Maybe staff should keep the pens, paper and keyboard away from the Mayor for a while…

Mayor Pond returned from the UBCM gathering of last week to catch up on his reading of Prince Rupert’s Daily newspaper.

Having already found that their efforts left him wanting in their coverage of his declaration of support for oil and gas exploration and transportation, he apparently became even more troubled by their interpretation of the Rushbrook Trail project.

Last week the Daily provided two stories on the Trail project, the first was an examination of the concerns of two local citizens who were asking questions about the timeline of the project and if the money had dried up on it or had been reallocated to other areas.

Valid concerns one would think for a project that seems to have suffered more than a few delays, the Daily News followed up on that with an article that relayed information from Victoria about the state of the project and the funding for it, the deadline of last summer wasn’t a fixed deadline as it turns out, and the actual completion date is sometime in 2009.

So, case closed, everyone is informed and we can move on, right!

Well not so fast, the Mayor for some reason decided to take the paper and those pesky inquisitive citizens to task over the kerfuffle over the trail. Calling the inquiring citizens complainers and providing some editorial assistance for the paper as to how they should be covering a story such as this.

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They Mayor it would seem is not particuarly impressed with the Daily News of late and their handling of the news making comments he provides, from a flash fire with the Haida over who speaks for the northwest, through the recent very public hiring controversy and now on to the Rushbrook trail story, he seems interested in the story and how its delivered.

It’s not the first time that the Mayor has taken pen to paper to provide an editorial page contribution defending his positions or outlining his thoughts on a particular issue. His various efforts provide an occasionally entertaining, but welcome contribution to local debate.

It calls to mind the days of Pete Lester who frequently found the time to make a contribution to the pages of the Daily News, sometimes with some much needed background information and other times with some creative writing projects that left you with more questions than answers.

In this case however, Mayor Pond seems to have taken an approach that seems to be more detrimental to his office and the perception of his handling of the occasional citizen with a question or two. It’s an unusual political strategy to call voters and taxpayer’s complainers, especially when they seemed to be asking a legitimate question and one that found an answer a few days later.

To give more life to the non-controversy and instead once again focus the spot light towards his recent battles with other citizens with concerns, is not a good thing heading into an election period.

While he rightfully should defend himself against any kind of whisper campaign, vindictive commentary or unsubstantiated accusations, it would appear on this trail issue he went a tad overboard in both the content of his remarks and tone of the contribution.

The letter to the editor of Wednesday, when combined with his most recent message posted on the city’s website as part of their e Rupert newsletter service seems to present an image of a Mayor frustrated with some of the attention that is coming his way these days.

In his message the mayor reviews the happenings of the last sixty days or so, takes time to remind city residents that his office is drastically underfunded, that he has an insane schedule and must endure much more travel on the road than he would like.

They are all possibly points that are correct and could solicit sympathy, but also ones that will be flashpoints for those that have already decided that he’s not their candidate anymore. His public correspondences will no doubt provide much in the way of talking points for those that might be looking for a new direction at city hall and will use his thoughts and words to their benefit over the next six weeks.

And that’s not a particularly helpful thing heading into an election.

The common rule now when it comes to e mail messages is to think twice before you hit send and if you aren’t sure hit delete.

Next time the Mayor contemplates calling citizens and voters complainers, he might wish to give some thought to that rule…


Letter to the Editor
The Daily News
Wednesday, Oct 1, 2008
Page four

Let’s support the trailblazers

To the editor,

It was good to see no just one, but two front page stories last week on the Rushbrook Trail Project. It’s a pity that you featured the complainers, not the super busy community volunteers running the project.

The men and women of Rotary are working hard to give the citizens of Prince Rupert a new trail and have fallen a little behind on their self imposed time line. Big deal!

I’m reminded of childhood stories of the Little Red H en, where the lazy animals criticize the industrious hen, offer absolutely no help and then impatiently demand all the benefits.

Thanks Rotarians. We’ll continue to support your project.

Sincerely,
Herb Pond, Mayor


Message from the Mayor

e-Rupert

September edition

My daughter recently returned to town for a visit and excitedly greeted an old hockey coach, only to be rudely rebuffed because of something that I’m alleged to have done, or not done. Fortunately she’s far more grown up than this person twice her age. She’s quite a kid.

I work with a group of people who really put themselves out for Prince Rupert. Many earn less than they could elsewhere, and they are regaled by those who do leave with gleeful stories of the sheer delight of working in organizations where layers of support staff and adequate resources make for a light work week.

Even still, an amazing core group actually choose to pour their life energy into this paper-thin organization called the City of Prince Rupert; a corporation only recently yanked back from the edge of bankruptcy; where managers work ridiculous hours and take personal risks almost daily; where frontline employees coax last gasps from ancient equipment; where citizen Councillors give of themselves beyond all reasonable expectation.

They all fall into bed each night reviewing the lists of critical jobs that just couldn’t be done, and hoping that at bare minimum enough of the truly important tasks have been tackled to at least keep us staggering forward.

And I’m proud to be one of them. For six years we’ve used a drastically underfunded Mayors office to edge Prince Rupert into a peer group of major world cities.

I’ve gladly given everything I’ve got and loved almost every minute of it; earning a fraction of what I might have anywhere else, accumulating no pension, and receiving no benefit package. My schedule is insane. I detest life on the road, but willingly go wherever Council sends me if it will benefit Prince Rupert. Unfortunately, it’s our families that pay a price that very few understand.

This morning I opened a form letter signed by a friend and packed with inaccurate information and accusations. Not once did my phone ring with the simple courtesy of a fact check. How disappointing.

But most disconcerting is the untold cost that these sometimes mean-spirited and all-too-often self-serving attacks are taking. It’s unraveling the stellar reputation we had developed as a community; it is distracting an under-resourced organization from the mission-critical tasks; and it’s certainly doing nothing to ease the already huge challenge we face in attracting other talented people to the City.

Now, I’m not suggesting that there shouldn’t be disagreement. That’s healthy, and I’ve always encouraged it. But rather, it’s the manner in which we disagree and question each other that will make all the difference in our future as a community. A good start would be eliminating all the “unmarked brown paper envelopes” slipped anonymously into mailboxes, and maybe we could stop penning the termination notices before any kind of due process has occurred. Let’s disagree – even passionately – but let’s learn from our children and do it with respect.

Mayor Herb Pond