Hall on Meisner
Prince George, B.C.- Mayoral Councillor Lyn Hall, says the City has a role to play in the recruitment and 
Hall says the City shouldn’t be spending dollars on the issue, “We have a great partnership with the chamber of commerce and that’s what it has to be ”
Hall says he still believes the Performing Arts Centre is needed, “I support it, but at the end of the day, there is no money for it. We’ve heard loud and clear that at the end of the day it would be upwards of $50 million dollars and there is no money for it.” He says there needs to be a partnership, and that would include the funds needed to operate the facility. “I am hearing that its upwards of $800 to a million dollars year to operate it.”
Hall admits the city has spent a lot of money on studios for the PAC, but says if elected the city would continue working with the PAC, but not at a financial cost to the city to “move this thing forward.”
As for the disastrous snow removal job of last winter, Hall says his view is, “if the threshold for snow has been reached, get the plows out, get the graders out thee, and get the job done.” Hall says there were staff and equipment ready to roll, “But at the end of the day, we have a responsibility to get out there and plow.” He says he did not know that the equipment was not on the roads, and admitted there were many instances where it was difficult for him as a councillor to get information. “We need to have a conversation about this, and what our structure would look like.”
Hall says he was on the Finance and Audit committee when Councillor Cameron Stolz was found to have been delinquent in paying in property taxes Stolz stepped down as chair of that committee but was allowed to remain on the committee. “I am not trying to belittle or diminish the seriousness of that issue, but the finance and Audit committee only moves things forward to Council for final approval.”
Taxes are becoming “A huge, huge issue” says Hall, “That service we have in the utility bills, is paid for, it pays for itself” he says there needs to be more information on a variety of issues to make them sustainable as well.
Comments
Have some fun guys.
Cheers
Here we go again. Hall says we need to have a conversation – we heard that same thing from Green last time and where did that get us. A one-way or the highway conversation. What is his plan moving forward on getting information since he seems to have been in the dark for the last 3 years.
Great to hear Meisner back on the radio. Great show today.
A suggestion to the administrators, would it be possible to archive the shows on this website so we could listen to them after hours, etc.
wow.. said nothing at all in all that..
Lyn Hall considers himself a leader but when he is forced to answer questions about all the uneducated decisions council made over the last 3 years the answer is always the same.I wasn’t aware of that, I wasn’t a part of that or yes I voted for that complete waste of money. Well what did you do for the last 3 years besides follow,agree and vote with the worst Mayor we ever had? I feel if Hall is voted in as mayor it is going to be status quo for another 3 years.
PG hasn’t had an effective mayor since John Backhouse. He had the ability to run effective meetings, get people from all camps talking and problem solving and didn’t try to lay his personal agenda out as the ‘right way’ to go. In fact, most PG voters would be hard pressed to describe John’s personal agenda on many issues. His approach was to collaborate to find the best solution for the entire community. I remember after John was first elected, he reminded us that almost 2 out of 3 voters supported someone else and his job was to work for the entire community.
Unfortunately, neither of the current candidates demonstrate any of those characteristics. Time to consider which candidate will do the least damage over the next four years as the voting criteria.
Make that 4 years superdave
Honestly..if you want to know what sort of a Mayor Lynn Hall will be have a look at his performance with the School Board.
Lots of talk, lots of bluster, but never a leader!
In fact I see Lynn Hall as the second coming of Dan Rogers, in that he has the ability to speak for hours without ever actually saying anything!
At least with Don Zurowski, his position on any issue is usually evident within the first few sentences out of his mouth!
What we don’t want is someone who’s vote on any particular issue will be based on who is making the most noise in the Gallery that night. What we do need is a Mayor that will always try to do the RIGHT thing regardless what the nosie in the Gallery is supporting!
Apparently not one of the mayors before Green hired a mayor’s personal assistant at a considerable cost to the taxpayers. Will Hall (or Zurowski) if elected do the job as other mayors did before end dedicate themselves fully to the job so that this new job will be eliminated?
The city never grew so, it stagnated so why was that job created in the first place?
Will the job be gone?
YES or NO?
It’s just Hall and Zurowski. I’ll take Hall any day, feel he’ll do best in the Mayor’s chair.
Prince George, you are WRONG.
John Backhouse, Colin Kinsley, and Dan Rogers all had assistants!
In fact Kinsley’s carried on and worked for Rogers.
She left near the end of Roger’s term, and was replaced quite sometime later by Shari Green! Let’s NOT rewrite history folks just because it suits an argument today…oh and BTW, a Mayor needs a personal secretary / assistant to get trhough all of the mind numbing minutia that is sent his or her way. Besides, would you rather have the Mayor working hard for our city, or writing his own letters and answering his own phone?
NO!! To the PAC!!!! Hall for mayor!! Get out Green!!!! We don’t want you and neither do the federal Conservatives!!!! Go home and make supper….if you can do that with competence!!!
Zurowski did not agree with someone who phoned in that there had been significant downsizing at CN. Seems he has totally overlooked that BC Rail Intermodal has disappeared, and BC Rail itself has been reduced to a switching line. Plenty of layoffs over the years at CN/BC Rail. Anyone who thinks otherwise is out of touch with reality.
The more I listen to these to talk the less impressed I am. Hall is a fluid talker with no substance and does not strike me as a confident leader that really knows what direction he is going. Don has a plan but fumbles around trying to get it across. Not sure if Don’s plan is exactly what we want but at least he has one. I think Hall has the upper hand right now from what I have gathered through news and social media, but that seems odd to me. Reading comments I am finding that lots of Hall supporters are the same people that have been trashing city council for the last 3 years. Hall, who was suppose to be a major driver within city council, is the one who voted for and supported a ton of those stupid decisions that council made. I can’t give support to someone that has failed so miserably over the last 3 years.
I am not talking about a mayor’s secretary! The media reported extensively that Green hired a personal assistant with a salary below 73,000 or 78,000 per annum! This in addition to the usual secretary.
Nobody is trying to rewrite history! If the media reported this and it was done in error the media should have issued a retraction! Not my fault!
A 2012 story on opinion250 reported the new position of executive assistant to the mayor, hired to assist the mayor alone and no one else.
The person which held a similar position before had multiple assignments.
Superdave. There were many **stupid** decisions made during the 9 years that Zurowski was a Councilor 1999 to 2005 along with his friendly Mayor Colin Kinsley. One example would be the Community Energy System, and perhaps the Cameron St. Bridge. We certainly cannot forget the New Police Station. This edifice was dreamed up by Kinsley and his crew during this period. It was just implemented at a later date.
So there is enough bad decisions to go around.
If Zurowski has a plan I sure would like to know what it is. There is no way in hell that he can grow this City to 100,000 people in an eight year period. That’s not a plan, that’s just talking foolish.
Tuesday, March 15 2012, City Hires new assistant for Mayor Shari Green.
The previous assistant (a job not eliminated by the new hire) had been assigned to the mayor, council and senior management.
The newly created executive assistant will report to the Mayor and if required to the City Manager.
One new job added at a salary of 75,000 per year.
At the end of the day, which seems to be the phase for hall and i promise, which can’t be in a politicians sentence,
all you have to remember is the last three years,of incompetent decisions that he was part of and now would have you believe he is different . Get out and vote we can’t afford another 4 years of him
Palopu, your ability to find fault in everything and everybody is truly remarkable. If Lyn Hall, aka Roger’s part 2, gets into the mayor’s chair you will no doubt find something to complain about. So rather than vote for him you should vote for Zurowski so that you can say, “I told you so.”
I think PG made a mistake not voting for Don in 2008. He’s not the fluid speaker that Hall is nor was he the fluid speaker that Rogers is. However, the guy has substance. Worry less about delivery and more about the what’s being said.
100,000 residents is a lofty goal, but someone once said, “shoot for the stars and hit the moon.” If we get to 85,000 or 90,000 that’s an improvement. We need to share the tax burden. Hall’s ideas that include more committees and consultation are all fluff.
For those of you that knock Kinsley, the guy served 4 terms so he must have been doing something right. We’ve had two dud mayors in a row. Time for someone with a successful business background to lead this city.
I believe Don Zurowski mentioned on the radio today that if he is successfully voted in, he would not retain the dedicated mayor assistant that was implemented by Sherri Green.
Kinsley served three terms as an aldermen, and 4 terms as Mayor. I think it would be fair to say that during his terms as Mayor not too many people really cared. Lets look at some numbers for the elections.
1999.Michael Cavanagh 835, Eugene Fetterly 1654 Colin Kinsley 11,300.
Voter turn out approx. 26%.
2002.Michael Cavanagh 2811, Colin Kinsley 8879.
Voter turn out approx. 22%
2005.Tyler Doerksen 160 Nathan Prince 62, Dan, Rodgers 8008, Colin Kinsley 8650
Voter turn out approx. 32%.
So you can see once Rodgers got into the race voter turnout increased by 6%. He was only short 642 Votes from winning. The following election he did win. 9272 votes to Zurowski’s 6505.(2767)
So you can see by his competition 1999 to 2005 that he was a shoe in. That doesn’t necessarily make him a good Mayor.
In any event. Getting the population to grow to 85000, 90,000, or 100,000 is a monumental task, and if previous years are any indication next to impossible.
From the years 1976 to 2011 (35 years) the population only grew by 20,000 people, or approx. 400 per year. To suggest that you can grow it to 100,000 in a mere eight years shows you have not done your homework.
Thanks for the history lesson. I believe Rogers was the top vote getting councillor in the previous two elections prior to his initial run at the mayor’s chair and he still didn’t succeed in ousting Kinsley. I think that has something to say for the confidence the community had in him even though it was a close race. In fact, you’ll correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Rogers the first incumbent mayor to be unseated in something like 50 years? I’m sure a few qualified candidates didn’t want to put the time, money or energy into going up against a strong incumbent because their chances weren’t good historically.
Regarding the population growth, your math is off, but the point is well made. I am not nearly as optimistic as Zurowski. That being said, I don’t think there’s been a better time to attract people to our city since the pulp mill era began. With the projects happening in the northern regions of our province why wouldn’t you try to get people moving here? If a worker is doing a 10 in 4 out rotation in a place like Kitimat or FSJ, and his/her employer isn’t paying for flights, why would they choose to have their family live in Kamloops or further south or east? PG is a close alternative with all the amenities a family can ask for.
I like a candidate with clearly defined goals versus one that is looking to form do nothing committees and hold council meetings all over town.
I question the recent layoffs and downgrades to the four season’s pool. Are they thinking of running this into the ground, demolishing, then building the new PAC there?. Perfect location for it. Just a thought.
Foster_07. The population growth figures come from the Federal Governments census and are about as accurate as you can get.
1976-59,929
1981-67,559
1986-67,621
1991-69,653
1996-75,150
2001-72,406
2006-70,981
2011-71,974
I have no problem with trying to attract people to Prince George. The fact of the matter is, every other City in BC is trying to do the same.
People have been locating on Vancouver Island, Southern Interior, Greater Vancouver Area, Kamloops, etc; and working in other areas for years. Coming to Prince George is usually not their first priority.
In addition to attracting people we also need to try and keep them here. This is a part of the puzzle that is usually ignored. Many people (once retired) leave Prince George.
Furthermore the average yearly death rate because of our high number of Seniors almost offsets the births in the same year.
So many many problems, and it will require much more than a trite phrase **Lets get growing** to change it.
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