Welcome to Your Kamloops!

Formation of Kamloops Housing Board Starting On Right Footing...

I am very thankful to have been invited to meetings talking about the formation of a housing board in Kamloops. Such a board would act as a place of coordination, of education, and of recommendation for local affordable housing issues. Participating in a meeting today, it seems the board formation is in a good place. Lots of discussion on being inclusive in the membership of the board and on working collaboratively with government. Blake Collins, as planner at city hall very well versed in affordable housing issues in municipalities (he wrote his graduate thesis on the topic), will facilitate the board and is very interested in using the knowledge of the board to help inform his work.

The board is slated to meet a minimum of 4 to 6 times a year.

Should Zero Based Budgeting (or something approaching it) Be Tried at City Hall?

I wonder if, especially at the start of a new 3 year term, City Council should try to go through the entire community budget in more detail. The established process, more or less, is for Council to go through only items that are additional expenditures. I have heard some calls for a more detailed examination.  A "Zero based" budgeting approach might be seen as the most detailed. Something more towards this, not quite the whole way, could also be considered.

How could the community as a whole be involved in this process? Wikipedia has a good primer on the pros and cons of Zero based budgeting versus Incremental Budgeting (which seems to mirror the current approach).

There Shalt Be Light on Tranquille Road...

credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonmichael/5397655996/

Building off from an oft repeated comment from this year's City Budget Public Forum, there will be light on Tranquille Road. Congratulations to Peter Mutrie and the folks at the North Shore BIA who have worked constructively and dilligently with City Hall to get the new street lights funded. And Kudos to City Staff and Council for making the final decisions.

The North Shore is experiencing something of a renaissance. Lots of new development, greater sense of safety, and an incredible menu of future prospects. North Kamloops has always had a strong sense of community, looks like the investment climate is starting to rebound.

One Reason Why Council Should Have Waited to Raise Transit Fares...

 

Shortly after City Council made their initial decision to raise transit fares this week, someone loaned me their paper copy of the Kamloops transit schedule. I started to flip through the pages with a very specific purpose. When I served on Council, there was some discussion about offering advertising space in the schedule and, if memory serves, there was some energy around that idea. But, no ads in the present schedule. In fact, lots of empty white space.

I then got on the bus for a short ride home. On the inside of most buses, there are ad spaces on the walls above the seats. A bit better news here - some ads. But, certainly lots of empty spaces.

One last piece of "data" (maybe its just slightly informed speculation): I ride quite a few buses where there are a lot of empty seats. I wonder if BC Transit understands where there are underutilized times and routes on our system. I also wonder if they engage in targeted marketing to better fill those specific times and routes.

This is all to say that I think it is important for Council to explore other opportunities to increase revenue before it increases fares. Maybe there was a way not to go against vocal public opinion and to create more of a win/win for the community.

City Hall's stalwart transit coordinator Erin Felker has done a great job working on enhancing transit service. I felt for her, being on the hot seat the past couple of weeks. BC Transit has been generous in offering Kamloops new hours and fare products.

I think that transit could be marketed and companies could market through transit a lot more effectively. I might be wrong here. I might be missing something. The Council and community discussion did not really go into these areas.

My Vlog Report on The 2011 Kamloops Community Budget Public Forum...

Ontario Municipal Council Discussion on Unity Turns Divisive...

Exactly what no city council wants to have happen...

From the Windsor Star

Raw Notes from Our Community - The City Budget Meeting 2011...

I was incredibly happy to be with about 80 fellow citizens who attended the Kamloops community budget public forum last night. I took notes from the 21 speakers who spoke and asked questions from the microphone. Donovan Cavers gave a longer presentation at the start of the input part of the evening, making the case that transit fares should not be increased. Here are my notes from the rest of the speakers. I might have missed some things said, so I have not included names of the people who spoke. I am hoping these notes provide a general overview of the input council received:

Speaker #1
Armchair Mayor's column has brought ppl out?
Being at microphone intimidating. City of Victoria does great job engaging public. National Post article on civic involvement.
Municipal spending spree
Local govt performance index : kamloops lower than avg in BC
Intimidating
Parkade: last parking study 1995
$8 million huge in investment : is it about hotel and/or ics expansion?
Mayor: no connection to hotel. $8 million planning number

Speaker #2
Please don't increase transit fares. Endorses Donovan Cavers presentation
Make transit easier.
Will make it harder for lowest income ppl
Would be prepared to shoulder tax hikes

Speaker #3
- endorsed Donavan Cavers
- concerned about transit fare increase and property tax increase on seniors and working poor
- increase parking rates downtown

Speaker #4
- bc transit planning process : should let transit fare lie until then
- installing cameras on buses. Felker: bc transit decision ultimately

Speaker #5
- tranquille rd lighting important. Major safety issue.

Speaker #6
- tax allocation between classes. Want less business taxation
- Mayor: asked for questions of council

Speaker #7
- seconds Donovan
- makes propass more expensive
- please fund sustainability coordinator
-appreciates what council is doing

Speaker #8
- Supporting not increasing transit fares
- really wants to emphasize transit should be investment not expense
- should not judge cost of recovery as most important measure
- transit helps roads maintenance budgets
- cameras on buses less a deterrent than more riders
- bus needs to be more obviously attractive to overcome barriers
- felker: transit tax burden 2.4 million$ (Walsh: 1.9 million?)

Speaker #9
 tranquille rd lighting
- increase investment and safety
- dovetails nicely with city strategic plan
- tax base may thicken
- public safety and public confidence and consumer confidence and investor confidence
- 2100 ppl on petition

Speaker #10
- against raising transit fares and supporting increase in parking fees
- single moms like his mom who was dependent on bus
- how will you get to increase transit goal?

Speaker #11
- do you advocate with BC transit? Should do so strongly
- mayor: we do advocate

Speaker #12
- let their be light on tranquille
- transit is traffic reduction resource
-keep transit fare the same
- marketing to transit to big employers : TRU, rih, city, lotteries, tcc

Speaker #13
- do we really need weekly garbage collection
- why do police officers go up while crime rates go down
- longer public engagement period for budget.

Speaker #14
- keeping transit fares where there are
- successful in sustainability plan. Doesn't think parkade fits. Needs data, works downtown and coworkers have not identified parking issues.
- bike storage and shower facilities

Speaker #15
- high school student: need to focus more on young people
- decisions should be more openly discussed
- longboard not allowed to use
- transit fares: being punished for being environmentally sound
- mayor : YouTube and twitter coming along. Longboards are allowed on many roads
- keep schools and teachers informed

Speaker #16
- supporting tranquille rd lighting
- questioning cost
- using led lights

Speaker #17
- proud of sustainability plan and looking fwd to it's integration into city operations and ocp
- supports transit fare staying same, parking study, sustainability coordinator.
-opportunity to be forward looking and to prepare for changes coming

Speaker #18
- not necessarily transit, densification
- supports smart growth type planning. (my words)

Speaker #19
- bear aware program decrease?
- winter lights cost?
- Columbia street widening cost? trawin: thinking about "throwing a lane in". But other alternatives considered.
- overnight camping in riparian zones? Homeless ppl could go into more developed areas. Concerned about riparian zone erosion ?
Hrycan: general decrease in riparian zone camping

Speaker #20
- commercial recycling downtown?
- amount in parking reserve fund? Edwards: 900 000$
- 2005 study on parking need downtown
- commercial leasing agents will tell you employee parking need is great
- Lorne street parked location would work
- not increase parking fees downtown
- winter lights and community in bloom about sustainability (?)

Speaker #21
- where does money come from for lower transit fare increases and tranquille street lighting
- a year without tax increase would be wonderful
- more community involvement
- less garbage pickup: would agree
- downtown parking needed

John O'Fee Kicked Butt at City Hall...

 

Kamloops most popular City Councillor is resigning to take what sounds like a very exciting opportunity as CEO of the Tk'emlups Indian Band.

I've had my differences with John O'Fee over the years, but it is impossible to argue with the record of success in his 11 years on Council. In every Council election since 1999, John has topped the polls, usually with an incredibly large cushion between him and the councillor who came in second. I was personally quite surprised he did not become a MP in the 2004 Federal election.

I once asked a veteran school board watcher, someone who has been around for at least 30 years, to give me his choice for the best School Board Chair he has seen. His answer: John. In this expert's opinion, John also kicked butt at the board office.

Many people know John has been the driving force behind the expansion of the Kamloops Airport. People who email John are often impressed with his intelligent and thorough replies. When I served on Council, there are couple of things that really impressed me. John has a way of synthesizing a discussion down to the fundamentals and proposing a wise path forward that almost all his colleagues can support. Whenever I wanted to talk to John, his door was always open. I often wish I had taken advantage of that openness a bit more often.

John leaves City Hall to join a dynamic organization with huge potential. The Tk'emlups Indian Band has land, businesses, and a passionate core membership. I personally want to wish John all the very best in using his impressive talents in his new position.

Council Unanimous on Desire for More Public Input on Proposed Transit Fare Hike...

Kamloops City Council today agreed to postpone a decision on a proposed transit fare increase so that it could hear more public input. Anne Grube and Matt Greenwood were given time in today's meeting to ask for a postponement so that a group of Kamloops citizens could prepare a presentation supporting keeping transit fares at their present levels.

Kudos to Mayor Milobar for allowing Ms Grube and Mr Greenwood the opportunity to make a last minute delegation to council. The transit fare increase proposal was discussed a couple of weeks ago at a council budget meeting a few weeks ago, but this past Friday was the first opportunity for the public to find out that a formal recommendation to increase fares was on today's agenda.

Council seems to be hearing a lot of opposition to this proposal. There were several letters in the council documents package today. Ms Grube and Mr Greenwood and their colleagues in this effort will make a presentation to council next week - Feb 8th. And then Council will make a decision. Sounds like a reasonable approach.