It’s not too early to start thinking about the town council that will be elected this October.
That’s why we asked present members of council whether they plan to run again.
Although Osoyoos has been well served by the present council, as well as previous ones, it’s always good to have competitive elections where new faces come forward.
Part of the calculation potential new candidates will make before they jump in is how tough the competition will be.
It’s much easier to run for council among a field of new candidates than it is to run against popular incumbents.
Knowing the plans of present council members allows time for people in the community to have their arms twisted, to test the waters and be ready to launch a campaign in the fall.
Mayor Sue McKortoff and councillors Jim King and C.J. Rhodes all say they plan to run in the fall.
Coun. Carol Youngberg isn’t sure until she sees what other commitments she’ll have and she probably won’t announce until September.
Coun. Mike Campol says he won’t be running again.
This means there will be at least one new member of council and quite likely more.
In 2014, McKortoff and Rhodes were the only members of council seeking re-election. This left a wide-open field.
As a result, 10 candidates competed for positons as mayor or councillors, not counting the water councillor positions.
Some of these candidates were eccentric and some ran on only one or two issues – such as stopping the new fire hall.
The wise voters of Osoyoos managed to weed out the candidates who were simply grumpy and didn’t offer any constructive ideas.
The question becomes how to make the next council more reflective of the Osoyoos population.
As Campol put it, it’s fine to have a council that includes seniors, but you don’t want your entire council to be seniors. Campol is the only member from a younger age group.
He favours moving council meetings to the evening to allow more working people to participate and enlarging council by two members to allow broader representation.
Moving to evenings does make sense and probably most town councils in Canada where members have other jobs do that.
There are advantages to bringing more viewpoints to council, but on balance we’re less enthusiastic about expansion.
It often seems that the productivity of a committee is inversely proportional to its size. Personalities get in the way of progress.
As King observes, a larger council would mean more people would need to have a say and meetings could run much longer. More input doesn’t necessarily mean better input.
We agree with Campol that the online “poll” running on the town website was poorly worded, so the result that 72 per cent oppose expansion must be taken with a fistful of salt.
The roughly $50,000 in remuneration and benefits for two more councillors isn’t a lot when spread among all taxpayers, but it is an unnecessary expense nonetheless.
In a town the size of Osoyoos, four councillors and a mayor is sufficient – especially when absent councillors can phone in.
When council discusses this idea on Monday, hopefully they’ll give it second thought.
The most important is that a group of capable and representative people be elected in October.
It’s not too early to give some thought to running.
