-Councillors asked to come up with '100-day' projects-

OSOYOOS TIMES-December 3, 2008-

By Karen KnelsenrnOsoyoos Times

The newly elected council took their seats in council chambers at Osoyoos Town Hall on Dec. 1 following a few brief words from outgoing Coun. Dick Flintoft and Mayor John Slater.
Coun. Allan Carswell could not attend the meeting.
Stu Wells was sworn in as mayor and Margaret Chadsey, Ted Cronmiller, Michael Ryan and C.J. Rhodes were sworn in as councillors.
Incumbent water councillor Claude Moreira was also sworn in, but outgoing water councillor Tony Laranjo exited the meeting at that point.
The new town council will have the responsibility of appointing a second water councillor to sit alongside Moreira within 30 days.
The Town is still asking for anyone from the community who is interested in filling the position to come forward.
After the new crew took their oaths and signed on the dotted line, they sat down and got straight to business.
The first order of the evening was the appointing of portfolios for each of the new council members.
Cronmiller took on corporate services and will help Chadsey with the finance committee.
Chadsey will also be looking after the recreation and culture portfolio and will serve as an alternate for Wells in his responsibilities as regional district director and Okanagan Regional Library board member.
Rhodes was given the responsibility of operational engineering and Destination Osoyoos liaison, which he will share with Ryan, who will also look after the community development portfolio.
Acting mayor appointments were also made and Wells announced the order would follow the alphabet based on last names on a rotational basis.
Chadsey will start this month, Cronmiller will serve as acting mayor in January and Rhodes and Ryan will follow in February and March.
Bank signing authority was given to Wells, Cronmiller and Chadsey.
Following the election in November, Wells went on the record with the Osoyoos Times as saying he intended his new council to hit the ground running with what he called a 100-day project.
He said he would ask each of the new council members to put forth a project to go in what he referred to as the 100-day file and they would have 100 days to accomplish those projects.
The projects need not be large, he said, but they had to be important to each of the councillors.
Prior to the council meeting, Wells said that he will be asking for each councillor's project idea at the next council meeting on Dec. 15.
For the rest of the month, members of the new municipal government, many of them first-timers, will be training for their positions.
We're going to Grand Forks on the second and third (for) a governance workshop put on by George Cuff. He's the government guru, Wells said earlier in the day before he was sworn in.
Cuff, president of George B. Cuff and Associates Ltd., is the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Wells said.
On our return, Barry Romanko, our CAO (chief administrative officer), he's got a full day (for training) on the ninth and a full day on the 15th, he added.
Wells is confident that the new council will be well advised of their roles and the various procedures they'll need to follow by the end of the year.
These new councillors are going to be on the ground running by Christmas, he said. They're going to be acting like seasoned vets.
reporter@osoyoostimes.comrn