If you have been considering seeking a seat on Princeton Town Council, there are a few things you must do before the October 15, 2022, municipal election. The first important step is completing your nomination papers. This is the same process as must be followed in any local government (council, regional district, school board) in British Columbia.
The Nomination Period begins at 9:00 AM on August 30 and ends at 4:00 PM on September 9. It is during this time that candidate hopefuls hand in their paperwork to the corresponding Chief Election Officer. For me, seeking re-election to Princeton Town Council, I hand in my paperwork to the Chief Election Officer at Princeton Town Hall. The paperwork, if you have never completed it before, is somewhat intimidating. There is a lot of personal information you must share and the majority of your nomination papers become public documents. Here are some of the details you must include: Candidate Information Release Authorization This page essentially gives the municipality permission to share your documents with the public and media. Although all questions on this specific page are optional, I prefer to fill them out completely. The details contained on the release form will appear on CivicInfo BC websites. Nomination Documents This section contains a list of local electors I have approached to nominate me for a seat on Town Council. Depending on where you live in British Columbia, the number of nominations required fluctuates from two to twenty-five or more. In Princeton, I need ten. I usually get more just in case one or more are disqualified for some reason. It does happen. When I filled out my nomination papers for the October 2018 municipal election, one name was DQ’d. Appointment of Candidate Financial Agent I choose to act as my own Financial Agent, but some candidates will select someone they know and trust to fill this role. This page requires all the information about who that person is. Appointment of Candidate Official Agent This is another page that details who a candidate’s official agent is if one is selected. Appointment of Candidate Scrutineer And…another page outlining information on a candidate’s scrutineer, if one is chosen. Statement of Disclosure Under the Financial Disclosure Act, a candidate must include the document known as the Statement of Disclosure. This document must be updated annually by elected members of the local government. It has sections with headings including: Assets This is where the name of each corporation a candidate holds shares in must be identified. Liabilities A list of creditors a candidate owes a debt to - just the name of the creditor and creditor’s address. The actual amount of debt owing is not disclosed. Income Here a candidate lists all sources of income including their capacity within the business and the name of the business. Property Candidates must list the legal description and address of all land they own. Corporate Assets Here a candidate has to list the names of corporations they own, the type of business conducted by the corporation, and a list of creditors. There are also a couple of declaration pages that should be signed in front of the Chief Election Officer who must sign as a witness. After You Complete All Paperwork Once the nomination package is completed, you can hand it to the Chief Election Officer for review between August 30 and September 9, 2022. Candidates are expected to provide a nomination deposit of $100 at the time of filing their nomination papers. After the papers are reviewed, they stay with the Chief Election Officer. A candidate has no idea who else is running in the election with/against them until nominations close and the Declaration of Candidates is made after 4:00 PM on September 9. Final Thoughts It sounds intimidating, doesn’t it? But this is a process overseen by Elections BC and followed in every local government election in the province. Trust me, when I picked up my nomination package for the upcoming municipal election, it looked like a lot of work. I just picked away at it, section by section, and got the majority of the paperwork filled out in an afternoon. Gathering nominations takes a lot longer than that. So…there you go. That is the process one must follow to become a candidate in the upcoming elections. Remember, general voting day is October 15, 2022, between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM at the Princeton & District Community Skills Centre, 206 Vermilion Avenue, Princeton. The advance voting day is October 5, 2022, from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, also at the Skills Centre. When you cast your ballot, please consider voting for me, George Elliott.
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I thought it might be interesting to go over some of the numbers related to my term on Princeton Town Council. It should give you a slightly better idea of what time commitment is required and some of the duties that elected officials are given.
So far, in 2022, (January 1 to July 27) I have attended a total of 61 meetings and activities. That is a slow year as my first year in this term was far busier. Then COVID-19 appeared and not only did meetings get canceled, but several moved to electronic formats. Some groups reduced their meeting schedule. This year, things are starting to return to how they were pre-COVID. Breaking Them Down Here’s a closer look at what those 61 meetings were about. There have been 11 regular meetings of Town Council and 7 Special Meetings of Town Council. All of these run an average of 60-minutes each. Sure, some are shorter and some are longer, but I expect to spend at least an hour in a meeting. I typically arrive 30-minutes before a meeting and leave around 30-minutes after one. I am usually in Town Hall the Friday before a meeting to pick up an Agenda that I will spend at least an hour going over at home the weekend before the meeting. If I have any questions (rarely) I'm in Town Hall on the Monday of the meeting to get answers. The rest of the meetings I have attended so far this year, 43 in total, are related to my portfolio appointments. I have the largest portfolio of the Councillors on Town Council and come in at second overall as the Mayor carries the largest portfolio. My meetings include such things as Princeton Exhibition Association, Princeton Museum & Archives Society, Princeton Healthcare Steering Committee, Princeton Interagency Committee, and Princeton Skills Centre, to name a few. I also attend a few out-of-town meetings including Okanagan Regional Library Board (ORL) and Similkameen Valley Planning Society (SVPS). The ORL meetings are held at the library's main office in Kelowna and the SVPS meeting normally rotates throughout the Similkameen Valley hosted in Princeton, Hedley, Keremeos, and Cawston. These meetings are never short and require travel time. The last ORL meeting I attended was an 8-hour day. Conventions Pre-COVID, I attended two annual conventions. I went to the Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA) meeting in Penticton in the Spring. In April 2022, after a two-year COVID hiatus, I attended SILGA in Salmon Arm. In my first year on Town Council, I also attended the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) AGM and convention in Vancouver. Following a two-year COVID hiatus, this September I will be attending UBCM in Whistler. These conventions are usually four or five days in length and contain various workshops and learning opportunities aimed at elected officials. The Purpose of So Many Meetings I see part of my role as Councillor as a conduit. My participation in meetings of various groups and agencies provides these entities a voice at the Town Council table. I think of myself as an important link where I can share concerns, ideas, concepts, and support with either side. I have helped some groups/entities achieve specific goals through my role on Town Council. I won’t single any of them out as I firmly believe the work I do at the Council table is as part of a team. I just bring a voice to the conversation. The Other Numbers So, what do I get paid to do all of this stuff? Surely I can’t be doing it all as a volunteer, right? Well, let me give you some numbers to mull over. As a member of Princeton Town Council, I receive an income of $1,037.63 (gross) monthly. A total of $42.52 is deducted for CPP and my net income per month is $995.11. There is a cost-of-living increase factored into that number each year. This is all public information you can find online, if you wanted to. The Town does cover some expenses. Last year, my expenses totaled $166.66. That was a COVID year but I can tell you that all I claimed during the year was gas. I rarely claim meals, although I could. My expenses during my first year on Town Council were second to the Mayor. That was related to my many out-of-town meetings. Depending on the local meeting, there is the odd lunch provided. When I attend ORL meetings in Kelowna, the ORL covers my fuel and provides lunch as the meetings typically run into the early afternoon. Naturally, convention costs are covered by the Town and are listed as part of my expenses. The Bottom Line As you can tell, if you are seeking a seat in a public office in a small town, it won’t be for the paycheque. Oh, and I should point out that the abuse we get at times is free. It’s not uncommon for elected officials to get slammed online through social media for decisions they make. We get stopped in the post office or grocery store and hear people’s complaints. We get phone calls, text messages, and sometimes someone at our door with concerns. It’s all part of the territory. I'm glad residents get in my face at times. I should add that there are also a lot of times when I get stopped on the street or a private message where someone just wanted to say that we are doing a good job. It's also nice to hear that from time to time. For me, I’m proud to be part of a team that has pushed Princeton forward at a very challenging time in the history of the community. We have very talented people within Town Hall who do all the dirty work and leave the final decision-making up to Town Council. If you think I should remain on this team, please vote for me, George Elliott, on Saturday, October 15, 2022. Thank you. It has been a pleasure serving you so far this term. I just got back home from the four-day SILGA AGM and Conference in Salmon Arm. SILGA is the Southern Interior Local Government Association which is comprised of elected officials representing 37 South-Central BC villages, towns, cities, districts, and regional districts. The group hosts an annual event that was postponed the past couple of years due to COVID-19. The last event was in April 2019 in Penticton. I also attended that one.
The main framework of a SILGA AGM and Conference is to provide local elected officials with a “safe place” to gather, network, share ideas, learn new things, meet like-minded individuals, and (as someone explained to me one evening) find support. Let’s face it, it is not an easy job being a Mayor, Councillor, Director, or CAO for a municipality. You can’t please everyone and there are times when it is easy to feel unappreciated doing what often becomes a thankless job trying to make your community better for all who live there now and will live there years after we are all gone and forgotten. So…to help elected officials in the region regain focus on the jobs we were put in office to do, SILGA is there. The first day (April 26, 2022) is mostly fun, with social activities to help us all unwind. There are usually a handful of selections and we all get to pick which we want to participate in, in advance. I chose to go lawn bowling. It is something I have never done before and sounded like a lot of fun. Well, let me tell you…lawn bowling, if you have never participated, is sort of a hybrid between bocce and curling that is played on a huge golf green. The Salmon Arm Lawn Bowling Club welcomed a small group of us SILGA delegates and showed us the mechanics of the game. I picked it up quickly and soon it was apparent that this was going to be a fun afternoon. I even did my share of trash-talking the opponents to throw them off of their shots. I was told it was part of the game by one lawn bowling club member who was obviously pulling my leg as another elderly member took me aside at one point and explained that the game is much more dignified than that. It was a funny moment. The group fed us an assortment of homemade sandwiches and I made new friends from Lake Country, Lillooet, and even stayed behind to hang out with the cool lawn bowling club members from Salmon Arm. I also represented SILGA in a small presentation of a donation to the club thanking them for letting us throw off their schedule. The evening included another social gathering at the Salmon Arm Legion (Branch #62) where I renewed connections with colleagues from Peachland and Lake Country. Days 2 and 3 were loaded with presentations, guest speakers, a trade show, food, special events, and a lot of networking. I visited the Salmon Arm Art Gallery to see the solar power installation there, went downtown for something called “Lunch on The Town” which was paid for by the City of Salmon Arm, and sat through PowerPoints and video presentations with such titles as, “Turn When Into Now - Making Infrastructure Projects Feasible,” “Emerging Issues with States of Emergency,” “Trans Mountain Expansion Project Update,” and “Heat Domes, Atmospheric Rivers, Supply-Chain Disruptions, Regulatory Barriers, Surging Inflation, Pandemics: Why We Need Radical Advances in Community Food System Resiliency,” to name a few. I socialized with MLAs, Mayors, Councillors, Directors, and CAOs from Summerland, Okanagan Falls, Squamish, West Kelowna, Oliver, Osoyoos, Penticton, Kamloops, and so many other areas. Many I have met before and several new faces to me who will all form part of my networking circle. I trade business cards and give mine away “like candy” (my words) and use them to my advantage as an ice breaker or form of introduction to someone I’ve just met. It is old-school, I know, but it still works. I also took advantage of the hotel location on the waterfront of Shuswap Lake and went for walks each afternoon/evening on the Boat Basin Nature Trail (which passed by my room), and the Salmon Arm Wharf - the longest, wooden, curved wharf in North America. After all, I still have to pay attention to my health on these things. I should also mention that I was not alone at this event. Mayor Coyne also attended. Princeton and Merritt were acknowledged frequently and I got asked several times a day about our local flood recovery efforts. I can tell you, that we have a lot of support out there from other communities who truly care about our wellbeing. Plus, I can assure you that many of the delegates there will be voting for Princeton to win Hockeyville. We got a lot of attention during the SILGA event on that one. What are the burning issues in other communities? It may not surprise you to know that regardless of the size of the community, infrastructure (water/sewer) and housing are the top priorities across the SILGA region. It's not restricted to Princeton. What about the $1,500? You may be wondering if I’m ever going to get to that, right? Well, the main SILGA banquet was the evening of the last full day (April 28) and it was sponsored by FortisBC. As part of the trade show, FortisBC had a booth set up and each of the approximately 200 delegates present was offered an opportunity to enter a draw. The draw was for a prize of $1,500 that the winner had to donate to a local group or charity. It’s an interesting twist on donations. Essentially, if you win, you give the money away that is supplied by FortisBC. Near the end of the banquet, the draw was made for the $1,500 cash donation. My name was selected, so I went to the stage to accept. I’m not going to reveal who I gave it to as I’m sure FortisBC wants to make it a big announcement but I want you to think about it for a moment. What if you were given $1,500 to give away to a local group or charity, who would you choose? There are so many worthy choices in the Princeton area. It’s not an easy one, is it? |
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AuthorMy name is George Elliott. I have been in the Media Industry since 1978. I spent 23 years in Broadcasting and worked in a total of six different radio stations located in southern British Columbia Canada during my career. In 2000 I switched gears and moved into the Print Media Industry at a small town, local weekly community newspaper. In 2004 I bought the paper and operated it with my wife, Brenda until July 2016 when we closed it. I launched a freelance web content and article writing business from my home in January 2014. Archives
October 2023
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