a monkey with a ouija board could have achieved property taxes lower than what they projected for public consumption? Why do you think the committee fired Stantec consulting and cobbled together consultants that would do their bidding? C'mon...

[waterwings]

Your splitting of hairs shows you protest to much.

[Bestside]

Your splitting of hairs shows you protest to much.

You should be less subjective... but then again, there would be no alternative for you to be anything but...
... seeing as you ignore the facts that just get in your way of any logical objective thinking ...

Anyway, are you or have you voted for Mary Mandarino's gang in mass, or have you looked for some small bit of balance?