A 38 per cent voter turnout Monday night elected the team of seven who will be leading Cochrane for the next four-year term.
Jeff Genung was declared mayor-elect in a landslide victory over Mayor Ivan Brooker, with 4,321 votes to 2,252.
Incumbents Morgan Nagel and Tara McFadden led the councillor votes with 4,461 and 3,429 respectively, followed by new elects Marni Fedeyko with 3,343; Susan Flowers with 3,033; Patrick Wilson with 2,446; and Alex Reed with 2,381.
Dan Cunin trailed by eight votes, coming in seventh place at 2,373.
As mayor and council-elect prepare to step into the public realm with a two-day orientation at Ghost River Crossing beginning tomorrow, a common theme is top of mind for the new representatives as they prepare to be sworn-in on Monday – change.
“I want to see a great environment for council to operate in – where we debate and have conversations in public,” said Genung, overwhelmed with the momentum built throughout his campaign, as he closes one chapter and readies to open the next.
He said he hopes to shift how change is facilitated by both council and administration – to ensure the public are not only being listened to, but that every town decision is held to a higher standard to ensure all roads, buildings and developments work to improve the quality of life for the existing residents.
With the draft 2018 town budget to be presented to council, following their swearing-in at the council session on Oct. 23, Genung said he is “excited to get to work on the budget and see where there are areas of excessive spending that can be potentially cut.”
He said he is interested to examine “the costs of the new bridge project, staffing and the pool.”
The new council will have the better part of a month to review the draft budget, scheduled for deliberations Nov. 17 to 19; there will be public info sessions held next month leading up to deliberations.
Nagel was characteristically enthusiastic to learn he had garnered more votes than anyone else in the race.
As he enters his second term, Nagel – who has often stood alone on issues throughout his term – said his “No. 1 priority is to start off on the right foot with new mayor and council.”
As far as the 2018 budget is concerned, “council has inherited a mess,” according to Nagel, and he is interested in seeing what is to come with what he believes will be an “$8 to $9 million gap for funding for the pool,” as well as the loan repayment for the pool/multisport complex.
He confirmed that with the funds not in place to secure an arts and culture hub, he would like to examine options to re-purpose some of the spaces at the RancheHouse to create a venue arts groups can afford.
He would also like to see a long-term lease of 25 years negotiated with the Lions Club for the Cochrane Lions Event Centre, so that the service club can invest in to revitalizing and renovating the multi-use space properly.
Wilson plans to dive right in and “shake off rookie ignorances” through a crash course in policy, beginning this weekend. He hopes to come out of the orientation with a “better understanding of where all the concentric circles overlap and where we don’t on short and medium-term plans,” reiterating he is looking forward to being part of a team that is advocating for change.
“Following the budget process is where we will probably begin our disagreements,” said Wilson, who feels that “medium and longer-term planning, following the annual budget, is likely where conflicts are most likely to arise but where this council will effect its biggest change.”
For Coun. Tara McFadden, who is about to begin her fourth term on town council, “there isn’t a bigger decision-making point in the year” than budget time.
McFadden said top of mind when it comes to the budget is ensuring funds are in place for the continued realignment of James Walker Trail and the south bridge crossing. She also wants to ensure the funding is in place to revive committees (including the policing committee), start up task forces and create more meaningful public engagement processes. Since it’s been “10 years and 10,000 more people” since the Cochrane Sustainable Plan and the Municipal Development Plan were last looked at and she would like to ensure funds are in place to open these documents up and begin public consultation to revise these over-arching planning documents.
She is cognizant that residents are seeking change and said she is committed to applying this to how public engagement is done.
McFadden is also excited to delve into transit talk – and to “get information in front of this council” as they prepare to enter a “thorough public engagement process” to inform how transit should be done in Cochrane.
Flowers is also looking forward to getting the ball rolling on what the community wants to implement as a public transit system and will be looking to the budget for some “quick wins where the community is looking for sidewalks and benches.”
Reed will take a fiscally prudent approach to the budget. For the time being, he is focused on being a driver to ensure council directs administration and not the other way around – something the experienced senior administrator and former Athabasca town councillor feels has plagued the Town of Cochrane in recent years and has resulted in a “dysfunctional” council.
Hammering out a slate of collective priorities is something he will begin working on right away with new mayor and council. Reed says this will keep council focused and better assist in transparency.
Reed has served on the Cochrane Planning Commission for the last five years, including time as chair.
For Fedeyko, the first task at hand is improving accountability.
“I want to have all council meetings live streamed … let’s start off this four-year term with transparency, which will go a long way to rebuilding trust that I believe has been lost between council and the community.”
With respect to the looming budget, Fedeyko said she will exercise fiscal restraint, as “this budget is not a time for spending monies on line items that are non-essential.”
Clad in blue jeans and plaid in his quaint Coffee Traders office space, Genung looks around his frequented digs with the knowledge that a new chapter means more suits and a new office at the RancheHouse.
For Genung, who sat on town council from 2001-2007, he is not taking the message of change lightly.
“The people didn’t just speak, they yelled,” he said.
While the margin between Reed and seventh place candidate Cunin was only eight votes, manager of legislative services Stacey Loe, said there will not be a recount unless requested.
“With electronic voting tabulators the likelihood of a change in result is quite minimal given discrepancies in election results are usually related to spoiled ballots,” she said.
“With the electronic tabulators, if a ballot is going to be rejected (spoiled) it is done at the time the elector is submitting their vote. They are immediately told their ballot is not readable and given the opportunity to obtain a new ballot and cast their vote, or cast their vote with the ballot spoiled.”
