Serving our Community Well
Running for office on Salt Spring is about issues and priorities, but it’s also about a commitment to serve. Our community has benefited from the hard work and commitment of many its elected representatives, regardless of their positions on particular topics. You may or may not agree with the positions and priorities of Laura Patrick and Gary Holman, but you’ve got to respect their dedication and hard work.
Salt Spring deserves elected people who are accessible, who listen and who take seriously the responsibility that comes from being entrusted to do this work. Those who seek office owe as much to the community.
If I am elected CRD Director in October, I will do my best to match the commitment of the best elected representatives we’ve had in the past. Specifically, I will:
Push for clearer and more accessible budget information that clearly links the LCC’s budget to its strategic plan
Not every community member wants to dig into local government budgets. But if you do have the interest – and the patience – to do so, budget documents should at least be understandable. And the LCC’s budgets have not always be easy for people to understand.
It’s hard enough for community members to figure out how local government works on Salt Spring; let’s at least make it as easy as possible to understand what we’re doing and what we’re funding.
If I’m elected CRD Director, I will work with the LCC and staff to create reader-friendly versions of our budget documents, which show how the budget supports what’s in the LCC’s strategic plan. By doing this, we will both make budget decisions easier to understand and also test our own success in making budget decisions that match our strategic planning decisions.
Hold weekly open office hours in Ganges
LCC Commissioners already do it and now it’s time for the CRD Director to follow their lead and hold open office hours at the LCC/CRD office in Ganges every week. Email and telephone communication are always options, but it’s also important to have the opportunity to meet face-to-face.
Yes, there might be times when the many meetings the CRD Director must attend conflict with scheduled office hours, but it’s important to make an effort to be as accessible as possible.
Talk straight, with no political double-talk!
I am anything but a career politician. As a consultant, I was paid to help people communicate clearly and to replace jargon and bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo with straight talk people can understand. As a farmer and orchardist here on Salt Spring, well, there just isn’t time to be anything other than straight and clear with people.
So it comes naturally for me to speak directly and clearly, not hide behind weasel-words or double-talk. As an LCC Commissioner, I think I have mostly been successful at bringing that approach to elected office.
If I am elected CRD Director, I will do my very best to continue talking straight and showing Salt Springers enough respect to tell the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable to do so.
Commit to remain a Salt Spring resident for the entire term
It’s crazy that I even need to say this, but our community has recently experienced an elected representative who moved away from Salt Spring but did not resign their position. Continuing to collect a paycheque while being largely absent from the community may not be illegal, but it is – in my view – completely unacceptable.
Sure, travel as one needs to for work, for family and to take a break. But if you’re elected to serve Salt Spring, I believe you must live on Salt Spring. Anything less is – morally if not legally – a breach of the community’s trust.
If I am elected CRD Director in October, I will live on Salt Spring throughout my term. In the highly unlikely event that something dramatic happens that makes it impossible to do so, I will step aside to allow someone who lives on the island to complete the term.