I live on the West Bench with my wife Stephanie and our three children. I also spend time in Vancouver, where I am an associate professor at SFU.
The job of an RDOS director is to work with the board, staff, citizens, and other levels of governments to resolve problems as they arise.
We have enjoyed some visible successes in the past two terms (West Bench water, the walking path, Selby Park veterans’ tribute) as well as some smaller, less visible successes (changes to RDOS cost allocation). We continue to work on thorny problems in Area F including roaming horses and Faulder water. In addition,
I see broader strategic challenges. Two of these stand out: first, Area F, the Penticton region, and the Interior of BC are undergoing tremendous demographic and economic change. We need to be asking ourselves what we want this part of the world to look like in 10, 20 and 50 years. A related challenge is that we see dysfunctional tension in all levels of government between democratic legitimacy on one hand and administrative efficiency on the other.
We need to sort out the role of the individual citizen’s voice in large, complex decisions.