I disagree with you Mr Morris, I think we are proud of our city, however those who think they are running it leave a bad taste in a lot of our mouths.

as for the use of TRANSPARENCY… all that means is they have found a way that we can watch them and not see what they are really doing.

I am sorry Mr Morris I can’t for tthe life of me get my head wrapped around the fact you get paid to come up with this stuff.

You think he gets paid to come up with this ? He’s a political science teacher. Not a newspaper writer. And probably a lot more educated on this than most

Mr. Morris would prefer the candidates use buzz words like infrastructure and transparency. Not like the old days when the buzz words were spending and taxes.

He’s not a professor.

“Jason Morris has been teaching political science at UNBC since 2000, and is also an alumnus. He has worked in many positions in the so-called “real world” of politics and government. As a political scientist, Jason is interested in the politics of health care. He researches poverty alleviation best practices in developing countries, with a focus on slums in Kenya. Jason is also a frequent media pundit for Northern BC.”

LOL, the “real world” of politics and government.

Well I think the professor has it right. Too many people in Prince George, do not take an interest in what is going on in our City. The dismal voter turnout is proof. When not enough people vote, the outcome can be easily manipulated by special interest groups who get out the vote for their cause. The last civic election is proof of this with the current outgoing Mayor gathering 6969 votes to victory. I think we need to set up a program in Prince George to entice voters to vote. Maybe the professor could help the city with this. :)

Right now the city is run like a corrupt little government. The union doesnt help it.
By the way, how will Frank Everett handle his job being on city council when he already has about 7 other jobs? How can he work 48 hrs in a day? I dont think a union leader should be on council. Possible conflick of interest.

Cheetos, you have a point. Maybe municipal election day should be in the middle of October instead of the middle of November. The last election the weather was wet, snow falling. Probably kept some people at home. ( Dan Rodgers supporters). I read a story about Huble and Seebach snow shoeing from the Huble homestead to Fort George to vote. (not a civic election but still a distance over 40 miles). People now won’t put the phone down for a few minutes to vote.

Bravo! I see someone over night has created a Ban Election Signs PG Facebook page. IMO campaign signs are the stupidest element to political campaigning. They clutter up the environment, they are ridiculously expensive, which puts good people at a disadvantage and increasing are becoming a target of vandalism. I would be more inclined to vote for a candidate who offers me their time and message in a more creative way instead of littering the boulevards with hideous signage.The new Mayor and council should be seriously looking at instilling some new bylaws within their first 6 months. Either ban them outright or designate only certain areas and limit the number that each campaign can put up. It will be interesting to see how much impact this new Facebook page will have in changing the culture on this issue.

The no fluoride boys must have pockets full of donor cash to plaster the city with signs

You do not know the facts about this concerned citizens effort!

Stolz stands out as the biggest loser.
Tear down the coliseum? Wtf?

Anything that Stolz says should be taken with a grain of salt. He also thinks that the Elkscentre, and Four Seasons pool have reached the end of their life.

Hopefully after this election he will move on to Greener pastures. Pun intended.

I dont think a businessman should be on council. Possible conflick of interest. Is that what you meant Oneman?

Like i said, the city is a corrupt government, Once your in noone can do anything to remove you. The new 4 year term is a big mistake. 2 years would be better.
Also, when you dont finish your term for whatever reason, you shouldnt be receiving a big severance package. This is what attracts all the culls in the first place.

The average citizen of Prince George has no **skin** in the political process, and therefore has no interest in voting. This election is a prime example of politicians saying what they think people want to hear so they will vote for them.

Take Zurowski’s inane statement that he will grow the city to 100,000 people in the next 6 years. This is an entirely bogus statement, has no basis in fact, cannot be substantiated by any factual data, and yet that is the crux of his campaign. His mantra is **Lets get growing**.

The issues facing the citizens of Prince George are quite simple. High taxes, high utility fee’s, high wages and benefit being paid to City Employees to the point of being obscene, money wasted on consultants, poor purchasing practices, poor management. etc; etc; etc;.

How come we hear nothing about cutting costs, staff, police, fireman, etc; etc;. I will tell you why. If a politician ran on having a close look at the various City departments with a few of reducing staff, and costs, he would immediately lose 2500 or more votes. This would be because all the employee’s effected and their families would vote against him.

So no politician is going to make any statements before an election that will cost him votes, and may or may not after the election take any definitive action.

So that leaves the vested interest groups, commercial interests, etc; etc; the ones who have **skin** in the game to vote, and basically control the election.

Don’t expect any big changes in the voting this year. There would have been a big increase in voters if Green had stayed in the game, as people were prepared to vote her out, however she did not run and robbed them of the little bit of revenge they wanted.

They might come out to vote out a few Council members who were big Green supporters, however we will have to wait to see how that plays out.

Hey Palopu – why would you want to cut fire services? Do you have any idea how essential these guys are if your house is on fire? Give your head a shake, the firemen in this city work their tails off and are excellent role models for our young citizens.

They dont work that hard, most have other jobs. We have too many captains apparently.

Its really hard to understand why we need up to 6 or 7 units go flying down the road endangering lives when its a minor car accident. i think 2 would be lots.

The problems in management in UNBC, overspending, the conflicts between the union and the administration are far worse and uglier than the problems that we have in the city hall.

I would like to see UNBC first fixes its own internal problems before coming up with recopies for the problems in city hall. I haven’t seen a city hall employee being accused of sexual harassment and keep his job. I haven’t heard in city hall, the union grievance officer go on a rampage of F words and keep his job or keep his office after retirement. UNBC needs to discuss openly these problems and resolve them before coming up with medicine for other problems in Prince George. They say charity starts at home.

Those in the media should also learn a lesson from Ghomeshi abuses, that self censorship in media does not address the problem and it only prolongs the abuse and damage.

Prof –> So let me understand your position … a reporter (Greg Fry)has contact with a Subject Matter Expert (lecturer Jason Morris) and writes an opinion editorial type article under a byline a few days before the civic election and your problem with the process is that UNBC has some un-laundered issues? Did I summarize accurately? Unless the lecturer and/or the reporter were a part of the prior UNBC or CBC issues, I fail to see relevancy. Potential F grade.

There is a very clear distinction that one candidate for Mayor has a vision and has said civic pride is key. If it has you all talking about growing the City, then you are at least thinking of the vision and its possibilities. You talk down Green as the worst Mayor in history but ignore she alone didn’t make decisions. Take a look at council that had to support her to pass the many things you complain about. Why do you want the same folks in council again??

Zurowski clearly differentiates himself from Hall. Perhaps confusion as Hall agrees with what Zurowski says, but you only listen to one side. We finally have a candidate who has business experience and several years working in all levels of government. See that as a pretty good combination.

All the signs, all the newsprint, tv and radio costs money. There are many good businesses in the City that as suppliers to these things and benefit from election time. Give them a break if they can be part of it all by selling their goods. If it all gets a few more people to look or listen to candidate platforms, that’s a good thing.

So if we have 2 fire halls and 3 fires burning simultaneously, whose house gets saved and whose doesn’t? How about getting rid of the meter maids downtown? I’m willing to bet money that the revenue collected from pay parking doesn’t cover their salaries and benefits. Or how about opening up bidding for repair jobs on civic facilities? I heard the owner of a roofing company say he could’ve done the repair on the Coliseum roof for a fraction of what the City paid. There’s lots of ways to save money other than cutting essential fire services,.

Posted on Sunday, November 9, 2014 @ 12:59 PM by prof

“I would like to see UNBC first fixes its own internal problems before coming up with recopies for the problems in city hall. I haven’t seen a city hall employee being accused of sexual harassment and keep his job. I haven’t heard in city hall,”

Every heard of Brian Skakun getting taken to court? Maybe you don’t know the reason he blew the whistle? How about the city hiding harassment charges? As far as I know they were allowed to keep their job.

Need to do something about parking downtown if we expect people to come down there to shop or use businesses in the downtown core. RCMP have reserved street parking and even at 8am on weekdays, other parking along 3rd is taken up. Seems that would be Northern Health and other government downtown. Why is that if we have parking meter staff?

City Hall used to favor only some contractors for repairs and maintenance and building and probably companies employing union labor. Strictlyspeaking; your contractor of a roofing company might not be a union shop they’d let on site. That’s too bad when competition would drive costs services down.

Well, the other day they said the Delorme shop cost something like 600,000 to tear down, yet the job was done in just over a week. It prob should have cost maybe 50,000or even a 100,000 so who screwed up here, we need answers people. Sorry to screw up your sunday,.

The management in UNBC, compared to management in City Hall, has been doing a far worse job and I would rather see the city hall officials give lectures to UNBC to clean their acts than vice versa. When was the last time we saw the UNBC and CNC officials come and answer the tough questions about budget, leadership and harassment issues?

I just find it ridiculous that the real issues are swept under the carpet and ignored and instead we have these publicity and photo ops. And in Academic hierarchy the people with PhD have far more authority than those without it and Assistant professor, Associate professor and full professor determine the progression in rank in university and the level of expertise. Lecturer is below professor ranks and it is mainly involved in teaching.

I agree with Palopu. The lion’s share of the tax dollars for the City of PG are for Fire and Police services. There are a lot of people in those two services, (especially within the fire service) that make in excess of $100K per year.

Palopu is right. If a candidate ran on a platform of reigning in City staff wages and benefits (which cost us to the tune of $50M per year) they probably wouldn’t get elected.

Between Hall and Zurowski, I don’t think either candidate has the fortitude to make the tough choices to get the City’s finances back on track. People would rather talk about a proposed PAC rather than the City’s debt repayment plan or what they are going to do with IPG which are a drain on tax dollars with questionable benefit.

So we have people on this site now discussing some of the issues, however not the politicians that are going to be responsible for getting things done.

Lets not give Zurowski a free ride. Most of the infrastructure problems we have to-day are a result of very little money spent on roads, snow equipment and maintenance, etc during the 9 years he and Kinsley were on Council. They spent a lot of money but mostly on BS like the Community Energy System, etc;

Zurowski had his chance to do something for 9 years and did not. He also ran for Mayor and lost. Why is he back??? Is it his ego?? Or does he need this high paying job???

Talk about issues?? Hall, council and mayor paid for studies, implemented things, oops, changed their minds. Taxes went up big time and worst road maintenance in history last winter. Yes Hall has been part of the worst sitting mayor and council, bar none in history. Hall can also take claim to fame for the way schools were closed when he headed School Trustees. Don’t understand why his union backing is pleased with mayor and council hiring of lawyer to settle with union city workers. Wow, and Palopu you criticize Mayor Kinsley and Zurowski on council? Seems Kinsley was voted for and popular with the people to get in so many times. Zurowski on council was I think one of the highest vote getters. Zurowski ran for mayor before and probably wouldn’t run again if he didn’t believe the City could have a future.

I have to believe those who just want a nice guy like Hall in haven’t watched the disaster of the past couple years. How you support a candidate who has come out and said he has no vision. Guess the labour council hasn’t told him what it should be yet.

So……in that line of thinking, can we blame Zurowski for the expensive leaky roof on BC Place ?

Small minded, but you can blame whomever you wish. One could counter the many issues and decisions present mayor and her whole council have made. It wont change the fact that the mass seem to complain about Green only and forget the deal making and shenanigans of the council at large. So, if Hall was any type of leader, for that matter, the others they also have in their union group, they would have stepped up for the better of the City. In the context of everyone deserves a second chance, suppose the public who vote will decide that. Each to his own.

My question to all of you is this. Our taxes and user fees have increased substantially over the past three years and it takes 5 votes to pass these increases onto us the tax payer. So if Stoltz, green, Wilber and Kohler are the evil people who was the fifth vote?

Hey Zena, which Zuroski sister (inlaw) are you? Your not fooling anyone here! As someone just stated, many of the issues we face today are a direct result of the decisions made during the three terms Don warmed a seat on council! The last thing we need is another arrogant mayor spending a term paying back those that funded his/her election, while running a dictatorship!

Zena….really. You are blaming politicians for snow removal, or, lack there of. You are blaming Mr. Hall for the lack of students in the schools. You are stating because a politician receives more votes than another makes that person right or proper. Small minded….do you have a mirror in your home Zena ?

Palopu is right. The infrastructure underfunding is from Kinsley time. During Dan’s time as mayor there was a lot of discussion and the early attempts to reduce the gap. I might not like Shari as mayor but the fully funding the utilities came under her watch but only because under Dan’s watch it was brought to light.

If Dan had stayed it would have been funded as well. The underfunding was definitely there during Don’s time on council and all the time he was on council. Not sure if he would have known or not but it was underfunded and we would be a lot better of if it had been properly funded.

Missed the post this was an exclusive Hall site. Have known Hall longer than Zurowski. Think Zurowski will owe supporters then also consider Hall is being supported by many as well. Seems labour council has backed Hall and a select group for council. Who is going to owe who favors. Why don’t you speak of the job the past 2 Mayors and council have done instead of 3 terms ago? Why don’t you speak of those vying for council as many have said, the Mayor doesn’t have more than one vote.

Have a wonderful week and if you have spare time in between negative, take some time to look at all the candidates.