Members of Town of Osoyoos senior administration spoke about their departments at an information session Thursday evening for those considering running for town council. From left are: Jim Dinwoodie, director of operational services; Gina MacKay, director of planning and development services; Jim Zakall, director of financial services; Barry Romanko, chief administrative officer (standing); Gerald Davis, director of community services; and Janette Van Vianen, director of corporate services. (Richard McGuire photo)

UPDATE: This story is updated from the original to note that Sy Murseli and Jane Long have also now filed papers to run as councillors.

As the deadline for council nominations rapidly approaches, few would-be candidates have stepped forward.

The cutoff for nominations is 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 14.

“We can’t accept anything even if it’s one minute after four,” said Janette Van Vianen, Town of Osoyoos director of corporate services and chief electoral officer.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, there were two nominations for mayor and five for councillor. There are four councillor positions.

As expected, Mayor Sue McKortoff has filed her papers to seek reelection. She is being challenged by cannabis advocate and perennial candidate Doug Pederson, who got 54 votes to McKortoff’s 1,285 in 2014.

Two incumbent councillors, Jim King and C.J. Rhodes have also filed nomination papers.

Of the other two, Mike Campol is not running and Carol Youngberg has not yet publicly stated her intentions and had not returned phone calls by press time.

Also filing papers was newcomer Kenny G. Music, a recently retired former supervisor at Canada Post originally from Calgary.

Sy Murseli, who has run in numerous previous elections, filed his  nomination papers Tuesday. Jane Long, a first-time candidate, filed hers on Wednesday.

Last Thursday, the Town of Osoyoos held an orientation session for people considering running for council. About a dozen people attended including potential candidates and spouses.

Of several potential candidates interviewed by the Osoyoos Times at the meeting, none had made up their minds. For most, their biggest question was whether they could handle the time commitment involved.

Mike Stiles, a frequent advocate on accessibility issues, is one who wants to be sure he can balance council with his other activities if he decides to run.

Stiles, who has been in a wheelchair for close to 35 years and is a quadriplegic as the result of an equestrian accident, looks to Sam Sullivan, MLA and former Vancouver mayor, as a role model. Sullivan was paralyzed at age 19 in a skiing accident.

Stiles believes he could be a voice on accessibility and disability issues if he decides to run. He sits on the town’s accessibility and age friendly committee, which met for the first time last Thursday.

Brenda Dorosz was also trying to decide if she had time to be a councillor when she attended last Thursday’s orientation. She has since decided to run for school board instead.

“If I’m going to serve my community, I want to be able to do it 100 per cent, not 50,” she said last Thursday. “So that’s my decision that I need to make.”

Also trying to decide was Jane Long, who also said her primary consideration was the time commitment. She subsequently decided to run and filed papers on Wednesday.

She runs several businesses and has a family with three children.

Another at the session to get more information was Kevin Nielsen, who said he got good information from the meeting, but still hadn’t made up his mind.

“It could be this one or the next one,” he said, adding that unlike the others, time was not his main consideration.

At the session, Barry Romanko, town chief administrative officer, along with the department heads, spoke about the organization of the town and its departments.

He also spoke about the role of council.

Council, he said, makes all the big decisions on direction and policy. Administration makes smaller decisions within the scope set by council, he added.

Council passes zoning bylaws, budgets, other bylaws and policies. Beginning next year, council will also be involved in the development of a new official community plan (OCP).

Romanko also addressed some “myths about the role of the mayor,” clarifying that it’s not true that the mayor only votes to break a tie.

The mayor votes on all issues and has one vote like other council members.

In fact, all council members must vote on every issue unless there is a valid reason for abstaining, such as a conflict of interest.

“The mayor does have the task of teambuilding, the leader of the team,” said Romanko. “That can be a daunting task sometimes. The mayor is the principal representative of the municipality and the spokesman.”

As for time commitments, Romanko noted that council meetings are normally the first and third Mondays each month. There’s a committee of the whole meeting at 9 a.m., often followed by a closed meeting. The regular council meeting is at 2 p.m. and is usually over by 4 p.m. This may be followed by public hearings, which are also sometimes held in the evenings or on a different day.

In addition, council members participate on various boards and committees, both on the local and regional levels. And they frequently attend community events.

“I’ve heard some members of council say if they’re going shopping, you have to prepare for two hours instead of one hour,” Romanko added, referring to the frequency that members of the public speak to council members when they are around town.

He noted that council switched from evening to daytime meetings about eight years ago because councillors and staff were more available then and few members of the public attended meetings regardless of the time.

Council could decide to change times again by amending the town’s procedural bylaw if it chose to, he added.

Van Vianen gave an overview of the election schedule and some of the rules affecting candidates.

After nominations close on Sept. 14 at 4 p.m., residents can still challenge those nominations until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 18, if for example they believe a candidate isn’t legally qualified to run.

While nomination forms can be faxed, original documents must be received by Friday, Sept. 21. Then, on Monday, Sept. 24, she declares the election.

There is no restriction on when candidates can advertise or campaign, but they must follow laws on campaign spending and expense filing, which are administered through Elections BC rather than the town.

Information is available at: elections.bc.ca.

There are advance polls on Oct. 10 and 17 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the council chambers. General voting is at the Sonora Community Centre gymnasium on Oct. 20, also from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

In addition to the four regular councillors and mayor, there is also an election for water councillors. These councillors are elected by residents of water districts 8 and 9 and they only vote on rural water matters affecting those areas.

Prospective candidates at last week’s information session also saw videos in which council members in other B.C. communities talked about the experience of serving on council.

A link to those videos and other information is available on the town website at: www.osoyoos.ca/content/elections.

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times