Cache Creek mayor-elect John Ranta (right) and his wife Carmen, a recently elected councillor, will sit on village council together for the next four years (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

JOHN RANTA RETURNS

‘They started spending money like drunken sailors’: Ranta to cut spending, bring back services in return as Cache Creek mayor

Oct 20, 2022 | 3:02 PM

CACHE CREEK, B.C. — The municipal elections Saturday night prompted some change across the province, where incumbent mayors were ousted.

Such was the case in the Village of Cache Creek, where there’s a new mayor, but a very familiar face. John Ranta, the village mayor from 1990 to 2018, was elected back into office.

“They started spending money like drunken sailors,” Ranta told CFJC Today.

Ranta says when he left the mayor’s chair in 2018, the Village of Cache Creek had a surplus of $3.2 million — meant to keep taxes low. Since, though, Ranta says that surplus is largely gone and residents’ taxes have increased significantly.

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“They were raising taxes 61 per cent in the first five years,” noted Ranta. “As well as that, they closed the pool and raised utility rates and spent the money we had set aside to avoid raising taxes.”

What it was spent on exactly? Ranta and the rest of the village doesn’t really know.

“When you tell people at the doorstep [council] spent most of the $3.2 million, people look around and say ‘What did they spent it on?’ because you can’t see any real tangible benefits as a result of the expenditures.”

It’s why Ranta ran for office again. He didn’t have plans to do so, but residents encouraged him to run the village again.

“Every time I went to the post office, somebody would look at me and say ‘Hey John, are you going to run again?’ So that kind of puts the thought in your mind,” he said. “In the third year, they weren’t asking ‘Are you going to run again?’ They were saying ‘John, you’ve got to run again!’ because I think they could see what was going on.”

Ranta will be joined on village council by his wife Carmen, who’s been a school trustee for 20 years but also wanted to run for council to turn the village around.

She says the closure of the pool in 2019 after more than 40 years operating has been a big blow to the community, especially for young families, some of whom she says are tempted to leave the community.

“I was very disheartened with the approach this council had to youth, to families and to the community for activities. Just a reduction in the actual activities for youth that the council was supporting in the past were all cancelled, were all cut back,” noted Carmen.

John added, “Certainly that was a big issue at the all-candidates forum for most people that live in the community. They want to see the pool up and running.”

Carmen Ranta says she joined her husband because of eroding trust of the village council over the last four years. They also want to clean everything up — from overspending to the look of the village.

“Just a lot of different issues about tidiness in the community and the way the community is feeling about how it’s looking from what they’re hearing from visitors,” she said. “Just a sense of dismay.”