Welcome to Your Kamloops!

Downtown Gets Boost from Rocky Mountaineer...

It's a bit hard to fathom how much exposure Kamloops derives from the Rocky Mountaineer stop. I was in Chicago in the summer of 2005 for the Rotary International Convention and could not believe the number of people I met who had been through Kamloops on the train.

Rocky Mountaineer management has decided to spread its summer passenger stops in Kamloops throughout the week. Instead of a large amount of visitors two or three times a week, the same number of people will be more evenly distributed throughout 5 or 6 days I believe.

The upshot of this is that all Rocky Mountaineer guest will now overnight in downtown hotels. For passengers on this incredible train trip, this decision makes total sense. Downtown Kamloops has such great ambiance and energy. I've heard it described as one long park - with the wide sidewalks and decorative street features. There is not much of that around the southwest sector hotels.I know the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Area is gearing up to make sure new visitors have a great experience.

A Really Difficult Public Meeting Coming Soon...some process thoughts

Wow, this is going to be tough.

Fact: Thousands of Kamloopsians, from all walks of lifes, oppose the proposed creosote tie gasification plant. (Facebook group now stands at 2915 members and Conservative MP Cathy McLeod and NDP stalwart Micheal Crawford both oppose). Passion and emotion are running very high.

Fact: ACC President Kim Sigurdson, plant proponent, says he is coming to town to counter misinformation and feels his public consultation has been sound. He has all the permits in place to start plant operations and has said he is going ahead. This from various media reports.

Fact: Our Federal MP and Provincial MLAs now oppose plant because they feel public consultation process has been very poor.

How do we keep this degenerating into a total gong show? I think this is so important to ponder. Here are some initial thoughts based on my training, thinking, and experience around public engagement:

1. it would be good to have an third party facilitator agreed upon by ACC and Save Kamloops, the two organized sides to the issue.

 2.  it would be good if the company reps acknowledged their horrible public engagment up until this point, apologized, and then committed to a respectful and open process for the meeting. ACC should acknowledge respectfully the opposition of many, and not downplay it.

 3.  it would be good if the company had all their experts and consultants present, no matter where they needed to travel from.

 4. I would probably advise against an open mic, at least initially. I might suggest table discussions, faithfully recorded, to record concerns and questions. If attendees really insisted on open mic, then I might suggest setting up ground rules at the start of the meeting – asking people to make commitments as to try to keep the meeting respectful, productive, and not a gong show.

 5. I’d ask the company to take great pains to make their technical information understandable to the lay person and respond to questions and concerns as faithfully as possible.

6. I would ask people to wait until the meeting was over to voice further judgements.

The Kamloops Chamber, who are sponsoring the meeting, already have some good practices in place for their events of this nature - no banners or buttons, questions written down and given to third party to ask (on what basis are these questions screened, if at all)

Thinking about Mel Rothenburger's Stance on ACC Gasification Proposal

A couple of days ago, I had an interesting chat with one of the key organizers of the opposition to the ACC gasification proposal. This person was spitting mad at Daily News Editor Mel Rothenburger because of what was perceived to be Mel's attempt to cloak rabid support for the proposal in high minded appeals for fairness and rational decision making. That's what I took from the chat, in any case.

This is so interesting to me.

I should state up front that I have a huge respect for Mel. I think he was a great Mayor and that he is still one of the top 3 most influential people in Kamloops. When Mel writes, people are so used to reading and, more importantly, absorbing what he has to say. A negative review in the "armchair Mayor", and I've been associated and even the subject of a couple, is something to fear.

(By the way, Mel's column this week is on the upcoming Chamber sponsored public meeting on the ACC proposal.)   

Mel's columns on ACC have made me believe that he does strongly support the project. To me, that's fair ball; as a columnist, you are supposed to be opinionated. I also feel, however, that he hasn't really come out and stated his support outright. This is likely just a style issue - also completely fair ball. But, I can understand why people think Mel is trying to be a little clever. They know how much influence Mel has but may also feel that an indirect writing style might be employed to get past people's questioning and skepticism muscles. If someone just states something outright, people perhaps tend to question it and engage with it more fully. 

But, ultimately, who is responsible for questioning and engaging?

I personally think that we all need to read whatever we read with a questioning and skeptical eye. Mel's columns always make me think and question and that is hugely helpful.

Some Interesting Word Use at City Hall...We, You, and Us

photo credit : http://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualvillage/2657975401/

Listening to the Mayor's and to city staff responses to questions at the public budget meeting the other night got me thinking again about word use and framing.

I've always, for example, wondered about the distinction people working within city hall often make between themselves and the public. At the budget meeting, the Mayor was explaining the difference between inflation as applied to househould purchases and inflation as applied to city hall purchases. The Mayor said something to the effect of 'when we buy something, it is different to when you buy something. We buy huge amounts of concrete for example. So, inflation in what we buy is different to what you buy as individuals". He is making a very valid point, but I wonder if a more inclusive way of saying the same thing would be "when we buy as a community, the inflation rates are different from when we buy as individuals". Maybe a minor point, but the later sounds much better at least to my ear.

I've also recently heard a councillor say "our bylaw officers", and I wonder if we would lose anything to say "community bylaw officers"? There would probably much to gain.

This, to me, gets away from a them versus us sort of framing and moves us toward thinking more collaboratively.

The Anatomy of a Civil City Budget Meeting...

I had a quick chat, after tonight's public budget meeting, with a lady who has never attended before. She was struck by how civil and thoughtful the questions were. She had heard that people rant and rave at these meetings, and that only a few ranters and ravers show up - everyone else stays home. Tonight's meeting was indeed of a very different flavour. More people attended than in many previous years, people were respectful and interested.

I was struck by the number of people who vocalized support for water meters - maybe the third of the nine or ten questioners. I was also interested that two people politely brought up the issue of an airshed management plan prompted by the creosote tie gasifier proposal currently ongoing in the community. 

Mayor Milobar said that a council decision on universal water metering should be coming in the next couple of months. This issue has arisen again as city hall is now faced with some pretty immediate decisions on expanding water distribution capacity.

What Should I Tweet to the Premier...

My newest connection on twitter:

Video: Kamloops RCMP Supt Jim Begley Explains Request for More Officers

As part of the 2010 Kamloops budget discussions, our outstanding local detachment has asked for 3 more officers. Councillor Nancy Bepple asks an excellent question of RCMP Supt Begley. Councillor Pat Wallace asks about transient criminals. City Manager Randy Diehl frames up the request in the first clip of the video:

Should We Increase the RCMP Budget in Kamloops?

I think the Kamloops RCMP has done incredible and amazing work in the last couple of years. The overall crime rate in Kamloops has plummeted. The detachment has been very proactive with targeting prolific offenders and has won international policing awards.

Now, success should perhaps spur more resources. And, in that sense, I am empathetic to the Supt Begley's request to add three more officers to the detachment.

But, I also wonder if there should not be some sort of "keeping the peace dividend" that should not come back to taxpayers. I mean, in an ideal world, we would fund many more police officers to police in a proactive, targeted manner. But, there obviously other budget items that need attention and city council wants to keep the tax rate down. Our crime rate has come down - does the community as a whole support spending more money, perhaps at the expense of other important budget requests, to try to bring it down further. Are we ever safe enough?

I thought Councillor Nancy Bepple asked a great question question to the Supt Begley, asking for some explanation for the added officers. The main explanation I heard was about added paperwork (may have missed something though). I am not sure if there is more paperwork burdens this year than there was in the past. 

I've got the video from the exchange. Just need to make it web ready and I will post it.

Love that Cathy McLeod is Advertising Budget Consultations...

Love this...Kudos to our MP!

City Hall Welcomes Your Comments on the Community Tax Rate, Utility Charges and Budget

Do you feel you pay too much in property taxes and utility fees to city hall? Do you want to give kudos to a valuable city service that you want to see maintained? Are you simply just interested in what the community spending priorities are? The next couple of weeks offer a great chance to provide constructive input to the 2010 city budget. On February 9th 2010, at 7pm, at the Sports Action Lounge at Interior Savings Centre, city council will be hosting a public budget consultation. It's a great opportunity to learn more about community spending priorities and the taxes / fees we pay.

If you can't make that meeting and would still like to provide input into the budget or get more information, there are a couple a different ways to do so. First, you can contact Sally Edwards, City Hall's Director of Finance, who can be reached at 250 828 3413 or at sedwards@kamloops.ca. Second, you can also contact Mayor Peter Milobar at 250 828 3495 or at mayor@kamloops.ca. Third, you can contact your favourite city councillor(s) - their contact info available at http://www.kamloops.ca/mayor/councilmembers.shtml.

Comprehensive information on the city financials is available in the city "budget book", formally known as the 2010-2014 Financial Plan. The introduction to this book - section A - is really well presented this year and provides a good overview. The other sections of the book go into more detail. The budget book can be picked up at city hall front desk or downloaded from http://www.kamloops.ca/finance/financialplan.shtml.

The February 9th public consultation meeting comes towards the end of the city budget planning process. In July 2009, the process started off with city hall's senior staff approving budget timelines and guidelines. All city departments are asked to look at the previous year's revenue and expenditures and to submit projections for the 2010 budget. Then, senior city staff goes through the projections at least twice before the discussion comes to city council. City council are given a list of supplemental budget items to discuss. The public consultation is held, and then council meets one more time on specific budget matter