Mayor praises council, gives himself an average rating

JOHN MOORHOUSE/Penticton Herald Thursday, November 26, 2009

Mayor Dan Ashton gives Penticton city council a AAA rating for its first year in office, but rates himself as a B-minus or C-plus. “I‘d give this council a triple-A in their interest, in their efforts, in their care and concern for the community,” he said. “I‘m proud of how council has been working together and trying to instil their virtues into the operations of the city.” Ashton is council‘s longest-serving member, dating back to his victory in a 1998 councillor byelection. This is the fifth council on which he has served. A year after last November‘s civic election, Ashton is more critical of his own performance than council as a whole. He pointed to efforts to change the direction of the city‘s operations during tough economic times. “It rests on my shoulders to try and initiate these things and to try and get them going – but it hasn‘t been (successful to date),” he said. “It‘s been a bit of a struggle, to be frank, to try and get things spooled up to where we would like it to be.”

The new council was elected as the world faced its worst recession in decades and Ashton noted Penticton wasn‘t immune. The community has had to deal with a tremendous loss of jobs and development scaled back dramatically. While an economy typically has peaks and valleys, municipal governments tend to operate on a more even keel. Ashton said he would like to see local government operations mirror the economic reality more closely. Last February, as part of their budget-cutting process, council voted to lay off 11 city employees, including eight management staff and three CUPE workers.

The city has hired the consulting firm Helios Group to conduct a $74,000 core services review, which is now underway and a new fiscal review committee is looking at how the city operates. The core review is taking a look at all the city‘s operations and whether they can be conducted more efficiently. Ashton said he would prefer to have seen the review started sooner, but sees it as a valuable tool. The mayor now sees any initial resistance tapering off, as staff and council work more cohesively. Ashton sees the city getting back to basics over the next two years of council‘s mandate. He noted although Penticton‘s tourism business held its own last summer, these are tough months economically for the city. “I don‘t think, originally, council‘s agenda and council‘s ideas got the buy-in from staff and that caused some problems at the start.” For a full two-page spread on council’s one-year anniversary, plus a report card of councillors by Herald editor James Miller, see today’s Herald.