Electoral boundaries?

[cowman]

Went to the public meeting last night on the electoral boundaries/elected Reeve thing and it was interesting? Could be fairly revolutionary depending on which option they choose?
Linda: Had a good talk with your councillor and he was telling me this elected Reeve thing isn't a done deal! He said council is still split 3 to 4 and two of the pro elected Reeve people are wavering! I told him well I think the people spoke fairly clearly on this in the plebicite, but he said 56% of 27%(who bothered to vote) doesn't mean people want a change! He also said he has been flooded with calls from people supporting his stance! Now I don't know if you were one of them or not? LOL
Also had a very good talk with Mr. Vanderwerk(division 7) who filled me in on some of the war between the city and the county. Although a lot of people don't like Ken because he is often at odds with the rest of council, I have always enjoyed his views and committment and he isn't an idiot or something.

[nejar]

enlighten me cowman, was the vote for or against the elected Reeve?
I find it interesting that some councils seem to want to quote percentages of voters that turn out when they don't agree with the way a vote went, but if they themselves only got elected by a one vote majority then they holler democratic process at the top of their lungs !!!!

[cowman]

The vote was for an elected reeve. Personally I thought the system in place worked alright, but do believe when the people speak you need to honor that?

[cowman]

Council is taking a chance if they cherry pick which plebicites to honor. Sounds as though the division on council is going to get interesting.

Far too many municipal councils are divided, its bad enough that the voice of rural Alberta is diminishing more every year, without the people that are elected to represent all rural Albertans not being able to sing from the same song sheet on major issues.

[cakadu]

Gee, where to begin cowman. Whether the number who voted was 27% or 87%, the majority of those voters still wanted the change to an elected reeve. Define "flooded with calls" for me. To some, if the phone rings 10 times they are inundated.

Of course he is going to make it sound like it is no where near a done deal yet - he has the most to loose because it is his division that is proposed to be split into two. That lessens his chances of being re-elected. No self-interest there?!?!

The bigger question would be why did only 27% of eligible voters in the county bother to vote? Are voters so apathetic that they could care less how local affairs are conducted - given that they are the most directly affected by them?

I believe emrald is right when she states that the county can in no way afford to try and pick winners and losers.

[cakadu]

Some municipal councillors love to poltic on every issue, feed the ratepayers a doom and gloom picture of anything they personally don't agree with or never accept the decision of the majority.

One council in rural Alberta has one loose cannon but he is kept under control, the Reeve and the rest of council work as a Team in spite of him, and you never hear any of their differences in public because the local media doesn't give the guy any space. He is a non issue !!

Red Deer County has so much on their plate, that going the elected Reeve route if that is the wishes of the people, isn't going to change things all that much. It will cost more though, because if its done the same way it was here there will still be a divisional councillor from each division plus a Reeve elected at large.

I see Red Deer County in the same light as Parkland, Sturgeon etc. They have elected MAYORS, and the sky hasn't fallen !!

[cowman]

Hey Linda...I wasn't agreeing with him, so please don't shoot the messenger! However I do believe the old system worked fairly well.
Lougheed also asked me what happens if we get an elected Reeve like the one we had who was "entertaining" to say the least! He claimed they could deal with that under the old system, but would be stuck with him under this new system! He claimed if we got another one like him the staff would all quit tommorrow!
I do know a lot of people are sure happy he isn't around anymore?
Also a side note: Ken Van der werk told me you would be surprized at who voted? He said the voters in su divisions just don't vote while the farmers vote to a man...and we'd better also say woman, as he is a pretty sensitive guy now that he got shipped off for sensitivity training after his politically incorrect racial comment a few years ago! LOL I like to tease him about that one once in awhile...ask him if he left his sheet at home today! He always looks stern and serious but actually has a pretty good sense of humor.

[cowman]

cowman I know the former Reeve you refer to, but if he had been chosen by the people as their elected Reeve then I guess that is democracy.
I would have a bit more faith in the electorate of Red Deer county though !!

[rodb]

Hi Cowman

I am headed to the meeting tonight in Bowden. I understand that there hasn't been a whole lot of people coming out to give input on the various options.

I don't think that it is all bad to have an elected reeve and as long as council is united the reeve will have to walk the talk.

The problem with the former reeve was that he didn't know the boundaries of his position and used it to add to his imcome.

What option would you like to see?

Rod

[cowman]

Hello Rod,
Glad to hear you are still up and running! Hope you have had a good winter and the calves are coming fast and furious? Hope you managed to have a decent harvest and got the crop sold at a fairly good price...well maybe that is asking too much? LOL
The electoral meeting, attendance wise, was fairly dismal. It seems it is always the same old, same old people at all these things...and I emphasize old!
However there were a couple of newbys and they weren't shy about speaking right up and expressing themselves!
Now I will tell you a lot of the people there seemed to favor eight divisions...which was a "side" option the consultant offered? If you take the three real options of six divisions, I favored option C. Now realize I was looking at it from my own perspective of living east of highway II, and you might view that completely differently? I actually saw some value in the option of three divisions(with two reps in each division) but I doubt that one is going to be popular?
Not sure exactly who your councillor is, but I suspect the Reeve? And not sure what his plans are, but I suspect he will take a run at the Reeves position, which would leave your division open for some new blood(you might consider it if you are so inclined!)?
And I don't know. Earl is a good man and he seems to be able to build consensus among people? Some people say he is distant and arrogant, but I don't really buy into that? He does know his politics and he is very adept at avoiding the mindfields when old buggers like me ask the tough questions! I'm not quite sure if that is a good thing or not?

[cowman]

One other thing Rod: not sure what you meant when you commented on the former Reeve expanding his income? Maybe we aren't talking about the same guy? I was talking about Mr. Johnston, who I believe was an honorable man, although really out there? He was a lawyer who dealt with international trade law, not your average ambulance chaser or something like that? In reality his wife was the breadwinner as she was a doctor and specialist! And despite the low opinion most of the electorate held of him he was a very smart man! Yep, Greg was a arrogant little bugger and you had to get to know him, to really understand him...but I don't think he was ever crooked or anything like that
? In reality he was a civically minded citizen...just too full of himself?

[rodb]

Cowman

I didn't mean that he was doing anything illegal but from what I understand, he was trying to make it into a more of a full time job than it really required.

[rodb]

Cowman

I didn't mean that he was doing anything illegal but from what I understand, he was trying to make it into a more of a full time job than it really required.

[rodb]

Just got home from the meeting. The afternoon meeting on planning was a bust with two people walking in on a different mission but took an interest and stayed. Evening meeting was a private consultation as I was really the only civilian there as one of the councillors brought his wife.

If people don't get what they want they better not complain.

[cakadu]

Cowman, going to law school does not make one a lawyer.

Sorry, but I don't buy into the argument that we would be stuck with someone the ilk of the former Reeve. Surely the voters would be more astute than that because he never made any kind of attempt to cover up who and what he was about.

Many elected folk spend a great deal of their time making sure they stay in the position and I can't see an elected Reeve being any different.

We can't really say that the existing way has worked pretty well when we don't know any different. I would say that there have been some major challenges over the years i.e. some missing money.