Penticton Western News Friday, August 30, 2013
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Candidates tackle familiar questions Hopefuls split on importance and role of regional district Steve Kidd
Western News Staff
While it wasn’t the massive numbers of candidates Penticton has seen in past municipal elections, the Tuesday evening forum was no less nerve-wracking for those seeking the single mayor and council seats on Sept. 7. In the 2011 municipal election, the stage was filled with 19 candidates, but for this by-election, there are only three running for mayor and five for the single council seat up for grabs. The questions, however, remained much the same, ranging from tourism, jobs and the economy to openness and transparency. Garry Litke, who gave up his council seat to run for mayor, admitted he was anxious going into the debate. “I am fairly comfortable around the council table, I’ve done the homework, I know the issues,” said Litke. “This is like, what’s going to happen?” Litke had cause to be nervous. As the only member of the current council running in this byelection, he was alone in facing questions challenging council decisions like those leading to the Eckhardt hockey dorm. Vic Powell, also running for mayor, called the hockey dorm a back-room deal gone wrong, and it was ridiculous for the city to have let the developer start work before the final closing date on the sale. “City council and staff let the taxpayers down. Now we’re on the hook for about $3 million,” said Powell, a position echoed by the third mayoral candidate, Brian Henningson. Litke admitted the Eckhardt land deal “certainly went sideways,” but questioned where Powell had got his $3 million figure.
Vic Powell (right) takes his turn at the mic, while fellow mayoral candidates Brian Henningson (left) and Garry litke (centre) listen during the all candidates forum Tuesday. candidates for the vacant council seat had their own session earlier that evening.
Steve Kidd/western News
The city, he said, claimed a $50,000 security bond and used that to clean up the property. And while costs of the legal actions launched by the contractors were mounting, they are expected to be in the tens of thousands, not millions. “My objective, if elected, will be to settle that. It is currently in court,” said Litke. “We need to get that title clear. There is a lot of interest in that property.”
A rumour that city council had voted in camera to give senior city staff significant salary increases to bring them to par with other communities, like Chilliwack, also targeted Litke. Henningson, who only moved to the city a year ago, often found himself commenting that he wasn’t fully in the loop on some of the issues. He said he just wanted to be honest with
the audience. “I didn’t want to make something up, I don’t have the full financials. I don’t want to play around with taxpayers’ money,” said Henningson. “I just want to let them know I am the straight-up goods, I am there to get the best taxpayer value.” Those running for council had their share of tough questions to wrangle, like the recently adopted downtown revitalization plan. Pat Buchanan worried there was too much concentration on improving the lower part of Main Street, and that the city should adopt a policy of seeing that needs are met first, a position that Lynn Kelsey agreed with. The city’s infrastructure should be taken care of before beautification, said Kelsey, but there needs to be a balance between the two. That concept of balance was shared by all the council candidates, though their opinions diverged when questioned about the value of the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen to Penticton. For Kevin Andrews, the regional district has a valuable function. Pat Buchanan agreed it has value, but Penticton has to come first and the city needs to care for its own needs before investing through the RDOS. Lynn Kelsey was the strongest supporter of the RDOS, stating that communities working together build a stronger presence for the area. The RDOS is an extra level of government citizens don’t need, according to Andre Martin, who would like to see outlying areas like Westbench and Naramata amalgamate. “To me that makes more sense, it’s less government that we have to pay for,” he said. Katie Robinson, who was an RDOS director for six years, had a sharply different opinion on amalgamation. “People in the outlying area don’t want to pay the same taxes we pay nor do we want to take on their debts, said Robinson. “Sewers and water systems are very expensive.”
REHIRE - Funding for new position comes from separate budget “There’s always questions when there’s money being spent and we’re told there is no money,” said Pryde. “I’ll be hearing a lot about it from teachers. They’ll be concerned.” Hyer said privacy legislation prevented her from disclosing Shongrunden’s salary. Trustee Ginny Manning, who chairs the school board, said she didn’t have the figure available. Shongrunden declined to reveal if he’s receiving a pension and what he’s being paid, but said it’s less than what he made as secretarytreasurer. According to the most recent publicly available information,
Shongrunden earned $131,244 in the 2012 fiscal year. Manning said the position will be paid for out of the district’s technology budget, which is kept separate from regular operating accounts, although it’s been tapped before to help offset funding shortfalls. The technology system, which counts the regional district as a customer, turned a $188,000 profit last year. Shongrunden hopes more business can be found to help add money to instructional budgets. “Instead of cutting each year, we’re trying to generate some dollars so we don’t have to do those (budget) cuts,” he said.
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At the moment, however, Shongrunden is still helping with secretary-treasurer duties. His replacement, Bonnie Roller Routley, began in July but is recovering from an injury sustained outside of work, so they still haven’t completed the hand-over. Shongrunden hopes to tie up those loose ends and set the technology business on a path to financial success before he finally walks away. His new contract expires in July 2014. “We’ve got a combination of a lot of things going on at once,” he Former SecreTary-TreaSurer ron Shongrunden has been hired for said, “and they just needed someone another year with the school district. to help get through this.” File PHoTo