Mayor Colin Basran at his re-election campaign launch.

(ROB MUNRO / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

LANGUAGE ADVISORY: Contains direct quotes from Mayor Colin Basran

Whether it’s prime minister, premier or mayor, every election is a referendum on the performance of the incumbent. And that’s a tough question in Kelowna these days.

The city has prospered during the Reign of Basran The Petulant, (or at least some have) but whether Basran and city councillors had anything to do with that at all, is one question voters might want to ask themselves.

In the face of a homelessness problem and lawlessness on its streets, Basran likes to tout his record which is largely his shared accomplishments at bending the ear of the provincial government, but which has done very little so far for the city itself.

Whatever record you perceive of what he’s done, you must also consider how he’s done it. He looks at rules as a challenge to see how far he can go before breaking them.

That judgment led him to believe renting or accepting a rent-free waterfront home from one of B.C.’s biggest developers was perfectly acceptable. He and his team deliberately skirted election rules by raising campaign funds outside of an election period.

Marshall Jones, managing editor

At his own carefully managed campaign launch, he thought it was a good idea to tell a council candidate to “get the fuck out” in front of witnesses. I had to be convinced this was a poor move — I think more people deserve the privilege of swearing at and humiliating Ron Cannan in public — but fact is Cannan is likely to get elected (why, I swear I have no idea, this election should be Anyone But Ron Cannan) and Colin will have to work with him. So much for being a "uniter", he can't even muster any sense of decorum or restraint.

This is not unusual behaviour for him. Several sources tell me about similar public confrontations with him, usually in pubs of some sort.

At a recent Kelowna International Airport press event, Basran refused to shake hands with Tom Dyas, his main rival in his last election campaign and again this October. In Basran’s eyes, you're either with him or against him — an enemy.

It’s the same around the council table. Watch closely to see how he deals with differing opinions, not that he finds much of that. When Coun. Maxine DeHart dared oppose his position on Kelowna Springs Golf Course being turned into an industrial park, he rudely and erroneously suggested she recuse herself simply because she works in tourism. He regularly shows contempt and disrespect to councillors Charlie Hodge and Mohini Singh, those most likely to have a different view.

He likes to run a tight meeting but watch him in a Central Okanagan Regional District meeting he doesn’t chair. Seriously. Look at him. He's like a teenager at the dinner table, staring at his phone the entire time, contributing absolutely nothing unless directly asked. You can see in the video, he's not texting with this thumbs, he’s either shopping or scrolling through social media. I realize the regional district can be a snore, and often involves subjects he can’t even vote on. But look at the body language of every other director — they show respect to speakers by actually listening to them.

Colin can’t be bothered. He wouldn’t even attend the meetings at all if Ron Seymour from the Daily Courier hadn’t pointed out that he was barely attending the minimum for meetings to collect his mayor’s salary top up (he makes roughly $110,000 as mayor and another $20,000 for regional district).

And then there’s his relationship with the City of Kelowna and the people who work there. Make no mistake, the City has technically done nothing wrong in sharing and spending taxpayers money on Facebook ads and videos touting Basran, they’re too smart for that.

But right there on the City of Kelowna’s Facebook page, you can see they loaded ads for this week — the final week they can — touting their own podcasts featuring a “candid” conversation with Basran. It’s not forbidden but voters need to understand this is new at the municipal level. Your tax dollars spent advertising a preferred candidate.

And it will likely be repeated in this and other cities if they get away with it.

Every other municipality my newsroom deals goes out of its way to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, but not Basran’s buddies at the City of Kelowna.

I confirmed today that a career City staffer, an executive assistant to the city manager since 2013 and most recently Executive Office Manager left the city a few weeks ago — and is now working on Basran’s campaign.

Here’s how she describes her City job on LinkedIn: "Provide and coordinate a diverse range of executive-level support through the effective management of the Executive Office including the Mayor and City Manager’s offices. My position provides confidential, high-level administrative support, professional expertise, leadership, strategic planning, and performance management. I also act as a liaison between the public and elected officials and senior management.”

Never mind how close Basran is to senior bureaucrats, this is a direct line from staff to his campaign. She's been privy to a lot of information in her position and now it's in Basran's hands. Would anyone be surprised if she returned to the City after the election?

She tells me she’s not actually “working” on his campaign, just doing “research.” I’m not sure there’s a difference.

There’s something rotten at the City of Kelowna. From what I hear, there's a burgeoning scandal or two waiting to burst and City Hall probably deserves a clean slate. If they’re this bold in public and with another prospective mayoral candidate already calling out their activities — what are they doing behind closed doors?

Returning Basran to the Mayor’s office would be a reward for all these shenanigans.

— Marshall Jones is the Managing Editor of iNFOnews.ca

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