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Sechelt council marks first year

Councillors in Sechelt served popcorn to the gallery to mark the anniversary of their inaugural meeting Nov. 6, and also took time to reflect on their first year in office. “It’s been extremely draining, emotionally speaking,” said Coun. Alton Toth.
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Sechelt Mayor Darnelda Siegers getting ready to serve some popcorn ahead of the Nov. 6 council meeting, which marked their first year in office.

Councillors in Sechelt served popcorn to the gallery to mark the anniversary of their inaugural meeting Nov. 6, and also took time to reflect on their first year in office.

“It’s been extremely draining, emotionally speaking,” said Coun. Alton Toth. “Almost as soon as we were sworn in, people began criticizing us for one thing or another, whether it was a procedure we may have changed or something was moving too fast or something was moving too slow.”

Toth said he’s finding many parallels between his day job, which involves a lot of customer service, and being on council.

Coun. Brenda Rowe said the experience has been “pretty much what I thought it would be,” except her Saturday morning routine now includes reading the letters to the editor “to see how great we are – or not.”

She also said she spends “no more than 23-and-one-half minutes” reading comments on Facebook.

“In all seriousness, this has been a huge learning curve, a whole lot of reading and a whole lot of listening,” Rowe said. “I feel like we’re finally getting to a point where our feet are on the ground and I’m looking forward to what’s ahead.”

The other councillors highlighted similar themes.

Coun. Janice Kuester said she didn’t want to make a long speech but did want to “thank staff for putting up with all of us newbies and all of the questions and misunderstandings. Oh boy, you guys have a lot of patience and we really appreciate it.”

Coun. Tom Lamb, the only member of council aside from Mayor Darnelda Siegers who’s served before, said, “This is a way busier council… Everybody’s participating and supporting each other, which we didn’t have back then. It’s a very good council to be part of… I think the outcome for the community four years from now will be very good. ”

For her part, Siegers said she’s been impressed with the level of commitment from her fellow councillors and the collaboration with the other local governments on the Coast. “I think we’re going to be accelerating some of this [collaboration] moving forward and it’s exciting.”

Although it was not raised at the meeting, speaking the following day on Eastlink Community TV’s Talk to Your Local Government program, Siegers reflected on the decision to evacuate the Seawatch neighbourhood – which council had to grapple with just three months into the term.

“It was hard emotionally, because while we were looking at the safety of the residents, we also realize the impact that has on the residents. It’s still not something that we take lightly. We’re not done and we’re trying to move things forward. It’s tough,” Siegers said.

Councillors in Gibsons did not mark the occasion when they met on Nov.  5, but Mayor Bill Beamish, who was also a guest on the television program along with Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) chair Lori Pratt, said one thing he’s noticed in his first year as mayor, after many years as a government administrator, is the level of community involvement expected of local politicians.

“I knew the cycle of a government, I just didn’t know the other part of government – I didn’t know how busy mayors and councillors were outside of government. It’s been very enlightening, and I think all of the councillors realize that too.”

“It’s been great,” said Pratt of the SCRD board’s first year. “We’ve got a really good team that’s working hard together. We’ve learned a lot and we’re continuing to learn.”

The SCRD board was scheduled to meet Nov. 14 with the vote for chair and vice chair for the coming year at the top of the agenda.

Pratt, the director for Halfmoon Bay, said she would be interested in staying on as chair. “I’ve really enjoyed this past year,” she said. “We have a great team. I hope I have the support of the board to carry on.”