Garry Gratton friends and family have encouraged him before to run for municipal office, but this year’s election is the perfect time.
“I came to realize it is now time to give back,” said Gratton.
With 17 years as a realtor in Penticton, he explained, he is now well-established and successful, he has the time to dedicate to council. Grattom said he and his wife chose the city to buy their first house because it met their search criteria of clean, green and safe place to raise our family.
“I like the idea of smart development,” said Gratton, explaining that has to be tempered by defining what citizens need and want. “I believe that if we can clearly define the need between what we need and want, we can succeed in moving the city forward towards a better future.
My platform is vote for common sense, vote for Garry. If you apply enough common sense, then you will be able to differentiate between the needs and the wants.
Garry Gratton is also a new name on the ballot. He may have one of the simplest explanations for why he chose to run for city council.
“Because I care,” he said. Caring, for Gratton, means keeping Penticton a special place.
“Clean, green, safe and prosperous are the words I have been using,” said Gratton. “I will do everything in my power to ensure it stays that way.”
“More than anything else, I care about open and honest communication to the citizens of this fair city,” said Gratton, who feels council spends too much time in closed meetings.
“I think the citizens deserve better,” he said. Conducting business in private, he continued, increases the chance of misconceptions and miscommunications with the public.
“That is nothing but bad news. When that happens too frequently, they begin to think about hidden agendas and distinct lack of communication causes that,” said Gratton. “That is something I hope to be able to avoid like the plague, if I get in as councillor.”
Gratton, a realtor in Penticton since 1997 and former director of the South Okanagan Real Estate Board, moved to the community in 1989 with his family, after working as an advanced industrial first aid attendant, manager and industrial fire chief in the oil and gas sector in northern B.C., Alberta, and the Northwest Territories.