Credentials

Today I was asked what credentials I hold that make me competent to serve on town council.

First, I am a teacher and lawyer with hard earned experience and training, and currently actively engaged professionally in mediation, facilitation and consensus decision making. I no longer participate in litigation as a lawyer. I am a civic minded person who believes that people should be willing to serve their community. To me, being on council is all about serving you, keeping taxes as low as possible and being available to meet with you to learn about your issues.

Second, I have plenty of experience in both the roles of councillor and mayor. I served Cochrane from 1992-1998 as a councillor under the leadership of former Mayor Lydia Graham. I did not seek a third term as councillor in 1998, but after three years off to article and practice law as an "associate" with a downtown law firm, became mayor in 2001. I served as mayor for three years. During those nine years, I served on almost every board, committee, task force and initiative in one capacity or another. I enjoy hard work, and can multi-task such that everything is completed in a timely way.

Third, I am well connected to local, regional and provincial agencies that work toward improved water and land use planning, and resource conservation and management. I believe that I can add capacity to help Cochrane secure a long term water supply for our growth. I enjoy working alongside provincial agencies to ensure that Cochrane is always on the leading edge of innovation and technology. For example, as a councillor, I was able to introduce storm water public utility fees on our water bills to ensure that we had funds in place to retrofit and improve our storm drainage management systems. Just recently, Calgary has adopted a similar program. Also, with Lydia Graham we pushed for operating and capital reserves to be put in place to ensure funds would be in place when equipment and facilities were required. Now, reserve funds are commonplace.

Fourth, I have the time, energy and inspiration to serve my community by understanding the need for and encouraging public participation, empowering citizenship and stewardship of our resources. I strongly support sustainability, and will be happy to chat with anyone who wants to learn more about how they can implement Cochrane's Sustainability Plan on a daily basis. Most of you already embrace the principles of the plan and are actively engaged without understanding the terminology-I would like to help you understand what a vibrant and exciting community we are building together every day we live here.

Cochrane needs engaged citizens who take responsibility for their community and ensure that all aspects of community building are reflected in local decision making. I am an engaged citizen, and this drives me to collaborate towards open reasoned debate, and effective decision making, and thus serve you better.

Tomorrow, I will discuss the five key points of what I want to achieve if the voters return me to council chambers on October 18.

I will also provide the key information for voters about where to vote and how to vote by special ballots.