6 are in the running for the council seat vacated by Jennifer Rice.
Barry Cunningham
Larry Golden
Len Lovering
James Kirk
Wade Robert Neisch
Gurvinder Randhawa
Any thoughts?
I hear through the northern view that 6 people are in the running to replace Jennifer Rice on Council.
Barry Cunningham
Larry Golden
James Kirk
Len Lovering
Wade Neisch
Gurvinder Randhawa
thenorthernview.com/breaking … 60201.html
The name that really sticks out for me is Larry Golden. He has been a thorn in the side of Council for many years and it’s quite a switch to want to become part of the team rather than an arm chair quarterback. Is he worth voting for or should the residents send him a strong message that we do not support his antics or the strain he puts on our municipal resources because of his many inquiries and complaints?
I know some of the candidates but not all. Feel free to share your opinions.
Bthedog beat me by a hair. Can we merge the threads?
[quote=“Crazy Train”]I hear through the northern view that 6 people are in the running to replace Jennifer Rice on Council.
Barry Cunningham
Larry Golden
James Kirk
Len Lovering
Wade Neisch
Gurvinder Randhawa
thenorthernview.com/breaking … 60201.html
The name that really sticks out for me is Larry Golden. He has been a thorn in the side of Council for many years and it’s quite a switch to want to become part of the team rather than an arm chair quarterback. Is he worth voting for or should the residents send him a strong message that we do not support his antics or the strain he puts on our municipal resources because of his many inquiries and complaints?
I know some of the candidates but not all. Feel free to share your opinions.[/quote]
Antics. Inquiries and complaints?
Your question is a funny thing, especially on a forum which features participants that pretty well do much the same.
As for Mr. Golden, He has the right to appear in front of council and ask what he wishes, sometimes he’s a little off target or launches into tangents, but sometimes he seeks out information that it appears that the gang on 3rd aren’t particularly keen to share.
Actually, he’s one of the few in town that seems to actually care what happens at City Hall.
Thank you for your input. A variety of opinions and thoughts is exactly what we need.
I will add that it’s my opinion that it takes a lot of time and municipal resources to deal with Mr Golden. Arm chair quarterback is what he is as far as I’m concerned. He’d be more effective of he wasn’t such a constant pain. With that said, I’m not against voting for him. There are some interesting candidates and if like to know more about all of them.
So now do we get an all candidates happening , like to hear something .
Googled and got this abt one candidate;
Mr. Gurvinder S. Randhawa
Biography and Memberships
Gurvinder Randhawa is an owner and operator of Skeena Taxi Ltd and a driving instructor with Skeena Driving School. Previously, Mr. Randhawa was an Auditor with Accountant General in Punjab, India. Active in his community, Mr. Randhawa is a Treasurer with the Indo-Canadian Sikh Association and a past Director with Tourism Prince Rupert. Mr. Randhawa holds a Bachelor of Science from Punjab University and has completed a clerk bookkeeper program at Northwest Community College.
Current Board Membership Appointed
College - Northwest Community College 31 July 2013
Sounds like he might be a good candidate for the job.
The all-candidates forum was last night at the PAC.
thenorthernview.com/news/230998651.html
So who are people leaning towards with their vote?
I am thinking Wade Niesh/Barry Cunningham or Len Lovering at this point.
It appears that apathy is settling in. There hasn’t been much discussion on this. I’m undecided on who I will vote for. I like Randhawa, Niesh, Cunningham and Lovering. If I were to vote today Id probably vote for Randhawa because he’s educated, involved in the community and is a strong candidate overall. I also like the thought of having a minority represented on Council.
I had the opportunity a while ago to speak to Mr. Randhawa on a cab ride. I like Mr. Randhawa’s platform: Accountability, Transparency, Jobs. Mr. Randhawa will get my vote.
It is interesting to read those comments because I have come to regard Mr Randhawa as the best candidate. He is business oriented and from his background has business training as well. His appointment to the NW College board speaks well of him. He also comes across as being independent and someone who could bring a different perspective to a council that seems to be stuck in old ways of thinking.
Before the all-candidates forum, I was leaning toward Mr Randhawa. After reading the Northern View article, it seems like he is a little too focussed on “training” as the answer to everything. While relevant jobs training will indeed be a key part of taking advantage of economic development in the region, I don’t see how a municipal government can do much to affect this. His position on the NWCC board is well suited to this, but I would prefer to vote for a candidate who will concentrate on controlling spending and keeping him/herself, as well as the rest of council, on task, rather than getting lost in side-issues that are either provincial or federal jurisdiction.
I didn’t get a sense that any of the candidates has made this a major component of their platform. Please correct me if I’m wrong or point me in the direction of who you think will best accomplish these tasks.
[quote=“higginst”]Before the all-candidates forum, I was leaning toward Mr Randhawa. After reading the Northern View article, it seems like he is a little too focussed on “training” as the answer to everything. While relevant jobs training will indeed be a key part of taking advantage of economic development in the region, I don’t see how a municipal government can do much to affect this. His position on the NWCC board is well suited to this, but I would prefer to vote for a candidate who will concentrate on controlling spending and keeping him/herself, as well as the rest of council, on task, rather than getting lost in side-issues that are either provincial or federal jurisdiction.
[/quote]
I definitely get what you are saying about the council getting lost in side issues outside of their jurisdiction, where they have little influence on the province or feds, eg matters pertaining to fish is a frequent topic of discussion at the council table.
That being said, when industry proponents appear before the council, as they sometimes do, or the council is involved in public discussions about proposed projects, it would be a positive change if the council used their public profile to question proponents about what training opportunities (if any) they plan to make available, particularly for young people or displaced workers. Not asking about that strikes me as a missed opportunity. I don’t recall this council ever talking about potential training.
I also share your concern about the importance of spending as an issue. The council does not inspire a lot of confidence in that area, their difficulties in approving the last budget being a case in point (parts of which have not even been disclosed). I note that Mr Randhawa has experience as a government auditor. He would seem to bring some financial skills that the other candidates lack.
Thanks for your input. Good point about the auditing experience. I think he has my vote.
According to this article in North Coast Review Mr Randhawa also supports a committee system for council. northcoastreview.blogspot.com/se … dvertising
They used to have that. Councillors seemed to be better informed back then. The current council members seem to be overly dependent on staff to the point where the mayor complained about councillors making too many information requests to the staff, which is a sad comment about the state of our local government.
I think that Mr Randhawa would be a good addition to the council and would bring in particular a business perspective and better attention to finances.
I suspect, though, that Barry Cunningham is the leading candidate in view of his union connections and endorsement from the NDP. That seems to be more in line with voting preferences here.
At the all candidates meeting Mr Cunningham said “As the city benefits from projected growth, so should the First Nations and surrounding villages on the coast.” thenorthernview.com/news/230998651.html
There is nothing terribly wrong with that statement, but it seems to be the wrong way around.
There are reports that Lax Kwalaams is negotiating over the proposed LNG plant at Grassy Point, which would be outside of the city’s tax base. Port Edward has been very proactive about the proposed plant at Lelu Island, which would also be outside of the city’s tax base.
Rather than assuming that Prince Rupert will benefit and so should others, the more likely scenario is that neighbouring communities will benefit in major ways from LNG and we should hope that the City council is astute enough to ensure that Rupert gets something more than increased wear and tear on aging infrastructure and the costs that go with that.
Great. As if Council wasn’t already left-leaning enough.
A couple of comments…
Use of committees and staff resources
Years ago, I worked in the public sector for an elected board. We had committees on just about everything you could imagine. Preparing briefing notes and attending meetings outside of work hours was a significant use of staff resources. Staff then attended the regular board meetings and invariably wound up going through the whole process again so that those members of the board who were not part of the committee would get the same information. I know that the idea of many committees, is that the committee is supposed to come back to the full Board with a recommendation, which the Board simply rubber-stamps. However, in about 12 years of working for elected Boards, I think it only worked about twice.
Yes, I too remember the good old days in Prince Rupert and yes, there were a lot of committees. However, there were also a lot more people working in City Hall whose job it was to prepare for committee meetings. We had money then, as we had a pulp mill, and a bunch of canneries down on the docks.
A committee system will work but you need to allocate the resources to it. In the current situation, this would mean either hiring more employees, or assuming the existing employees have the requisite skill sets, reassigning them to new jobs. Job Reassignment is always a interesting process to implement and execute in a highly unionized and political environment.
Dependency on Hired Employees
I think that elected Councils/Boards are supposed to be reasonably dependent on staff. It is the job of staff to take the policy direction from the governing body and then develop alternative recommendations for the approval of the governing body. I don’t think it is the job of Councils/Boards to develop the recommendations. It is their job to approve recommendations, or if they are not happy with the recommendation, to tell staff that they need to work on it more.
I expect that the Mayor was cautioning the Council that when Council asks too many questions about non-essential issues, it taxes the ability of staff to do their day-to-day work as well as respond to Council Member questions.
The role of Boards has been discussed all over the web: the oversight role, the policy role and the strategic decision role, Here is a pretty good link
The last two right-leaning councils led by Pond aren’t a whole lot competent either.