Mark Greenberg - Council Candidate

[GlenCanyon]

Hi Mark,

It was a pleasure meeting your wife and yourself tonight. You did a whole lot better and are now on my plus side.

Your years of training as a law enforcement officer make you good on detail and at time weak on the nicelty of delivery. As I came to know you I saw a man with energy, compassion and a very smart mind. Your opening statement was the best of all the opening statements.

Good luck.

[doorknocker]

Dear Forum members,

If you didn't get the chance to attend last night's Candidate Forum at the Alliance Church, the following was my speech.

Good Evening Friends and Neighbours,

This is a story based on a true event which occurred yesterday
It is about a conversation I had with a guy named Joe
No.... not Joe the plumber
His name is Joe.........the electrician

I was close to knocking on my 3000th door yesterday. It had taken 30 days.
It was a rainy day and Joe was in the garage.
I introduced myself and explained I was running for council
Joe looked me in the eye and said “Why the hell would you want to be a politician here?”

I explained to Joe that I had moved here 7 yrs ago, proudly obtained my Canadian citizenship and plan to stay for the rest of my life. My wife and I love the Westside.
I related that I was a retired lifelong public servant
Now want I to contribute to this great place we live in

That’s why I was doorknocking

Listening to the people is what I believe a good politician and leader should do. It’s a lot of work but being able to successfully represent your constituents’ interests is a great foundation for running a successful government.
Joe asked me what kinds of things I could do for our community

I told Joe that because I have 27 years in Law Enforcement – 22 years with the FBI as an agent, manager, diplomat and an organized crime expert

That I possess a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice and served 5 years in Ottawa as the FBI’s representative to the RCMP Commissioner

As a result You will have an expert on council to help to get the most for the $9 million we spend a year on police and fire protection. That is roughly 20% of our annual municipal budget

You will have someone knowledgeable on council who can work with the police and fire departments and represent our council’s priorities and limitations

I also told Joe that my entire career could be summarized by three words. One of them is integrity. In fact I wear a ring on my finger that contains that word, Integrity, with two others, Fidelity and Bravery. I take these values very seriously.

You will know that I will always represent your interests above any others

That I will be as accessible to you after the election as I have been in my visits to you before
You can be assured that I will not be involved in back room politicking, withholding information for political gain or conducting unnecessary in camera sessions.

That I will accept personal responsibility for my actions.

I told Joe that the council needed more leaders and fewer managers. Leaders who have real vision and can think outside the box. There are many dreams here in our community that need to be addressed

I explained that I have been a leader and worked on teams tackling sensitive international issues in the U.S., Canada and Singapore. I have led in the boardroom and in life threatening situations.

By electing me you will add diversity, vision, expertise and dedication to our council

These are some of the things I told Joe, yesterday.

When I was done Joe handed me back my brochure and told me he wouldn’t need it ...............
because I had just won his vote.

I hope that after this evening you will feel the same way.

Don’t you deserve integrity and leadership on your council
Back me, Marc Greenberg, on November 15th

[steren]

Well, as I promised you at the all-candidate meeting tonight, I read your post in its entirety, and it is certainly more informative than the brief news report on your comments. However, I'll agree, it mitigates to a large extent what seemed to be your negative attitude towards our asset. If there'd been a municipality, we might have built it somewhere else rather than up against the north face of a mountain, with the severe scar that was created on the natural environment to accommodate it.

I don't know if you have ever heard the story of why the Mt Boucherie Complex was built where it was--where it was supposed to be built --why CORD did build it there. There is a polictical story behind our Rec Center and our high school --why build it there----especially in the shawdow of Mt Boucherie.

[Wandad]

Great idea Marc to post your speech from yesterday's forum at the Alliance Church. For those people who weren't there this is excellent even without the passion and enthusiasm you exhibited last night. I must say your story of 'Joe the Electrician' was a memorable one. It certainly held my interest and remained with me longer than all the 'la di da' of the other candidates. These were exactly the reason stories were used by sages of long ago; people remember and identify with them.

Your answers to the questions were also much more direct and to the point than many candidates, especially some of the incumbents. If there is no platform there is no vision. Why are there so few, if any, other than you who have a vision for this community? They all said 'lets get on with the job' or 'lets get behind the name of choice and move on' or 'i love this community.' Yet few gave us definitive answers based on a vision of the Westside.

The citizens of Westside want a leader to follow and support. Where is the leader? Most of the candidates seemed to be following rather than leading, especially the incumbents. If we want unity we need leadership with a vision which we can then support.

[hereiamagain]

Hi Marc, You had a terrific presence on Monday night, and I enjoyed when you talked. You also had a very interesting American accent that I thought was tremendously pleasing. When you get in office, please keep the others feet to the fire and quite frankly, I cant see you buying in to anyone else's bs. After being in Ottawa, I am sure you have seen it all. lol!

[hereiamagain]

Hi Marc,

We have a ton of speeding in the Rose Valley elementary school between the hours of 10 and 2 pm. How do you feel about getting photo cameras in the elementary school zones to catch speeders? Can the expense be justified, and would you be interested in having this kind of income for the municipality? Can it even be done?

[doorknocker]

Hereiamagain,

You pose an interesting tactic for slowing down speeders in school zones. It is something to consider for the safety of our children. I would first try to use the resource that we have in the RCMP Provincial Traffic Safety Unit and see what kind of service we can get out of them. There are many issues with speed cameras, including their cost and the administrative fees to process the violations, accuracy and privacy issues, that would have to be vetted .

I would never put a program like that into place for the purposes of generating income however. I will totally agree with you on one thing though, I , like you, am willing to approach the issues we have here in our community by thinking outside the box and exploring all possibilities to find effective, cost efficient solution to our problems and challenges.

All the best,

Marc Greenberg
2008 Candidate for Westside Council

[bear11]

You did a great job at both the Alliance church and Westbank forum. I thought your answers were well thought out and you spoke with honesty. It is time for change. You will have my vote this time round.

[latine]

Marc is the most effective leader of the choices provided. If we don't cast a vote for him,
we are turning our backs on our future and will still be be stuck with good old boys club, with dismal performance. We need to all step up to the plate and support Greenberg.
He has our vote and he should have yours

[latine]

Marc, thank you for running and giving us descent choice to vote from.
Best of Luck

[waterskirick]

I've sent this to all candidates. A yes or no answer will do.

I'd like to vote for someone with a little spine. Our mayor has stated (unlike all other cadidates) that she will only support a new name that has shown more than 50% support from the whole community. A new name will not help unify us if it only has 30% or 35% support. We need a majority, and if we don't get that, then some kind of run off until we do.

So far I have only one candidate to vote for, Neis for councillor. I'll vote for others only if they show leadership and commit to a 50 + 1% requirement for a new name. Will you commit to this?

[doorknocker]

Dear Waterskirik,

I have plenty of spine, but this isn't a question of spine. There are alot of other questions though.
The first, are you willing to commit to tens of thousands of dollars (some estimates are $80,000) of our tax dollars to hold another naming referendum?

What if, as you say, the winner gets 51%. My recollection is that after the incorporation/amalgamation vote (51% vs 49%) people were still not satisfied that this result was representative ,which it might not have been. How much of a percentage is enough?

We elect our nations leaders with even less of a margin.

From my conversations with many hundreds of people the realistic choices are only two and the end result has nothing to do with politicians. I enourage you to get out and talk to as many people as you know and convince them to support your cause. My decision has been greatly influenced by the people I have spoken to in the last 35 days.

Once the votes are cast, lets all get together like we have done since the amalgamation/incorporaton vote and work to make our community the best place to live in British Columbia. We can do it.

All the best,

Marc Greenberg
2008 Candidate for Westside Council

[p2malone]

Hello, I am undecided about which candidates to vote for in the upcoming election, so I am sending out a question for all. We have lived here just a short time (8 months) and my family and I are horrified with the amount of crime and drugs that Kelowna /Westside has. Both places are getting a very bad reputation for high criminal activity and I strongly believe that something needs to be done about it. The name of the Westside does not have very much importance when the world is referring to it as Crack Alley, Drug City, Meth. Meadows, etc...... These are just a few names that I have heard in other provinces, when referring to Kelowna and the Westside. My question.......if you are voted in will you support a increase in policing? Thank you in advance.

[doorknocker]

Thanks for your question on policing the Westside.

As you may know, I have spent 27 years as a law enforcement officer both in uniformed and investigative positions. Much of those years I specialized in drugs and organized crime. I also hold a Master of Arts Degree in Criminal Justice.

As all the candidates will tell you, having more police is a question of money and that means taxes. That is an easy answer. The harder answer is how do we do more with what we have or maybe just a small increase. These are my proposals:

1. We are one of the only small communities in the country covered only be a rural police detachment to have an international criminal organization living and operating in our midst. The availability and price of drugs and related criminal activity like car thefts, fencing stolen property, prostitution and grow operations and other crimes like shopplifting and burglaries are directly related to the abundance of drugs that these organization bring into our community. We cannot expect our local detachment or the two officers assigned to Kelowna to make a dent in this criminal organization without a dedicate squad of officers.

Our council along wth Kelowna and our MLA and MP should petition Ottawa for a federally funded organized crime task force to be placed in the Central Okanagan to dismantle these organizations. While no amount of enforcement will stop all crime, the level of crime would certainly be diminished by bringing these purveyors of addiction of misery to justice. The Task Force would be tax neutral.

2. Current forfeiture laws which seize assets from criminals, send that money to Victoria. If the officers we pay to investigate crimes seize funds, we should be reimbursed for the tax dollars we spend for their investigation. Furthermore, the millions of dollars collected by the province should be sent back to communities for policing initiatives. The programs would be tax neutral.

3. The use of police dog teams act as a force multiplier, that is a police officer with a service dog responding to a call is almost the equivalent of two officers in many instances and therefore a cost effective alternative.

4. We have a very junior force of officers in the Westbank detachment. We also have dozens and dozens of senior retired officers who could volunteer their help as unpaid mentors,lecturers or even cold case assistants to help our young officers. This is a tax neutral program.

5. We could utilize or Citizen Patrol volunteers to monitor fixed and mobile closed circuit TV cameras placed in high crime areas or areas police suspect to be used for drug transactions. Information gathered in this way could be turned over to investigators or patrol for strategic policing intitiatives or direct investigation. This is a tax neutral program

6. Nuisance bylaws should be passes to remove certificates of occupancy for property used in furtherance of drug trafficking. Fines could be assessed and unpaid fines could result in property forfeiture. Proceeds of sales could go into general revenue and then be used in the policing budget. Another tax neutral program

7. Though not a policing initiative, I would like to see a mandatory program that requires our judges to ride along with a police officer for a month to get a 'reality check'. Perhaps they would have a better idea of the pain, suffering and personal cost of crime which may be reflected in their sentencing.

8. If we were to spend money directly on policing the use of anti crime, plainclothes or undercover police officers are an effective tool to dealing with drug dealing and street crime.

9. We also need to have the Westbank First Nations pay for their share of policing costs. Currently, they pay 10% of the bill but alledgedly incurr 30% of all calls for service.

10. Although not a policing issue per se, I support the development of a new skateboard park in conjunction with WFN. There are over 1000 kids and families that have signed a petition for one. I can't speak to the financing end just yet, but if our children are engaged in activities like hockey, soccer, skateboarding, etc, they are occupied, we know where they are and they are less likely to get involved in criminality and drug use.

In the end we can invest in more police officers. That's the public's decision, but I wanted to point out there are alternatives and strategies to explore to makek our community safer without having to engage in large increases in our policing budget and our taxes.

All the best,

Marc Greenberg
2008 Candidate for Westside Council

[hereiamagain]

I like what you have to say Marc. I have to admit I am a bit gunshy (no pun intended). There were a lot of people last year who ran for council and said a lot of good positive things, and then they turned out to be self serving.

I've met you and I think I'm pretty astute in assessing character, and I think you will be a real powerhouse in terms of getting things done for this community. I wish you all the best.