HERE'S A THOUGHT FOR ELECTION REFORM

---

INCREASE NANAIMO CITY COUNCIL BY FOUR 

Well, here I sit at 2:00 am and after only four hours sleep I found myself still doing the Monday morning quarterback routine about our recent civic election. Of course my perspective this time around is different than from years past and reflecting on the results will provide fodder for several upcoming articles on this site. But this is the first idea to drift through my thinker, as sleep is escaping me at the moment.

Of course I realize this thought would not have crossed my noodle, if I hadn't run in this election and come in 12th.

That said, would the city of Nanaimo be better served if we did in fact have 12 councillors, arguably 12 heads should be better than 8 don't you think? Would 12 councillors have given us the two year long running Colliery Dam saga? The $16 million (built without a tender) shiny new office? The $120,000 Diana Krall loo?

COST OF FOUR MORE COUNCILLORS

I am usually the last one advocating spending more money at city hall, but as I am known to do, I did crunch a few numbers, and think we could find the money and in fact it would be better invested in the four new Councillors.

If each councilor costs $35,000/yr. the total cost for the four new councilors would be a whopping $140,000, which if you think about it has only bought us one spin doctor recently.

So the question to consider ---- would Nanaimo be better served with four new councillors or one spin doctor who works to keep the councillors from putting their feet in their mouths?

Of course, the other option would be to not elect four more councilors, and fire the spin doctor and save taxpayers $140,000.

---

My new byline:

Jim Taylor .....  
Nanaimo Councillor-in-waiting