City hall can’t be run like business

Dear editor: Thank you, Mr. Cox, for your kind words (Herald, Letters, Aug. 30)

I will answer your approach to wanting the mayor’s position. The one thing that I have observed that business candidates don’t seem to understand when running for city council is that city hall cannot be run like a business.

We’ve seen that approach over the last two terms, where business persons were elected to council and who hired business persons as administrators.

No disrespect to business persons, but I have worked with many on city councils who discovered how the city is run as a service.

The city is a not-for-profit business and cannot be run like a for-profit business.

The city’s sole purpose is to provide a notfor-profit level of services to its population. Granted the city can increase its fees over and above actual cost so that the surplus monies can be reinvested to keep the services/infrastructure up to its residents’ expectations.

City accounts are reviewed by the province annually. To note, we have witnessed the business approach over these last two terms where the infrastructure is in need of millions of dollars, thanks to three prior business persons’ administration.

Just a note, we have seven business persons on the outgoing council who voted in a privatization of Skaha Lake Park.

The major changes we’ve seen in the city’s operations/administration over the last months is because they, the present council, hired an administrator who was educated and experienced in municipal