Mark Greenberg - Council Candidate

[Jo]

A thread for Mark Greenberb, council candidate.

[doorknocker]

Hello Friends and Neighbors,

I have posted my official website below:

http://www.squidoo.com/greenberg4council

Please take some time to visit and examine my qualifications, experience and campaign platform. This year I have set a goal of personally visiting 3500 homes on the Westside and meeting and listening to as many of my fellow Westsiders as I can. To date I have knocked on more than 1600 doors and spoken with hundreds of concerned citizens. I can also be found many days at one of the various food markets around town.

Hope to see you all at the candidates debate on October 28th.

Bye for now,


Marc Greenberg
2008 Candidate for Westside Council

[hereiamagain]

Hi Mark, welcome to the forum.
There is a pretty hot issue right now - the treatment of the naming issue.
What are your thoughts on this, how do you think the volunteers and the electorate were treated? What would you do if you were one of the two councilors who were on the outside of the behind the scenes decisions?

[doorknocker]

The problem started right from the beginning when the council tried to have its cake and eat it too. The council had a choice of determining its own process or turning it over to a committee. In either case the decision process should have been final.

Regardless of ones feelings on the end result of the committees recommendations, the dismissal of the committees work by the council has set a precendent that will discourage volunteerism of this sort in the future.

The back room politicing which lead to the quick motion to adopt an already prepared alternative plan (I was at the council meeting) was motioned and passed without comment (other than an off the record remark by the mayor). This process deprived the gallery present for the meeting and all citizens not present, of the thought process behind these councillors motion and more importantly any additional public debate or input on the topic.

Since that meeting there has been much debate that their was a strategy behind the councillors plan that would split the vote of the West Kelowna option between the other two choice thus guaranteeing Westbank victory. If this is the case, though almost impossible to proove, the councillors have usurped their responsibility to represent all segments of their community.

Whether someone is a supporter of Westbank or not, this was not fair play nor is it the type of transparent governance that I support. If I had been a councillor under the circumstances there would have not been much legal recourse but I would take a stand that off the record discussions and back door politics taking place outside the realm of public disclosure would be tactics that I would vehemently oppose.

Marc Greenberg
2008 Candidate for Westside Council

[hereiamagain]

Fabulous, thank you.

Your answer has indicated to me what your future actions and attitude would be towards this particular situation, and the Westside in general.

[doorknocker]

Marc Greenberg's Website:

http://www.squidoo.com/greenberg4council

[occasional thoughts]

Marc, I think Castanet is going to boot you over to the Election forum.

[canadman]

Marc... you just earned my vote and hopefully the votes of all those who feel Council acted irresponsibly.

Thank you for clarifying your position.

[mary mandarino]

I have just read Mr. Greenburgh's post.

I would just like to add that the present council set the tone when, in one of the first council meetings, Mayor Neis and Councillor Pilling presented a motion to form a Citizen's Advisory Committee to seek community input.

The motion was defeated 5 to 2.

The establishment of an Advisory Committee was a recommendation of the Governance Committee.

The Governance Committee was a volunteer group. These volunteers had donated 4 years of their time to study and present information to the public to assist in the decision making process.

So the pattern of this council dismissing volunteer efforts actually preceded the dismissal of the work of the naming committee, also a volunteer group.

I was present at this meeting also.

This is why I formed the Westside Residents Association and invited 4 community members from different areas of our community to sign on as charter members.

The purpose of the Westside Residents Association is to promote fair and equitable representation of all residents within the boundies of the the incorporated westside community.

Please check out our website: www westsidefacts.com for additional information.

My platform is One Voice For All through open, honest and inclusive representation.

My website: www.marymandarino.com

Regards from Mary Mandarino

[hereiamagain]

Mary, thank you for posting that. I remember when that group was trying to form last year. I was one of those very suspicious of motives etc.

I have since changed my mind, and can see now how sincerely necessary this sort of organization is - especially if certain people get elected to council. I hope you dont give up on this and that it is put forward again in this year's council.

Please visit your thread too to post this up.

For Mark Greenberg, would you be in favour of this sort of organization of the people?

[JVD3741]

Hello Mr. Greenberg and good luck

Have read your Campaign Statement and your posted responses.

Some real issues that have arisen during the term of the last council are not popular, their actions come across as very underhanded to say the least.

Where do you stand on these issues?

1) Voting against the formation of a Citizens Advisory Committee?

2) The Backroom Politicing regarding the renaming process w/ total disregard for the work that was done by the citizens ..?

3) Is there a plan for a "permanent townhall location"? It should be located somewhere in middle of the district, you think?.

4) AND where are the candidates? I hear about all the door knocking. This is the 2nd election, to date NOBODY has knocked on our door. Maybe we live too far north, or the streets & driveways are too steep?


The candidate that can answer our questions honestly will get our vote.

[doorknocker]

Hi Danner,

Thanks for your questions.

the answer for your first two questions can be found in my posting above dated October 20th.

As for the town hall, as you know the current committee has spent $2 million for the renovation of the Lions Hall and the construction of two trailers at Le Page Arena. Time will tell if this was money well spent or whether the small current offices and fragmented department locations will have to be scrapped in favour of a new municpal office at additional cost.

As for door knocking, I have personally knocked on the doors of more than 1400 homes to date and plan on visiting another 1600 homes before the election by visiting 100 homes every day. At this point I have visited homes in every section of the town with the exception of Casa Loma where I will be this week.

If you send me your address I would be happy to stop by and visit with you and your family.

All the best,

Marc Greenberg
2008 Candidate for Westside Council

[canadman]

Hello Mark..

You will likely have my vote come November 15th however I would like to know your position on the following:

1. Development of the waterfront
2. The role you see of tourism on the Westside
3. How you foresee expanding the commercial revenue base of our municipality
4. As the recent naming committee issue may have negatively influenced future volunteer committee ventures Council may wish to undertake, how would you handle volunteer committees differently to reassure future potential committee volunteers that their volunteer work will not be wasted.
5. Maybe the toughest question, when all the naming issues are dealt with how you would recommend creating unity in our municipality

[doorknocker]

Hi Canadman,

Thanks for writing me to ask my opinions on some very important issues facing our community. These issues are complex but I will do my best to give you some concise answers:

Devlopment of waterfront.

I am assuming that you mean the waterfront that the municipality has jurisdiction over and not the development projected by the WFN near the bridge over which we have no control.

As you know most of the waterfront with the exception of Kalamoir, Gelatly, the Nut Farm, Green Bay and Pebble Beach beaches/parks have been gobbled up over the years by private development.

This council has diverted around $800,000 pledged for improvement of the Gelatly waterfront which would have beautified the area popular with both young and old alike with better footpaths, sidewalks and lighting. This important recreational resource should be linked with walking and bike paths to the town centre and development of the lots between the Pointe and our new movie studio should be encouraged for muti use developement including outdoor cafes and eateries.

2. Tourism on the Westside.
3. Expanding commercial revenue base.

The Westside is the first municipality that hundreds of thousands of travelers see when they exit the Connector coming from the west. The opportunity to capitalize on food, lodging, shopping, tourism, artisan goods is enormous. We need to only to make our town centre more attractive, deal with the couplet and lack of public parking . My vision for the Westbank Town Centre includes the elimination of traffic on Main Street and converting it to a pedestrian mall and making Dobbins Rd a four lane thoroughfare.

4. Volunteer Committees

The recent controversy over the councils handling of the Naming Committee does not bode well for the future of soliciting more volunteers for similar positions.

Our new council should have a firm position on when volunteers committees should be formed and a policy which ensures that in the event a committees recommendation is not accepted that council would have to articulate their explanation of their decision to the committee and community at large at a special council meeting open to the all.

5. Creating unity in our community after the election

Creating unity in municipality when the election is over will fall to the leaders elected to the new council who can rise above the differences of the past. leaders who have a vision of our new municipality that includes all; young and old, families and retirees, heritage residents and those newly arrived, business people, housewives and farmers. These leaders will need to get out from behind council chambers and gain peoples trust and have all the peoples best interests at heart.

Hope that these answers help.

Best regards,

Marc Greenberg
2008 Candidate for Westside Council

[brightstar]

Mr. Greenberg - Best of luck in the upcoming election. I look forward to hearing you speak at the All Candidates Forum!