Kelowna council a popular place

Wayne Moore - Castanet Aug 27, 2011 / 5:00 am
Judging by the current flurry of activity at the City Clerk's office, the November 19 municipal ballot in Kelowna will be crowded.  Council packages have been available for three days and, already, 29 have been picked up.  Of those, five were for mayor and 24 for council.  So far, no packages have been picked up for school trustee.  City Clerk, Stephen Fleming, says the flurry of activity has prompted staff to photocopy more. Fleming says it's been busier than he expected in such a short period of time but says he would be surprised if we kept up this pace. He says there is usually a rush to pick up the info kits when they first become available and then again near the filing deadline.  The number of people running for councillor seats has nearly doubled over the past three fall elections.  In 2002, 22 people ran for councillor seats. That number jumped to 31 in 2005 and 36 in 2008. The by-election in 2009 to fill the late Brian Given's seat attracted 14 candidates. Mayor Sharon Shepherd and challengers Kim Ouellette, James Murphy and Diana Van Beest have picked up mayor kits. A fifth package was picked up by someone who wished his/her name to remain anonymous at this time.Of the 24 people ;picking up councillor kits, 20 have allowed their names to be revealed.
They include:

• James Murphy, Carol Gran, Bobby Kennedy, Mary-Ann Graham, Tish Kalmanovitch
• Peter McFadden,  Andrew Powell, Elizabeth Fehr,  Mohini Singh, Larry Gray
• Ken Chung, Colin Basran,  Gail Given, Ron Ready, Graeme James,
• William Kovacic, Michael Fraser, Darrin Fiddler, David Boyko, Scott A. Ross

James is the only incumbent councillor to pick up a nomination package, however, Michele Rule and Kwvin Craig have indicated they are seeking re-election.  The big change for this year's election centres around the number of nomination signatures a candidate requires in order to run for a seat on council. In previous years, candidates required just two signatures, this year, that number is 25.  Candidates can file their papers at City Hall between October 4 and 14.