Former Town of Osoyoos councillor Ray Vandenberg and his common-law partner Jean Clarke have announced their intentions to run for public office in the upcoming municipal election on November 15. Vandenberg will be opposing incumbent Mayor Stu Wells, while Clarke will be trying to win a seat on town council. (Keith Lacey photo)
Jean Clarke and Ray Vandenberg hope to form a “dream team” on town council following the November 15 municipal election.
Clarke and Vandenberg are life partners and best friends. They hope to become community leaders if elected to town council.
Vandenberg, who hasn’t been involved in municipal politics since earning a spot on Town of Osoyoos council in 1989-90, confirmed last week that he will be opposing incumbent Mayor Stu Wells in the upcoming election.
Vandenberg ran for mayor in 1993 and lost by only 14 votes to Tom Shields. He has also run unsuccessfully for a seat on town council three times since then.
Clarke, who has never ran for political office, will be seeking a seat on town council.
It’s believed this is the first time in Osoyoos’ long history that a common-law couple has ran for elected office and perhaps the first time this has happened in the South Okanagan.
They have been a couple for 10 years.
Vandenberg and Clarke believe the time has come for significant change on town council.
“I am running because I’m fed up with how the town council is handling taxpayer money and I’m tired of not being given all the information about key issues and large projects taking place in our town,” said Vandenberg.
Vandenberg said he “wants more transparency and access to important information as it pertains to taxpayers” on major projects, such as the proposed new multimillion dollar fire hall that Vandenberg and his wife have spoken out against on a regular basis over the past two months.
While he respects Osoyoos Volunteer Fire Department Chief Rick Jones immensely and supports the building of a new fire hall in Osoyoos, he doesn’t support spending more than $6 million on the project, said Vandenberg.
He is also vehemently opposed to town council cancelling a scheduled referendum to allow local voters to have their say on the fire hall issue and replacing it with the Alternate Approval Process (AAP), where 10 per cent of registered voters in Osoyoos (475 votes) have to sign a petition to ensure a referendum would be held.
“They’re building a brand new fire hall in Nanaimo that is going to have most of the features of the new fire hall being proposed here, but the final pricetag is $3.2 million,” said Vandenberg. “It seems like we’re willing to spend an awful lot of taxpayers’ dollars on our new fire hall and I don’t think it’s necessary.
“This fire hall issue is when things came to a head and I said ‘enough is enough’ and I was going to try and change things at town hall and bring new leadership and run for mayor.”
Vandenberg said Osoyoos is a town full of seniors, many who live on a fixed income and have to worry about every penny, and it’s time to give them tax relief and more controlled spending by town council.
“The biggest reason I’m running again is I believe enough is enough and I want to see an end to what I believe to be the squandering of far too much money in this community over the past nine years,” he said. “I want to see some significant changes on council and a commitment to watching much more carefully how our tax dollars are spent.”
If elected mayor, Vandenberg said he would enforce a policy where members of the public get to speak about key issues for 15 to 20 minutes following every regular meeting of council.
“Members of the public should be able to get answers to important questions directly from their mayor and council … and not have to file all kinds of paperwork simply to address council for 10 minutes,” he said.
Clarke, who was born and raised in England and worked for numerous government agencies, moved to Canada in 1975 and became a Canadian citizen in 1979.
She worked in administration for municipal, provincial and federal government agencies, including a long stint at the end of her career with B.C. Corrections, before retiring in 2004.
She met Vandenberg and moved to Osoyoos not long after retiring.
She believes her extensive experience as an administrator in government agencies in Britain and Canada would transfer well to municipal politics.
Even though she doesn’t have any political experience, she doesn’t believe that should be a major deterrent in becoming a contributing member of council.
“I’ve been involved with government agencies my entire working life and I know how municipal government works,” she said.
When asked if being life partners would affect their duties on town council, Clarke said emphatically that it would not create any problems.
“We each have our own opinions on things, but we would certainly respect those opinions before making decisions,” she said. “I think we would make a dream team.”
Vandenberg said he worked hard his entire life as a building contractor, motel owner and owner of a company that built swimming pools for 25 years, and would bring that same work ethic to the mayor’s chair if successful on November 15.
“I love this community and would love to have the chance to leads this community into the future,” he said.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
