Perception problem to be solved.

It doesn't take Mayor John Slater long to get to the point.
I don't feel like I won, he said. I didn't get half the votes, he said during an interview at Smitty's Restaurant last Wednesday morning.
He is right on one point. He finished with 842 votes out of a total of 2,086, or 40 per cent of the vote.
That is down from the last election where he finished with 909 votes out of 1,993 total votes. That percentage works out to 46 per cent, again not half of the vote.
But there are some major differences between the two elections.
For starters, in the last election he was taking on incumbent Tom Shields. He didn't have the baggage of being the previous mayor.
There were also only three candidates in the 2002 race.
Those, however, aren't the main reasons this election was so different.
This election was a much tougher challenge because Osoyoos has become a divided community in many ways, and while perhaps not in John's eyes, that is also why this election win was even more impressive than the last one.
I don't feel that right now, says John, who admits the personal nature this election took surprised him.
I was surprised by that, he said. I didn't expect it. It really didn't feel very good to me. I didn't like how it felt at all.rnJohn says he didn't learn of his victory until after 11 p.m. by email. The victory party had been scheduled for the Osoyoos Golf and Country Club.
No, it wasn't an upbeat event. I really just didn't feel like we won.rnHowever, now four days following the win, that feeling wasn't what Osoyoos' mayor was dwelling on.
Yes I am disappointed with losing support, but my job now is to get back that support, he says, as he bangs his index finger on the table.
John is easily the longest serving member of council, having now served for some 15 years, 12 of them as councillor.
He has also been a member of the Osoyoos community for 25 years, and he admits that seeing it so divided bothers him.
It really isn't good. We have to find a way to fix that. That is going to be one of my main challenges.rnCalling that task challenging might be the understatement of the year.
The Town of Osoyoos has had more than its fair share of controversies over the past few years, something its mayor readily admits.
He believes one of the biggest problems is the perception people have of the town. He thinks that is definitely an internal problem, and one that council has to fix.
We have a real perception problem. I think council has to get all of senior staff together and work on fixing that perception problem as a team.rnHowever, John also admits that not all of the problems are perception issues, but real problems.
However, solving those problems aren't as easy as it might seem.
One of the major issues coming out of the election was communication. We have to improve our communications. How do you do that, I don't know?rnWe have been dealing with that issue for years. But we are going to have to really try and solve that problem. We need to come up with some policy protocals when it comes to communication.
We need to have the community feel like they are getting the information they need on important issues.rnOn the contentious issue of development, the mayor thinks finishing the Official Community Plan isn't going to solve all of the problems.
It will help, but it won't solve every problem, he says, adding the town plans to have the OCP done in six to eight months.
The issue of growth and development is a bigger problem than just an OCP.
We have people who have now moved here and they don't want to see Osoyoos change. But we also have people who have lived for a long time and building and growth are how they make a living.rnAdmittedly, it isn't an easy balance.
If we solve some of the other issues, like our negative perception and some of those communication issues, then perhaps it will be easier to address the issue of growth and balancing the interests of concerned neighbours with that of the benefits development brings to the whole community.rnJohn admitted that almost 40 per cent of the vote were showing dissatisfaction with the present town council.
I want to make sure that 37 per cent are listened to. I hope that better communications will do that.rnBut that isn't the most important message Osoyoos' newest mayor wants people to hear.
If I could tell people just one thing, it would be that I want to end this divisive nature in our community. I want to see neighbour stop fighting neighbour. That is what I want to accomplish in this next term as mayor.rn