Civic Election here we come!

[Scrobins94]

Keep it up fz6adventure!

[fz6adventure]

I recently sent out a question to all mayor and council candidates (except Boyer as I could not find his email address) to ask their position on transparency of local government and if elected what they would do in this regard. Surprisingly, of all the incumbents, only Charlie Hodge responded addressing the question substantively. Here is a list of those who did and did not respond.

Responded:

Lindsay Bell
Kevin Bond
Charlie Hodge
Craig Hostland
Greame James
Bobby Kennedy
Gordon Lovegrove
Jeff Piattelli
Bob Schewe

No Response - Substantive or otherwise:

Colin Basran
Greg Dahms
Tom Dyas
Gail Given
Amarjit Singh Lalli
Mo Rajabally
Dustin Sargent
Brad Sieben
Mohini Singh
Luke Stack
Stef Van Meeteren
Loyal Wooldridge

While the aspect of transparency in local government is important, equally important is the will of local elected members to listen to and communicate with the citizens.

Please vote wisely!

[eliecer]

An interesting article from the Kelowna Daily Courier about what councilors have done during this 4 years.
http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/news/ ... 25d91.html

No intentions to promote the Daily Courier, only provide more info for this election time. Vote wise!

[fz6adventure]

Letter to the Editor:

Unfinished Business? Keep the momentum?

One thing in Kelowna we have heard over and over again from the incumbents leading up to the election on Saturday is “keeping the momentum of the past 4 years”, “our record over the past 4 years”, “we have unfinished business” and “our achievements over the past 4 years speak for our council”.

With that sort of election platform rhetoric, I think it is important to understand just what this means. Moreover, I am concerned just what unfinished business and momentum relates to and would like to relate current council’s momentum and achievements to project what a future governance with the same players will likely look like. In this regard, I’ll just examine what occurred with the Visitor Centre debacle…..for those old enough we can call it “the rest of the story”.

We all know that the issue of the Visitor Centre was hotly debated locally engaging strong opposition as well as support. The process worked its way through council according to script with a Public Hearing culminating in the approval by council in a 7 to 1 vote with the sole dissenting vote cast by Councillor Hodge. The City was supposed to publish all relative information on the proposal so that residents could attend and speak at the Public Hearing as informed citizens from which council could hear what citizen wanted. That release of key information did not happen …. Perhaps purposely?

The process of approval of the Visitor Centre at the tail of Queensway Ave started nearly 3 years prior to citizens being given an opportunity to speak to council. Through FOI I learned, on May 6, 2014 the process started with a letter from the City Planning Department to the Province wishing to have covenants that prohibited any building on the property removed. The covenant removal process continued with much back and forth over the next near three years, never being disclosed to the public in open meeting although the topic in closed meetings. The covenant was finally released just one month prior to the Public Hearings in January 2017. The public was never, and to this day, informed of the very critical requirement or the work that went into removal of the covenants.

In reality the covenant removal was just part of process. Again through FOI I learned, the agreement between the City and Tourism Kelowna, binding the City of Kelowna to transfer use of the property to Tourism Kelowna was inked between the two parties in July of 2014. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the then Chair of Tourism Kelowna on July 17, 2014 and the them mayor Walter Gray on July 30, 2014. The agreement looks essentially as the final lease agreement executed between the City and Tourism Kelowna in 2017 ……the MOU even spelled out the nominal lease terms and footprint of the building. The public was never, and to this day, informed of the existence of the 2014 agreement. The current mayor of Kelowna was one of the council appointees to the Tourism Kelowna board at the time – he knew.

There was never any doubt that the approvals for the visitor centre were going to be approved by City council regardless of citizen opposition or support. The pomp and circumstance of the process was a thinly veiled sham. Indeed, if it had not been approved, the city may well have been on the hook for costs and opportunities lost to Tourism Kelowna …. Along the same lines as we recently saw happen in Penticton where a “done deal” was quashed requiring Penticton reimburse the developer $200,000. One of the mayoral candidates in Kelowna knows all about what happens when a municipality doesn’t approve a perceived “done deal”.

With this history in perspective, is this a light into the future of “keeping the momentum” or “unfinished business”?

I took the time to bring these revelations to the attention of current council candidates to question them on transparency of local government. One prominent councilor, who was also on council in 2014 when the deal was cooked, responded not with a response to transparency but stated “everything is done for the greater good of the community”. I would like to think that the citizens of Kelowna can decide collectively what is good for the community knowing all the information, not just what the few in council and senior bureaucrats want us to know. The councilor with the sole dissenting vote also responded to the reveal of documents and transparency question advising he had never seen the MOU until I provided him with a copy.

More of the same? What other deals have already been cooked that we won’t learn about until too late to participate?

Vote informed and vote wisely.

[Scrobins94]

An interesting article from the Kelowna Daily Courier about what councilors have done during this 4 years.
http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/news/ ... 25d91.html

No intentions to promote the Daily Courier, only provide more info for this election time. Vote wise!

I like how Charlie Hodge voted in many circumstances. Also pleased with Tracy Gray's overall voting record, even though she isn't running for re-election. Interesting to learn that Basran voted against development at least a couple of times even in controversial projects. Not quite the gung-ho pro-developer guy as some people paint him to always be. Less pleased am I with Singh and Sieben than I was prior to reading the article.

Actually overall I find that the current council has been fairly balanced. There aren't any obvious councillors I really dislike and there is only one that I clearly like (Charlie Hodge). I think overall current council has done a good job, except on two fronts: 1) public safety and, 2) protecting our waterfront for public enjoyment.

If say, 2-3 incumbents were replaced by new councillors, that might be enough to tip the outcome of many votes on future issues.

[fz6adventure]

Interesting to learn that Basran voted against development at least a couple of times even in controversial projects. Not quite the gung-ho pro-developer guy as some people paint him to always be. Less pleased am I with Singh and Sieben than I was prior to reading the article..

I'll suggest that Basrans "against votes" were in situations where the outcome was so certain by majority that the "against vote" was nothing more than rational for a perception that he doesn't only vote pro-development. It was a play!

[fz6adventure]

Just back from the mayors forum at Third Space Coffee - Bobby Kennedy owned it ! Was funny to watch Basran stumble

[Scrobins94]

Just back from the mayors forum at Third Space Coffee - Bobby Kennedy owned it ! Was funny to watch Basran stumble

That's not what I saw. I saw a fact-twisting, arrogant, disrespectful, young Bobby Kennedy and a desesperate zinger-seeking Tom Dyas.

What Bobby or Tom might have gotten more tonight was more "oohs" and "ahhs" but not substance. Colin is still the more well-rounded candidate, and Bob the most in touch with the average citizen.

[koivu11]

Basran camp is startling to admit doubt !

Time for a new Mayor and counsel has arrived.

[Jflem1983]

Desperate Basran paid supporters were at my job site yesterday. Hardly anyone honked. Does a dead cat bounce ? Get rid of the rainbow warrior socialist clown. How much did he pay those freaks to wave signs . Who would do that for a guy who has ruined a once nice city . Basran. Worst mayor I have had in my 28 years here. Pack your rainbow crosswalk. Time to find a job.

[fz6adventure]

That's not what I saw. I saw a fact-twisting, arrogant, disrespectful, young Bobby Kennedy and a desesperate zinger-seeking Tom Dyas.

What Bobby or Tom might have gotten more tonight was more "oohs" and "ahhs" but not substance. Colin is still the more well-rounded candidate, and Bob the most in touch with the average citizen.

My mistake, we must have been at different events.

I was at the one at Third Space 1708 Dolphin where Basran started wining because he thought Bobby was taking more than 60 seconds to answer a question and how he knows more about cannabis than Bobby. Maybe Basran should have concentrated a little more on the questions rather than his watch.

My apologies for confusing events.

[fz6adventure]

All through the Basran campaign we've heard over and over again how the current council has hired 18 more RCMP members since 2014 in response to the question about what "he" has done to combat crime in Kelowna.

I wonder if Basran has bothered to think about what the simple fact of population growth has to do with local RCMP staffing levels? Or the fact that at any one time 25% of the local RCMP detachment members are off duty on one sort or other of long term disability. Every year as the city grows and insufficient numbers of RCMP are added to the local detachment, it contributes to the growing infrastructure deficit.

It would be really great if the next mayor of Kelowna actually has critical thinking skills, rather than a reliance on political double speak spin doctoring. IMHO

[Scrobins94]

That's not what I saw. I saw a fact-twisting, arrogant, disrespectful, young Bobby Kennedy and a desesperate zinger-seeking Tom Dyas.

What Bobby or Tom might have gotten more tonight was more "oohs" and "ahhs" but not substance. Colin is still the more well-rounded candidate, and Bob the most in touch with the average citizen.

My mistake, we must have been at different events.

I was at the one at Third Space 1708 Dolphin where Basran started wining because he thought Bobby was taking more than 60 seconds to answer a question and how he knows more about cannabis than Bobby. Maybe Basran should have concentrated a little more on the questions rather than his watch.

My apologies for confusing events.

I saw the same event online. Bobby Kennedy was more focused on bragging about his weed knowledge (which is probably true, especially since he has prior experience illegally selling out of his storefront) than on answer the questions directly. I kind of think of Bobby Kennedy as the Trump-like candidate in that he is the one looking to say things that get headlines, acting boisterous, whether what he is saying is true or not, or of substance or not. Yes, Bobby has a plan with weed, I get it. He wants to create a tax and use that to create programs and stuff. But do you not think that people will buy online instead or restock somewhere else, say West Kelowna to save money? And where is the kindness aspect that he so much advocated for earlier when he wants to further tax those that need it for medical reasons? Also, I am not sure a CST would be sufficient to deal with all the programs the city needs. What if his proposal fails or doesn't drive enough tax revenue? Is this his only trick under his sleeve? Anyways, innovative proposal, but I also think Bobby seriously lacks leadership to lead others especially in this conservative town. Bright ideas? Maybe, it's possible and one can argue and debate that, he could win it too. However, Bobby seriously does not have the tact, leadership, and experience to lead our city. However I do think Bobby has been clever to put his name out there. We all now know Bobby as one of Kelowna's brand names for weed. I think profit through weed was his whole motive all along. His store and his election campaign are nothing more but a platforms to riches from sales of this product.

One thing I have to say though is that Bobby is very entertaining to watch, kind of like Donald Trump when he was running for presidency in the states. However, I am not one to gamble my vote for someone with a precedent of illegally selling weed and who acts as arrogant as he does. Just my opinion. I respect yours too.

[fz6adventure]

Just my opinion. I respect yours too.

[Scrobins94]

All through the Basran campaign we've heard over and over again how the current council has hired 18 more RCMP members since 2014 in response to the question about what "he" has done to combat crime in Kelowna.

I wonder if Basran has bothered to think about what the simple fact of population growth has to do with local RCMP staffing levels? Or the fact that at any one time 25% of the local RCMP detachment members are off duty on one sort or other of long term disability. Every year as the city grows and insufficient numbers of RCMP are added to the local detachment, it contributes to the growing infrastructure deficit.

It would be really great if the next mayor of Kelowna actually has critical thinking skills, rather than a reliance on political double speak spin doctoring. IMHO

I was quite pleased when Basran answered the question about the repairs at the water park at City Park. It was one of those items that was even brought up in these forums. Why the heck hasn't it been fixed? Families coming to City Park would mean a revitalized City Park. His answer was regarding the flooding that occurred this year. If they had just "fixed it" it would've been damaged again from flooding next year. Instead they want to do a full rehaul so it is better and not susceptible to flooding in the future. I wasn't a fan that the water park was not fixed sooner, but I can understand his reasoning now.

If you listen carefully to the questions that were asked last night, Colin and Bob were the ones that answered them the most directly. Bobby was downright insulting to Bob Schewe last night too.