COLLINS: More thoughts about Kamloops city hall

That we have lawsuits going on is unnecessary. The amount of money that will be spent to put these to bed will be huge. Two very, very good law firms duking it out in court. And these are not just any law firms — they are two of the best. All to settle something that I think could be settled with a lot less fanfare and some good old common sense. But that’s just me.

Leadership starts with the mayor. The mayor has a long, successful career in sales. Sales is a skill, and trust between the sales rep and the client is important. There’s no trust being built here that I can see. Pushing all the hot buttons, feuding with council members and city staff is not the way to build a team or provide leadership.

But councillors have to pick up their games, too. Stop worrying about taking selfies to show how great you are, stop trying to find ways to gang up on the mayor. Both sides need to stop hassling administration, by criticizing or bullying them, or lobbying them to move forward with projects on the “I want people to love me” list. Stop telling people what a beautiful city we have and how grateful we are.

Big one here — put away your damn egos! It’s sickening. Take the high road and work for the common good. Players on successful sports teams don’t always like each other, but when push comes to shove, they have each other’s back.

And finally, you have to be prepared to make the tough decisions. You have to put away your vanity and take one for the team. After looking at a 10.8 per cent property tax increase this year to go along with a huge jump in utility fees, it didn’t take long for the critics to go to work. And of course that resulted in some councillors backtracking and suggesting maybe taking a second look. If you want to look seriously at the increase, look at where we might cut instead of increasing, and if you can make strategic decisions based on that analysis, fine. But I really think the decision is more based on vanity than reality, more concern about votes than the bigger concern of what is right for the city. When Homer wrote in the Odyssey, he might well have been writing about today’s Kamloops council — “Man is the vainest of all creatures that have their being on earth.”

If we need a 10.8 per cent increase, then do what’s right and not what’s expedient. If we really need guardian angels, let’s grab a group of forward thinkers from the TRU student body who can take a fresh approach rather than recycle politicians who have already reached their best-before date.

Leadership is not for the faint of heart. Too many of our councillors are faint of heart. They won’t make the tough decisions or put their vanity aside to search for a way forward. I am reminded today of the movie High Noon. An article in the Quietus says it well — “High Noon was intended by writer Carl Foreman as an allegory of Hollywood in the grip of the McCarthyism, with Hadleyville a metaphor for a Tinseltown whose residents were crippled by civic complacency, afraid to speak out for fear of being blacklisted.”

In other words, they left only one person standing to fight. Do we even have that one person to provide the leadership in Kamloops? If so, he or she hasn’t come forward yet.

I’m Doug Collins and that’s One Man’s Opinion.

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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.

by Doug Collins

COLLINS: More thoughts about Kamloops city hall

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