Andre Blanleil - Council Candidate

[soontoberetired]

Arrogant....That is the most appropriate word to describe Mr. Blanleil. No one who has spoken to Andre for more than ten minutes could possibly support him for city council.

[stearnzy]

And since he only shows up to what, 'maybe' 50% of council meetings?

If this is true than do they receive 50% pay?!

I'm pretty sure that Andre dose not recieve pay for his service as well as pays for all of his own expences

[Chmmr]

And since he only shows up to what, 'maybe' 50% of council meetings?

If this is true than do they receive 50% pay?!

I'm pretty sure that Andre dose not recieve pay for his service as well as pays for all of his own expences

Sorry are you implying that he pays all his own expenses and does not get paid for being on council? If so, you are entirely incorrect. I assume i am misunderstanding what you are trying to say?

[cellrepair99]

I think Andre Blanleil is arrogant i will not be voting for him this year. He is more concerned with his electronic shops he owns and he has been clearly winning with name recognition. Use your judgement and vote with confidence for someone that will benifit Kelowna.

[VPofFNE]

Wow, there is a lot of Blanleil bashing going on here. For those of you criticizing his business acumen, I'd like to point out that no matter what you may think, Andre is a successful businessman who has grown his company and is active in his industry and the community with it. This is a fact, not an opinion.

With regard to his decisions as a councilor, I have followed some of the larger issues and I find his comments and voting to be reasonable and logical. Some decisions will be unpopular, however still need to be made. Blanleil will not simply 'go with the flow'.

Voluntary Disclosure: I do not work for Andre, nor do I know him very well personally. These are simply my opinions.

[JKelowna]

Question: Would you continue with the city‘s planned appeal of the Simpson covenant ruling?

Andre Blanleil: I‘m in favour of seeking another method to gain public input on the future of those lands.

He obviously hasn't polled the public or he would have noticed the overwhelming opposition to modifying or breaking the covenant. Truly a sign of his arrogance.

[Gone_Fishin]

Arrogance - I think the definition has been missed by some of the posters on this thread. Just because an intelligent person speaks and you don't comprehend all they say, doesn't make that person "arrogant". I'd take a level-headed, proven, successful businessman like Andre any day over a tantrum-filled brat like Given to make decisions about my city.

On a personal note, I was very impressed with Andre's treatment of me in his store. 20 years ago, he came along as one of his salesmen was doing a quote for me, and said "I've seen this gentleman in here before, give him the CD player for free". An arrogant person wouldn't have recognised me, I'm sure. Another time, he took my girlfriend and I in to see the new theatre room they had just built, put in a movie and sat with us for several minutes talking about kids, sports, the weather - NOT trying to sell us a single thing. There were lots of sales staff around, but he took the time to lend a personal touch to his business. A smart business move, of course - but those "smarts" are what we need to run the business side of our city.

[JKelowna]

I bet you shop at his stores all the time now eh? And all he had to do was give you a free CD player and several minutes of time.

On a personal note, intelligent people are often arrogant. A council member shouldn't be telling us what's best, they should be listening to us tell them what's best. What I wouldn't give for 8 brainless council members who follow orders from the electorate. **sigh**

[Gone_Fishin]

I bet you shop at his stores all the time now eh? And all he had to do was give you a free CD player and several minutes of time.

You totally missed the point, didn't you? His recognition of me among several thousand people who shop in his stores was what impressed me. It wasn't the deal I was getting. I've never shopped there more than a couple of times in a year, yet he did remember who I was. That's quite contrary to "arrogance".

Some of you have such a thick set of blinders on - no wonder we get so many numbskulls elected to office in this city!

[Chmmr]

Arrogance - I think the definition has been missed by some of the posters on this thread. Just because an intelligent person speaks and you don't comprehend all they say, doesn't make that person "arrogant". I'd take a level-headed, proven, successful businessman like Andre any day over a tantrum-filled brat like Given to make decisions about my city.

On a personal note, I was very impressed with Andre's treatment of me in his store. 20 years ago, he came along as one of his salesmen was doing a quote for me, and said "I've seen this gentleman in here before, give him the CD player for free". An arrogant person wouldn't have recognised me, I'm sure. Another time, he took my girlfriend and I in to see the new theatre room they had just built, put in a movie and sat with us for several minutes talking about kids, sports, the weather - NOT trying to sell us a single thing. There were lots of sales staff around, but he took the time to lend a personal touch to his business. A smart business move, of course - but those "smarts" are what we need to run the business side of our city.

On a personal note, i was treated like garbage in his store many times over the last decade. People can receive all kinds of experiences in all kinds of stores and that doesn't mean that is reflective of the owner, and or their standard policies. It is just as likely that you caught him on a day when he was in a particularly good mood, as it was that i caught them on a particularly bad day. Shows absolutely nothing about him as a candidate. A good candidate listens to the people that elect him.

[djexcalibur]

And since he only shows up to what, 'maybe' 50% of council meetings?

If this is true than do they receive 50% pay?!

I'm pretty sure that Andre dose not recieve pay for his service as well as pays for all of his own expences

Sorry are you implying that he pays all his own expenses and does not get paid for being on council? If so, you are entirely incorrect. I assume i am misunderstanding what you are trying to say?

Yes I'm telling you that "he pays all his own expenses and does not get paid for being on council?" oh yes not paid.

[Chmmr]

And since he only shows up to what, 'maybe' 50% of council meetings?

If this is true than do they receive 50% pay?!

I'm pretty sure that Andre dose not recieve pay for his service as well as pays for all of his own expences

Sorry are you implying that he pays all his own expenses and does not get paid for being on council? If so, you are entirely incorrect. I assume i am misunderstanding what you are trying to say?

Yes I'm telling you that "he pays all his own expenses and does not get paid for being on council?" oh yes not paid.

Prove it please. Do you have documents to show this? I doubt that Mr Blanleil (or anyone else for that matter) accepts no salary for being on council , and as 1/3 of his salary is in lieu of expenses, your argument that he pays all his own expenses is invalidated.

http://www.kelowna.ca/CM/Page53.aspx

KELOWNA CITY COUNCIL 2005- 2008
The City of Kelowna is governed by an elected Council comprised of a Mayor and eight Councillors. Councillors are elected for three-year terms and each member of council represents the city at large (there is no ward system). The Community Charter and the Local Government Act give Council the authority to establish policies to guide the growth, development and operation of the city, to set budgets and to levy taxes to provide services. Each municipality must operate with a balanced budget. Under the Council-Manager system, Council delegates administrative responsibility to the City Manager who oversees the City's six separate departments: Corporate Services; Financial Services; Planning and Development Services; Recreation, Parks & Cultural Services; Works and Utilities; and Human Resources.

Remuneration

These salaries are effective January 1, 2006. The decision to review salaries is made by City Council, and an independent consultant is chosen to conduct the review.

Mayor of Kelowna
$84,082 annually (one-third is an allowance for expenses and thus non-taxable)
Councillors
$26,486 annually (one-third is an allowance for expenses and thus non-taxable). Councillors receive an additional $350 per month (one-third non-taxable) when acting as Deputy Mayor. Councillors serve as Deputy Mayor on a monthly rotating basis.

[damngrumpy]

All councillors get paid for their services, what they do with the money is their business.
Yes he is arrogant, and sometimes he's even fair, he was the only one pretty much that support the idea of wakefest. No I probably won't be voting for him, but not because he is arrogant, its because he supports the developer crowd almost every time. I will not vote for developer allies, who want to change the face of this city without a thought to the people who live here

[djexcalibur]

All councillors get paid for their services, what they do with the money is their business.
Yes he is arrogant, and sometimes he's even fair, he was the only one pretty much that support the idea of wakefest. No I probably won't be voting for him, but not because he is arrogant, its because he supports the developer crowd almost every time. I will not vote for developer allies, who want to change the face of this city without a thought to the people who live here

And he forfeits his pay. He takes no money for being on council. Sure call him arrogant but he’s the only incumbent I would ever vote for. I hope we can have more people on councils with his ideals and experience.

[Chmmr]

All councillors get paid for their services, what they do with the money is their business.
Yes he is arrogant, and sometimes he's even fair, he was the only one pretty much that support the idea of wakefest. No I probably won't be voting for him, but not because he is arrogant, its because he supports the developer crowd almost every time. I will not vote for developer allies, who want to change the face of this city without a thought to the people who live here

And he forfeits his pay. He takes no money for being on council. Sure call him arrogant but he’s the only incumbent I would ever vote for. I hope we can have more people on councils with his ideals and experience.

Prove it. I find it very hard to believe that he does this, and yet there has never been any mention of it anywhere (there would almost certainly have been some media coverage and Andre would have thrived on that surely, especially with reelection coming up), until you state it here on the boards. If he does indeed do this, i wonder if it is because others have mentioned he only ever attends 50% or less of council meetings, which IMO is not helping the people of kelowna with the ideals and experience that you are raving about.