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Brian Coleman won’t seek re-election

First elected in 2017, Div. 4 Westlock County councillor wants to spend more time with his family
WES- Brian Coleman
Westlock County Division 4 Coun. Brian Coleman will not seek re-election this fall. First elected in 2017, Coleman said he and his wife plan on spending more time with their children and grandchildren.

WESTLOCK – Brian Coleman will not seek Westlock County’s Division 4 seat in the Oct. 18 municipal election, saying he wants to spend more time with his family, especially in light of the ongoing pandemic.

Elected as part of a wave of six rookie county councillors in 2017, Coleman, who’s been a moderate voice of reason on council, said COVID-19 has made the last year-and-a-half especially tough on him and his wife Mary Jane as they haven’t been able to visit their children and grandchildren. Coleman dominated the 2017 Division 4 race with 221 votes, which was 62 more than the all the votes cast for the other three candidates.

“The impact on my wife and my family is far more significant than I really appreciated when I initially ran. We used to go away for three months in the winter for several years and I thought that maybe we could still go away for a month-and-a-half or two months … but that’s just not possible with all the committee work, the research and council commitments,” said Coleman.

“And not being able to see our daughter and grandson in St. Louis, Missouri for the past two years and not being able to see our son in Lloydminster … I came to realize that at our age we need to take advantage of those opportunities and if I run for council again we can’t do that. I’m 76 years old now, so I would have been 80 if I ran again and won,” he added with a chuckle.

“I’ve loved the challenge of the position, I like doing the research and economic analysis and have strong relations with all councillors. I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Coleman, who moved to Westlock County in 2003, worked for Telus (previously AGT) for 34 years, then spent nine years as CAO of Westlock and District Housing — he also did one year on contract running the Westlock Seniors Foundation and district housing, which he helped merge. Before taking that job he let his name stand in the 2004 municipal election and finished second in the Div. 4 race behind Charles Navratil.

Current reeve and Division 2 incumbent Jared Stitsen has confirmed he’s running again this fall, while the remainder have not publicly stated their intentions — Division 6 has been vacant since Fred Slobodian resigned last November. Christine Wiese, a first-time candidate in Division 7, is the only other person who’s submitted her paperwork.

A numbers guy

Numbers are Coleman’s strength and it’s the part of the job he’ll miss the most.

But if there’s one regret, it’s that the county hasn’t been able to find new revenue streams — Coleman calls it the No. 1 challenge for Westlock County going into the future.

“If you look at what happened in 2017, that’s when we started to lose linear revenue and that has continued right up until 2021. Then there’s been more provincial downloading, like the RCMP costs — the first year was an additional $112,000 for us and that’s going up to $440,000 by next year,” he said.

“Our budgets are getting squeezed from both ends so it’s been a major challenge. Costs aren’t going down and then there’s the downloading, so we have to find new sources of revenue. And during the last four years that’s been difficult … especially over the last year due to COVID. To me, that’s the biggest disappointment, not being able to find new sources of revenue.”

And to find and grow those revenue streams he said it’s going to take a significant investment from the county, town and village, via the regional economic development committee.

“We have to spend some money on economic development. There are some huge opportunities right now in agri-food development and Westlock County needs to get on that,” he bluntly stated.

Looking at the other side of the ledger, Coleman says costs are in line and the county is doing the same amount of work with substantially fewer employees.

“In 2011 there were 62 or 63 employees at Westlock County. Today there’s 47. We’re doing the same amount of work today at Westlock County as Sturgeon County is doing with 220 employees,” he said. “Every employee at Westlock County is faced with stressful days because of the changing demands and priorities. I respect the entire administrative staff at Westlock County. (Interim CAO) Rick McDonald started the process of flattening the organization and the CAO that we’ve hired is continuing the process. So I think we’re going to have a lot better organizational structure in place to meet the needs of the people.”

And as for those who claim county taxes continue to skyrocket, Coleman countered and said his own tax bills from 2017 and 2021 have barely increased.

“All you see is people complaining about tax increases. And yes our mill rate has gone up, but the tax levy has not because assessment has gone down. In 2017, the municipal portion of my taxes was $2,388 — that doesn’t include the school requisition or Homeland Housing. In 2021, my municipal taxes are $2,429,” he said.

“So that’s a $41-increase over four years. That’s a .4 per cent increase per year at a time when we’re losing revenue and our costs are going up. When you look at the real numbers this council has done a very good job at managing the budgets.”

Good work

Although the spotlight is usually brightest when there’s controversy, Coleman said there’s been a number of significant accomplishments over the last four years.

He pointed back to the start of his term that came on the heels of the municipal inspection report, which among other things, highlighted disrespectful and demeaning behaviour, unauthorized transactions and weak organizational leadership at the county.

“When we got elected the ski hill was a huge issue and the municipal inspection report had just been released and there were 27 or 28 items that had to dealt with. Then there was Wiesel Creek and the land-use bylaw and the flood plain,” Coleman recalled.

“Those were major, major issues that we had to deal with right from the day we were elected. And from my perspective they’ve all been dealt with.”

The old land-use bylaw was of particular concern, Coleman said, and had been based on bad information.

“We had a huge issue with the flood plain and it was based on changes to the land-use bylaw in 2016 there were made before we were elected. Basically when that land-use bylaw was implemented it stopped all development in the flood plain and it was based on a map that made no sense … it wasn’t accurate and was useless,” he said

“We had a number of angry farmers and people come forward and we listened to them. We set up a committee and we developed a new map. If you go on our website and go on the GIS mapping, that LiDAR mapping is there. You can see the elevations within centimetres on your own property. The original cost was estimated at $480,000, but through working with a few organizations we got the work done for under $100,000. That was a major success story that most people are not aware of.”

The intermunicipal collaboration frameworks and intermunicipal development plans with the town, Village of Clyde and other bordering municipalities have also yielded positive results, Coleman noted.

“The ones with the town, those were very difficult negotiations. But we came out with an IDP that I think encourages joint development with the town. We completed an ICF, which was very tough because it means the county is paying more for recreation — it increased our costs in the first year about $123,000. And for some county taxpayers that’s a negative, but it’s a more accurate funding model.

“But what some people don’t realize is that in January 2021 we signed a utility agreement with the town that saw them take over some of our responsibilities and we pay them for it. And that allowed Westlock County to basically eliminate its utilities department and because of that we’ve basically saved what we’re now paying for recreation. It’s that kind of regional thinking that will move both municipalities forward.”

The years ahead

Looking to the future, Coleman said the county’s main office, which was built in the early 1960, will need to either be sustainably upgraded or replaced.

And although that won’t be cheap, the county will be shedding itself of the debentures on the ski hill chalet and public works shop in the next three years, which will free up about $230,000 annually.

“Something needs to be done at the admin building … that’s going to be a big project. I know taxpayers aren’t going to want to spend the money, but it’s getting to the point with air quality there that it might not even be safe for people to be in it,” he said.

Staying on infrastructure, he also said the county needs a comprehensive asset management plan in place, a process the town started work on back in 2018.

“We’ve started work on it, but it’s still a long ways away. It’s one I’ve put a lot of personal focus on. It’s a big project and it’s not an easy one to do.”

Coleman also contends the county needs to continue engaging with ratepayers. That said he’s also well aware that a top-priority issue in his division, which includes a heavy concentration of acreages, may be different from an agriculture-first division, or one that includes hamlets and other urban infrastructure.

“I think we need to continue getting public input. We have to be more open and work closer with the public, put the options on the table and then ask them for their opinions. That’s one area this county has to make a huge improvement on,” Coleman continued.

And while generally speaking council did get along, there needs to be more unity going forward. Coleman said they also need to look at the division structure and the possibility of electing a reeve-at-large, similar to how the town elects a mayor.

“When you look at our procedure bylaw it clearly states that once a decision is made, no matter which way you voted, you’re supposed to support the decision of council. And in some cases with this past group that didn’t happen and for me that was a disappointment,” he said.

“But I think changes to the structure of council and the divisions will be a focus of this new council … we started looking at it, but just ran out of time.”

George Blais, TownandCountryToday.com

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