Kelowna mayor setting new goals

Ron Seymour  The Okanagan Saturday 2011-09-10
Kelowna Mayor Sharon Shepherd heard early Thursday she‘d be facing a familiar foe in this fall‘s civic election.  Stories were beginning to widely circulate that Walter Gray, mayor from 1996-2005, had taken out nomination papers and was planning another run for City Hall‘s top job.  "As with all the elections I‘ve been involved in, I‘ll take this campaign very seriously," Shepherd said, after Gray had given interviews confirming his candidacy for mayor.   "I‘ve already started reviewing accomplishments, evaluating the challenges we‘ve had, and setting goals for the next three years," Shepherd said.  In making the announcement he was planning another run for mayor, Gray offered some pointed criticism of City Hall under Shepherd‘s six years of leadership.  Gray said city business was characterized by "inactivity, procrastination and too many frivolous studies," and said the business and investment community had "absolutely lost confidence" in City Hall processes.  But Shepherd, who defeated Gray by more than 2,000 votes in the 2005 civic election, defended her track record.  "I feel I have been working very hard on behalf of the community, and I will continue to do that with enthusiasm and energy.  I still have lots of that," said Shepherd, 61. If re-elected for a third term, Shepherd said one of her top priorities would be tackling organized crime, an issue she said had gained in importance since the brazen gangland slaying of Jonathan Bacon outside the Delta Grand hotel last month. "I feel particularly driven on this issue now, because of the incident in our community with the gangland shooting, that one of the priorities will definitely be to have a police advisory coalition," Shepherd said.  "We have to become more resilient to gangs. That is front and centre to me," Shepherd said.  Other key planks of Shepherd‘s election campaign include the continued promotion of sustainability initiatives such as green-building practices and alternate transportation, the staging of regular youth forums, the revitalization of Bernard Avenue, expansion of Stuart Park along the lakeshore, and development of a new recreation complex in Glenmore. "I also think we need to work more collaboratively and more consistently with neighbourhood associations," Shepherd said.