Report card of present council

Dear Editor: Did the 2014 municipal election result in the same old things? With the October 2018 election coming, it’s time to reflect and decide what policies should be supported. We need a report card ... Here are a few questions in key several areas and suggested solutions.

• Going after vagrancy and cleaning up the city. Significant steps being taken that are long overdue. Kudos to Peter Weeber for his efforts! Solution: Keep at it!

• One of the first actions of council in 2014 was to vote themselves a ‘raise’ in the form of taxpayer funded benefits. Did someone think who would remember in 2018? While not all councillors took advantage of it, the mayor’s words prompting the motion were ‘quit pussy footing around.’ Solution: roll back benefits.

• How about ignoring the protests of the disposition of parkland for a water slide? The payout of $200,000 and who knows what else to end the lease? Solution: Listen to and act on the concerns of citizens.

• Property tax abatement practices like Economic Incentive Zones that are ‘sold’ to us on the basis of mis-Information like future tax revenues when abatements permanently shift taxes for a defined period from those that should be paying to those that already are? Recently, the owners of one project that is to be the benefactor of the abatement asked for an EIZ bylaw extension, got it and then put the property up for sale. Solution: let the by-laws expire.

• Using the Business Tax Multiplier to shift property taxes to residential that’s resulted in Penticton having among the highest residential tax rates in the province? Some signs of improvement but only after a report from the administration with recommendations. Solution: Roll back the total allocation between residential and other classes to what it was five years ago.

• Land use approvals that have repeatedly resulted in amendments to the Official Community Plan? Solution: $50,000 application fees to amend the OCP.

• Community consultation before major decisions and demonstrating how public input affected the decision? Showing signs of improvement with the adoption of the International Institute for Public Participation standards. Solution: keep going and demonstrate how public input affects decisions.

• Providing direction and leadership to the administration to show demonstrable improvements in efficiency and effectiveness year over year? It’s very hard to find targets being set despite putting measures like cost per capita in budget documents. There may have been some but certainly not large enough to notice. Solution: set a target of lowering costs per capita by five per cent.

Policies, processes and practices need more careful attention. Wayne Llewellyn Penticton