Landslide victory for John Vassilaki
What’s old is new again in Penticton.
A pair of former city politicians topped the polls Saturday night, with John Vassilaki winning the mayor’s chair by a landslide and Jake Kimberley the most popular councillor-elect by a wide margin.
Vassilaki collected 5,144 votes – good for about 48 per cent support – compared to runner-up Jason Cox with 2,621 and incumbent Andrew Jakubeit with 2,564, according to the unofficial results.
The mayor-elect believes the numbers speak to voters’ unhappiness with the past council, in particular the Skaha Park debacle.
“I think what happened in the past four years – and I’m not going to criticize anybody – the parks had a lot to do with it,” said Vassilaki, who served 12 years on council before being bested by Jakubeit in the 2014 mayor’s race.
The 72-year-old businessman said the focus at the outset of his mandate will be public safety.
“My first 100 days, we have to make it safe for the community. That’s No. 1. I’m going to be looking very seriously at homelessness and the drug addictions that we have in the downtown. We’ve got to clean up the downtown,” said Vassilaki.
He’ll have plenty of experience among his council mates from which to draw.
Kimberley, a three-time mayor, topped the polls with 4,909 votes, followed by incumbent Campbell Watt at 4,566 and newcomer Frank Regehr at 4,386.
“I think the fact that I stayed tuned to everything, letters to the editor and talking to people, especially about the events happening and giving opinions, I think that resonated” with voters, said Kimberley.
Another rookie, Julius Bloomfield, finished fourth with 3,449, former city councillor Katie Robinson was fifth with 3,101, and incumbent Judy Sentes squeaked back in with 2,772.
Max Picton was the only incumbent councillor who was unsuccessful in his bid for re-election, finishing 11th with 2,334 votes.
Jakubeit, who becomes the latest in a long list of one-term Penticton mayors, suspects voters couldn’t see past Skaha Park.
“I think a lot of people probably got hung up on the Skaha Park thing and that sort of was the Achilles heel. And unfortunately the mayor’s a lightning rod and everyone focuses on the mayor as if it was his idea or his plan when it’s really of council. But that’s politics,” he said.
“The irony of it is this next council’s success is probably based on a lot of policies and procedures and engagement that we instituted and made a practice in this term.”
Jakubeit suspects he and Cox were fighting over the same voters, leaving Vassilaki and easy path to victory, and wouldn’t rule out a political comeback in four years’ time.
“I’m still here. I’ve lived here for 27 years and I’ll be here for another 27 years, and as long as the community’s moving forward, all is good. We’ll see how the new council does, and I wish them all the best of luck,” said Jakubeit.
Vassilaki and the rest of the new council will be sworn in Nov. 6.
The mayor-elect brushed off any suggestions that his age will be a hindrance.
“I have more energy that most 40or 50-year-olds. I’m always raring to go. I’m up at 5 o’clock in the morning every day and I work eight to 10 hours every day, and I’m going to make this a full-time job,” said Vassilaki.
“I’m not going to go to City Hall one or two or three days a week… I’m going to be there most of the day and I’ll return every call.”