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By Mel Rothenburger

Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: The important legacies of late TNRD board chair Ken Gillis

Sep 16, 2023 | 8:17 AM

I WAS IN MY TRUCK listening to the radio news on Thursday when I heard the shocking announcement that former Thompson-Nicola Regional District board chair Ken Gillis had died. (I later read he’d suffered a heart attack.)

I want to tell you a bit about Ken. He had a fascinating life. Once a truck driver, he studied law and became a well-known lawyer in Kamloops until he “retired.” I put “retired” in quotes because he was the kind of guy who never stopped working.

He lived in the Pritchard area and represented Electoral Area L (Grasslands) for several years. When I was considering a run for the TNRD board as director for Electoral Area P (Rivers and the Peaks), Ken was one of the first people I sought advice from. I’d been a City director on the board for two terms when I was mayor, and as a newspaper editor had followed the TNRD closely, but I knew being a rural director is much different than being a municipal director.

Over a coffee downtown, Ken enthusiastically told me I should go for it. He took the time to fill me in on a lot of the current issues facing the TNRD and Area P. After I was elected as director for that area, we often connected on matters of mutual concern. I considered him a mentor.

He and I co-operated on things that affected our two electoral areas because they’re across the South Thompson River from one another. Pritchard, for example, straddles the river so Ken and I teamed up to jointly fund projects used by residents on both sides, using our discretionary funding or gas-tax money. We got a new grandstand built at the rodeo grounds, had the parking lot at the community hall paved, helped arrange for maintenance of the beach at the Pritchard bridge, and many other things.

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One of his last major projects before he retired was getting fire service for the Monte Creek area. We worked together on that one because, once again, it involved both sides of the river, but it was his initiative. We found funding to subsidize its establishment, including a new hall and equipment.

Ken was overjoyed when a referendum of residents approved the project.

At the board table, he and I often disagreed but we often agreed, too. When he phoned me one night and said he was going to run for chair of the board, I supported him. He was a hard-working chair, and his infectious laugh and ability to tell a good story in two or three sentences lightened up many a meeting.

So it was a sad day when I told him I could no longer support him as chair and intended to ask for his resignation. By then, pressure was building on him over his handling of the Sukh Gill situation, and several other directors had already asked him to resign.

Initially I wasn’t one of them, believing stability was needed and that a change in chairs would do nothing to help things. But after what I considered a couple of more missteps on his part, I concluded he should step aside and allow the board to reset.

After a sleepless night before the next board meeting, I asked Ken to meet with me in his TNRD office before the start of the meeting. I didn’t want to spring my decision on him in the middle of a board meeting as some of the other directors had done — I owed it to him to tell him my intentions, and not by email or phone, but face to face.

That day, I gained a whole new respect for Ken Gillis. He took my news with the utmost grace. He regretted my decision, he said, but appreciated the head’s up, and promised to seriously consider my request.

In the board meeting, I felt terrible but he again accepted my words calmly with no hint of resentment.

A few days later, he called to let me know he’d decided it was best that he remain as chair. In most situations like this, the two people involved would probably be on bad terms from that day on. Yet I can honestly say there was not a scintilla of bad relations between Ken and I after that. We worked together as we had before, in a spirit of co-operation.

I was disappointed when he didn’t run for the board again in last year’s election, though it was understandable given that he’d moved from Area L to Merritt, where his wife Linda Brown was mayor at the time.

As many others are, I’m greatly saddened by his death, and offer heartfelt condolences to his family.

In hindsight, his decision to remain as chair was the right one, the hard one, and it was made for the right reasons. Ken Gillis was at the helm during some of the TNRD’s most difficult times — including wildfires, floods, COVID and the forensic audit — and took the heat as chair but he’s also the one who got us through them, and the TNRD emerged much better than it was.

Ken’s long service and many accomplishments, his strength under pressure, and his kindness and bright outlook on life are his legacies.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.