Mark Greenberg - Council Candidate

[p2malone]

Dear Mark,
Excellent and insighful reply to dealing with criminal activity. Both my husband and I will be voting for you! I think each and every idea you have should be in place! Brilliant. It sounds like you along with Joe Strocen and Jim Dixon are what our community needs to help make it a better (safer) place to live....maybe I won't be returning to Alberta after all. Thank you,
pdellerton

[doorknocker]

I received this email today and wanted to share it with the forum as you may have the same question. I have left out the names of the requesting party as I have not been able to reach them yet to obtain permission to identity them:

Hello Mr. Greenberg:

You are on our list of people to vote for Council on Saturday. However, we read in today's Westside News that you state you are a "pensioner on a fixed income". How can you be a pensioner if you are only 57 years old?

Answer:

Hi xxx

Thanks for your question. As a result of the high levels of stress associated with the job of being an FBI Agent and the fact that you have to maintain a high degree of fitness, FBI Agents are able to take full retirement at age 50 as long as they have 20 years service. They also have mandatory retirement at age 57.

Here is the link for details from the FBI Home Page

http://www.fbijobs.gov/333.asp

If you have any other questions please feel free to write or call.

Best regards,

Marc Greenberg
2008 Candidate for Westside Council

[hereiamagain]

so Mulder and Scully would be retired now too, wow thats hard to fathom. (lol!)

how do you feel about community projects, ie "barn raising" (thanks Jim) to create much needed municipal buildings, and community service by those who sin against the community...? would you support something like that?

the managers that we have in the municipality office are (potentially) up for a 16/22% raise. Since $$ is so tight in the municipality, why are we looking at raises now (as they were just hired) and would you support these raises? What in your opinion would pose an acceptable situation for the raises?

[doorknocker]

Hi Hereiamagain,

I think barn raising would be a great idea especially for affordable housing and other small municipal projects where simple woodframe structures could be built by citizens to save some tax dollars.

Sin projects would probably fall under the courts and/or corrections and would not be a program we could take on at the municipal level although I believe that those who break society's laws should be doing more than watching TV or body building while being 'rehabilitated".

As for the raise issue, there are some complicating factors there. I understand that some of the raises my be contractual and therefore written in stone. As for an acceptable situation for raises, employees of our municipality should be made to understand that they and the residents are all onboard this ship together. When the residents are suffering financially as they are now, this reality will affect the employees as well. The converse is also true. We want to hire and retain good employees and want our municipality to have a reputation as a good employer. We will have to strive to satisfy both needs to make it work but at the end of the day we cannot expect our taxpayers to bare the burden of increases in salary that are far above what they themselves are earning from their sources of income.

All the best

Marc Greenberg
2008 Candidate for Westside Council

[hereiamagain]

Thank you Marc for the explanation. I feel, that with your responses, you will be a go getter on council. I am quite excited about that, and I hope you win.

On another note, from Darren Schlamp's website, not sure if you have seen it:
http://taxes.schlamp.ca/

but I thought it was worth folks taking another look.

[doorknocker]

For those of you who do not receive the Capital News, the following is a paid political article that I placed in this Wednesday's edition:


On the Campaign Trail
By Marc Greenberg, 2008 Candidate for Westside Council

My official campaign is 40 days old. In that time I have knocked on the doors of 3500 families from one end of our town to the other, been chased by 2 dogs and was mistaken for a burglar. I have lost seven pounds walking through neighbourhoods over 36 days and worn out one pair of my favourite shoes. So the question is, was it worth it?

My motivation to get involved in politics has always been about people. Serving the people is something I have done for my whole career. I must say that walking around talking to people is preferable to being shot at which was an occupational hazard in my old career. I have found that speaking to the many hundreds of you that I have encountered during my door knocking campaign, to have been motivating, uplifting and informative. Westsiders are resilient. The divisiveness that marked last year is gone and a vision of our future is forming. Sure there is a question of our name but for the most part people want to get on with building a community. The many opinions are starting to merge into common themes. People are looking for leadership, integrity, intelligence, transparency, vision and innovation from their councillors and mayor. I have now done my part by meeting you, debating the issues and stating my positions and vision. It is now your turn. Good luck and God bless. Let your voice be heard on election day ....VOTE.

[brightstar]

I voted for you yesterday Marc. Good-luck with the election!

[canadman]

Good luck tonight Marc! It was great having a chance to meet you and I'm rooting for you... all the best!

[A10ThunderboltII]

Nice try Marc..I guess you just couldn't overcome the status Quo. Looks like 401 votes short..Too bad

A from AZ

[fairweather]

You'll just have to try again in 3 years. We'll vote for you again then!

[jck]

Hey Mark,

You were my top pick. I have much to say about the people who have been elected tonight and what that ultimately says about West Kelowna residents. Next time I hope you run for mayor and stay involved in the community.

[brightstar]

I voted for you and you came so darn close!! Great campaign...lots of hard work. I hope you will continue to stay involved. Perhaps you will be able to be involved on some sort of a task force or do I dare say "committee". Your knowledge and expertise will be very valuable to our community. Best of luck!