Why I sometimes feel sorry for city council

In that other thread which is hopefully in its death throes, we have this post.

I am not going to argue with Gracies Mom about Adrian Dix, the NDP, or the Liberals. Time will tell. I am not going to argue about whether the Liberals have been good or bad for the city or whether city council has done a good job or not. I will leave that to others.

But, I do have a problem with the last sentence and while I may be wrong, it is a sentiment - “City council just plain sucks” - that appears to be common on these boards.

The Liberals have been the BC government for the past 12 years. For most of that time, Prince Rupert was not doing OK. I am not even sure how OK we are doing now, but in the last couple of years things have certainly started to look up. Coincidentally, the optimism started with our current council which has only two holdovers from four years ago.

To be clear, I am not criticizing past councils and I am not praising this one. I just think it unfair that when things go wrong, it is council’s fault but when things go right it is credited to somebody else.

To state the truth, Murphy’s Law is alive and well in BC.

gracies mom is a complete idiot to believe that Rupert “has done ok” with the liberals in power…yes I am hurling insults of the bat, right away as I call a spade a spade and im not trying to get people on the “lets ride with mcsash” band wagon…

Rupert has done shitty with the liberals…and would of done shitty with any party in power. I cant stress it enough …the pulp mill went down in 2001 and has NEVER recovered nor will it, until the 600 full time unionized full benefits jobs reappear…and when is that?..I think they need to build 3 LNG plants at 200 jobs per plant

how many boarded up building are around town?..far too many in the past 12 yrs …look to out neighbours 140km up the road…they have faired very well…is it city leadership?..I don’t know but my eyebrows are raised like the rocks

[quote=“DWhite”]In that other thread which is hopefully in its death throes, we have this post.

I am not going to argue with Gracies Mom about Adrian Dix, the NDP, or the Liberals. Time will tell. I am not going to argue about whether the Liberals have been good or bad for the city or whether city council has done a good job or not. I will leave that to others.

But, I do have a problem with the last sentence and while I may be wrong, it is a sentiment - “City council just plain sucks” - that appears to be common on these boards.

The Liberals have been the BC government for the past 12 years. For most of that time, Prince Rupert was not doing OK. I am not even sure how OK we are doing now, but in the last couple of years things have certainly started to look up. Coincidentally, the optimism started with our current council which has only two holdovers from four years ago.

To be clear, I am not criticizing past councils and I am not praising this one. I just think it unfair that when things go wrong, it is council’s fault but when things go right it is credited to somebody else.[/quote]

Well let’s look at the current council for fun, as for the most part they defer pretty well every decision that they have to make, feral cats, fire hall on and on it goes.

thenorthernview.com/opinion/184121411.html

thenorthernview.com/opinion/ … 21241.html

Not sure how you can blame the provincial government for the city’s woes, they collect taxes, they just don’t seem to know how to allocate them properly.

Won’t say that they suck, but they sure lack focus and seem incapable of moving anything forward in any fashion.

And that doesn’t even take into the account the mess that became Watson Island, which we have yet to learn the final bill on after lawyers, court fees and whatever we end up having to pay Sun Wave to go away. By the time that’s all finished the City may end up paying Lax Kw’alaams to take the thing off our hands, (I’m joking of course) rather than receive the massive injection of cash we all thought we were going to get back when they put the mess on the market.

For a town that seems always to be on the cusp of financial trouble, sometimes you just have to make hard decisions. This group it seems would rather defer it, hopeful that they win the Lotto Max or something.

If you have some time on your hands over the holidays, go to the City website and check the past agendas for the nights that council had presentations, from the Port, Pinnacle Pellet, LNG and such and then go to the video archive of council meetings.

princerupert.ca/page.php?id_ … _section=5

Watch and listen as council weighs in on all of this, some of our councillors a tad more belligerent than others.

(watch the one when CityWest was there where hey no one had any questions of any importance)

Then ask yourself, what kind of impression that might leave with investors for the community.

I’m not saying the city shouldn’t keep a watchful eye on things that impact the community, but the tone of late is rather adversarial, as opposed to that of consultation and inquiry.

Considering that the community has few jobs remaining outside of those in public service and from the Port, the whole approach that the city has of late, basically stamping their feet cause they aren’t being heard is probably counter productive.

It’s no wonder that some of the major projects around here don’t seem to take the City all that seriously.

WOHOO. THANKS CHARLES HAYS FOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: all of the potential and good things happening around town have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the city and councillors doing their job. All this proposed development will happen even in spite of them.

I don’t really feel sorry for the Mayor and Council, because when it comes to City Council, this forum does not appear to reflect the general concensus of the Citizens of Prince Rupert who took the time to vote in the last election. I think most people are more supportive, or at least neutral, towards what Council is doing down at City Hall.

I believe this, because if you had been following the comments in this forum during the lead-up to the election, I think you probably would have come to the conclusion that the Mayor and pretty much all of Council was going to be replaced.

Instead the Mayor was re-elected, the four Council Members who ran for re-election were re-elected as council members, and the only person who was not re-elected was Kathy Bedard, who had decided to run for Mayor. I suspect that if she had run as a council member, she also would have been re-elected.