Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Kerry Cook defends launch of new EcDev Task Force

Kerry Cook also took time after last night's Council meeting to defend the newly formed Business Attraction and Expansion Task Force

See that video here

As Councillor Rathor said last night - if Economic Development was such a priority, then why wasn't this Task Force active at the beginning of the term, rather than at the end of the term and with exactly 30 days until voters' decide the next WL City Council for the 2011-2014 term.

Just my own thoughts...

SBF

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good comment and thought processs. I think it is extremely suspect that Mayor Cook is inundating the media with all these announcements and intiatives all within the last nine months of the election period.
This is pathetic and she is using her current role as the Mayor to win a re-election. I do not know her or the other candidates but I have seen this happen in too many other communities and it is unethical and holding the taxpayers at ransom with her propaganda.
Also having just moved to Williams Lake last year all I have been hit with it bylaw after bylaw, fee after fee and report after report exponding how wonderful everything is. All I notice is that when I read the paper and other media articles Williams Lake is still held in low regard in most of the country.
Lastly I am not sure how the previous Mayors can be held responsible for over spending etc in this tenure. They may have put projects out to referendum of which we voted on...but it was this Mayor and Council who over spent on the Firehall, awarded raises to the management staff at City Hall and have spent way too much money on travel.
If they were to cut back on some unecessary spending then taxes would not have to be as high as they are.

Mayor Cook needs to stop assuming none of us "get it" ...because we do we just do not make a point of screaming from the roof tops as she so eagerly wants to do ...and with our dime I might add.

Anonymous said...

Dear anonymous...it would be wise to get facts straight before you post them, as they discredit your whole argument...it was actually the previous council that overspent on the firehall as well as the raises in city hall. This current council was left with the mess of the firehall and had to decide how to pay off the debt...as for the raises this current council has done the opposite, and has actually cut over $1 mill from budget in city wages etc, and has implemented no such raises.
As for the task force - it takes time to build these relationships up to the point where all these leaders in the community actually want to come to the table and work together, and mayor Cook has worked hard at doing this. Regardless of who is elected the task force is in place and ready with reccomendations for whoever takes office. It is a brilliant and innovative innitiative that she has taken, and I think it is rather insulting to the members who have agreed to be on the task force to be bashing it - because they all obviously believe it is in the best interests of the city- as well as all of council who voted unanimously, and many members of the community.

Steve Forseth said...

Thank you for your comments:

Anonymous #2:

I don't think Anonymous #1 purposely intended to speak poorly of the members of the new Task Force but let's remember that he/she is entitled to their opinion, even if we disagree with it

Also - the current Fire Chief gives an excellent report on this subject in January of this year which you can read at

https://williamslake.civicweb.net/FileStorage/556C671B373340B390D7CAEB3539B43E-January%2025%202011-E1.pdf

The rest of your points are true and it'll be up to voters' to decide on Nov 9th, 16th and 19th if the current Council of Mayor Cook and Councillors Bourdon, Rathor, Walters and Zacharias should be re-elected or defeated