Four Council Rookies Look At First Year At City Hall
By 250 News
Monday, December 07, 2009 04:00 AM
Prince George, B.C.- It has been a year since four fresh faces were elected to serve as Councillors for the City of Prince George.
Garth Frizzell, Dave Wilbur, Shari Green and Cameron Stolz took their first step on the political stage with their successful elections to their respective posts.
The four had different platforms, Green had a focus on downtown improvement and recycling, Wilbur pushed for improvement to infrastructure and against the new RCMP building, Frizzell’sfocus was on increasing accountability and increasing the diversification of the economic base, and Stolz pushed for better roads, and fiscal responsibility.
The four are heading in to the first budget of their own design, as the previous one was developed under the leadership of the former Council and Mayor. There are already warning signals that this budget will be a difficult one, with contractual agreements which must be adhered to (and that includes retroactive pay) in addition to the inflationary increases. The message to the public has been clear, don’t expect to see any new spending or programs added to the budget.
So with a year under their belt, here’s how the rookies see their first year.
Expectations: Has being on Council turned out to be what you thought it would be?
Shari Green: “It definitely has, the workload is tremendous and I knew that. It’s very demanding on my schedule with a full time business to run but its been very exciting and certainly I’m learning a lot very quickly.”
Dave Wilbur: “It’s been a lot of fun, there have been a lot of challenges. It certainly has been a larger work load than I anticipated, but I suspect every new Councillor across this Province would say the same thing. Not just the new work, but understanding what has come before.”
Garth Frizzell: “You come in as a rookie, and the first thing you’re presented with is a multi hundred page document on the budget that’s going through a process that was started months before hand. Essentially you’re given the captaincy of ship that’s already got a direction picked, and you’re either faced, in the worst extreme, with rubber stamping, or in the other extreme, slowing things down with a lot of questions. It’s an enormous task. You go in with all of this energy blazing and ideas on how you’re going to change things, and you’re hit with the reality that hey, part of your work is to go through this massive budget, it’s a big job and you’ve got to do it, it’s your responsibility.”
Cameron Stolz: “It has been a heck of a learning curve. Its been a lot of work and its been a real challenge learning how things work at City Hall and understanding it is not private enterprise where one person can decide how something is done.”
Campaign Platforms :Have you achieved your campaign goals?
Shari Green had focused her campaign on two issues, improving the downtown, and the development of a curb side recycling program. “ Obviously on the recycling we are not where I would like to be, that’s got some Regional District issues attached to it that are being moved on by Council, so I think that come its just going to be a little later than sooner but certainly that’s something I will continue to work towards. As far as downtown, that definitely is my number one priority and something I work on every single day. I think there have been some great improvements and a lot of good momentum. It’s not something that can obviously be turned around overnight and there’s no magic bullet answer to do that or it would have been done by now. I think the biggest improvement for me has been the police presence downtown. The new Superintendent ( of the RCMP) has heard the cry loud and clear that there needed to be some help down here and the increased foot patrols started in the summer and I definitely saw an improvement in that.”
Dave Wilbur: campaigned primarily on the issue of infrastructure which included the new RCMP building. “I looked at the $46 million dollars or more (for the RCMP building) and thought that was something we couldn’t afford to do alone and that hasn’t changed. We are still looking at way more than we can afford without partners from infrastructure, in other words, senior levels of government aren’t prepared to anti up. I don’t see where we have gotten to the point where the public will accept this, and as you know there is a process that will require it to go to either referendum or counter petition. Irrespective of what Council decides, I just don’t see it (the construction of the RCMP building) going at the end of the day.” Wilbur says although the recommendations from a Coroner’s Inquest Jury called on the City to build the facility, he says the Jury “doesn’t write the cheques” Wilbur says this is a matter that has to be decided by the community.
Garth Frizzell: campaigned on accountability and that the City is in transition and its time for the people to plan for the future. “Getting the internet into Council Chambers was a highlight for me. Also the infrastructure funding that became available, so instead of having just 5 year capital projects where sometime in the future we would be looking at them, we immediately got to move on a couple of things.” On the issue of accountability, Frizzell says that is a work in progress “I think its constantly working to make sure that when you make your decisions that you’re thinking ‘this is my neighbour’s money that I’m spending, this is Diane across the street who put a thousand dollars into taxes this year’, and she should have the right to know where that money’s going and why I spent it the way I did.”
Cameron Stolz: campaigned on fiscal responsibility and a back to the basics approach on improving roads. “I haven’t done as much as I would have liked to, but I have a better understanding of how to get things done. I am proud that through the Finance and Audit committee we have trimmed nearly $2 million dollars in expenses. We’ve done some extensive work in Finance and Audit to determine just what exactly we need to spend on a yearly basis to get our roads back into shape.”
Any surprises, disappointment, or things you hadn’t expected?
Shari Green; Well obviously I never expected to be inaugurated during the worst economy I’ve certainly lived through my life time. That was a bit of an unpleasant budget process to go through to look at tax increases when I certainly had hoped we would never be having to increase taxes in that first year, it was a tough pill to swallow.”
Dave Wilbur: “Obviously the RCMP building, I thought we would have been off that track long before now.”He says he is also disappointed in the downloading from senior levels of government “It seems to me that every time you turn around there’s an opportunity to get in deeper in that the government will propose some kind of program or project and if you say yes to it, before you know it, you’re in too deep to get out.”
Garth Frizzell: “The people, I was cynical about politics, and it turns out that the people I see on a day to day basis are really good people and I have really good friendships.” As for disappointments, Frizzell says it was the timing of his first election “ Getting elected in the year when the stock market fell apart, it wasn’t a year where we could spend money to do things. We don’t have endless gobs of money to deal with, we have to be really efficient, that’s what our job is.”
Cameron Stolz: “There were surprises on how much work and effort it takes to get things done. Looking at the downtown task force and being a member of that, it was something I thought would be a rather quick process that we should have been able to get through the initial stages rather quickly given the people who are sitting at that table. The good news is, we’re through the first phase, we’ve got some recommendations and we can move forward from there. We’ve seen some great things happening with the RCMP downtown force coming on line, so I see some great wins there, I just wish we had been able to get those wins out a little faster.”
Knowing what you know now, would you recommend others run for Council?
Shari Green: “I think so, there’s a lot of great people out there who have really good ideas and show some good leadership in the community.
Dave Wilbur: “If you want to make a difference, absolutely, that’s where you can make the most difference at any level of politics, right at the municipal ground level. If you want to get into it because you think you’re going to get instant fame or fortune, go somewhere else.”
Garth Frizzell; “I keep recommending to people to get involved, I absolutely recommend it. I am exhilarated whenever I go into Council Chambers but that’s only a small portion of the actual work that happens.”
Cameron Stolz: “I think we should properly inform people so the public knows what they’re getting in to. I thought I had a bit of an idea, but I was woefully unprepared for the amount of energy it takes. To be effective on Council, to be involved, to understand the issues, to do your homework, it’s a full time job. It requires you being available morning noon and night, seven days a week. It is very rewarding and satisfying, much more than I thought it would be. If they are more than willing to do the work, and be active around the Council table, I would more than encourage people to run.”
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Posted by: IMO on December 7 2009 9:06 AM