Report card for three councils

As valley editor and director of content of Okanagan Newspaper Group , I attempt to keep an eye on all of the municipal councils and school boards within our readership area.

I carefully review every council story that runs in The Herald, The Daily Courier and Westside Weekly.

It has been a year now since we had the municipal election. Here are my thoughts on three of the municipal councils within our readership area. (More to come next week.)

KELOWNA: Taxes keep going up and nobody seems overly concerned. While some of the city is affluent, there are others who can’t afford the continuous tax hikes. Council never addresses this.

The homeless strategy, although paved with wonderful intentions, still has a long way to go. It’s getting worse, not better. While most of us are sympathetic, we start losing patience when people are getting assaulted, homes and businesses vandalized and cars broken into.

The council, obsessed with money from developers, also seems to ignore the culture and significance of certain historic neighbourhoods.

Obviously people in Kelowna are happy with council — everyone was re-elected, including the mayor. (The lone new council member finished in eighth spot, filling the vacated spot by future MP Tracy Gray.)

A huge plus is this council takes on and supports a lot of humanitarian projects, such as inclusiveness.

Letter grade: C-plus. PENTICTON: The bar was set so low by the previous three councils, there was only one way to go and it was up.

John Vassilaki, as I expected, is a good mayor — not great, but steady and it’s doubtful we’ll see another hockey dorm or waterslide fiasco under his tenure. The way he determines RDOS appointments — based on final standings in the election — is brilliant, but also very fair.

A big joke following the 2018 election was “Make Penticton old again,” because only Campbell Watt is under the age of 60. Age is never a bad thing.

My concern is this crew loves to spend money. Do we really need events on BC Day at Gyro Park or fireworks on July 1?

Bringing Ironman back is a good thing, but it should have never left in the first plac. It’s costing far more to bring it back than if they had just signed the original contract in 2012.

This council appears to take public input and has attempted to address issues in the city’s downtown.

Letter grade: B-plus. SUMMERLAND: This council hasn’t really been in the headlines much. That means they’re doing a good job. Summerland leads the valley in terms of talent on council — most of the seven are university educated, have real jobs and there’s strong representation of councillors involved with service clubs and other humanitarian projects. Two of the councillors are new mothers. The new skate park — an initiative by the previous council — is fantastic. Their big test will be how they deal with replacing an aging aquatics centre.

Letter grade: A.

Thanks to Shelora Sheldan for her feature on “Jeffer’s Fryzz” which ran in Tuesday’s Herald. I think it would have been more appropriate had Joe Fries written it... I’m predicting a record rating for tonight’s first intermission of “Hockey Night in Canada” — the first without Don Cherry... The impeachment hearings have only been on TV for a few days and I’m tired of it already.

James Miller is valley editor for Okanagan Newspaper Group.