Brian Smitheram is one of the names for Castlegar City Council that will be appearing on October’s ballot. Smitheram is now retired and has returned to his hometown after living away for most of his career in the federal public service.
He says he decided to run for council after a few issues started to peak his interest. “The first one was waste management and garbage. I got involved with the City Council meetings trying to get some information about the new scheme they’d implemented here in Castlegar and that led to getting more interested and more involved about where my tax dollars were going.”
He says continuing the City’s work on asset management is an important aspect of the position for him. “One of the exciting steps, from my view, is once council has a handle on all this is going to be the opportunity to work on determining the service levels. By that I mean City Council is just now starting to look at engaging the community with that question, what services are really important to you?”
After this spring’s referendum on upgrades to the Complex, Smitheram asks whether there’s a better way to engage the public, as the majority didn’t show up to vote.
