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Town paying for AUMA board campaign

Okotoks town council is looking to have a voice at the provincial level by supporting one of its own seeking a position with the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association. Coun.
Coun. Tanya Thorn is campaigning for a position on the AUMA board of directors. Voting takes place Oct. 7 at the annual AUMA conference.
Coun. Tanya Thorn is campaigning for a position on the AUMA board of directors. Voting takes place Oct. 7 at the annual AUMA conference.

Okotoks town council is looking to have a voice at the provincial level by supporting one of its own seeking a position with the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association.

Coun. Tanya Thorn has put her name in the running for a position on the group’s board of directors. Campaigns and voting take place at the association’s annual conference, beginning Oct. 5 with final votes on Oct. 7.

Council voted to provide up to $5,000 to fund Thorn’s campaign for a board seat at its Sept. 26 meeting. The money will fund materials such as brochures and buttons to promote Thorn at the conference.

She said investing in the campaign is worthwhile for the Town because if she is successful, she will have further insight and input with AUMA, learning what other municipalities are dealing with and influencing the provincial government.

“It was something that’s kind of been talked about briefly amongst our council, and our new CAO was really pushing this was something we needed to seriously consider,” said Thorn. “I’m putting my name forward, but it’s a position we’re looking to have representation for the Town of Okotoks.”

It’s been more than 15 years since the Town of Okotoks had representation at AUMA, she said.

Another benefit of having a councillor on the AUMA board is the opportunity to learn from other municipalities, said Thorn.

Thorn said she is interested in seeing what other communities are doing and drawing inspiration from ideas shared at the AUMA table.

Coun. Matt Rockley agreed with the potential positive impact of Thorn winning a seat on the AUMA board, and supported spending up to $5,000 on the campaign. He said setting the maximum expenditure at that amount would provide Thorn with the flexibility to purchase materials necessary to run a successful campaign.

“It’s a short timeline and it’s a lot of people that will need to be reached through the campaign materials,” said Rockley. “I thought it was important to have some flexibility to make it happen in a short timeframe.”

Rockley defended Thorn’s campaign at the Sept. 26 council meeting when some councillors suggested there was a pecuniary interest for Thorn or that it was inappropriate for council to support her campaign up to $5,000 rather than capping it at lesser amounts like $1,000 or $2,000.

“At the council meeting I stated that I thought some of council was acting in poor taste with the questions and insinuations,” he said. “It’s not like she came to council and administration and said, ‘I really want to do this, will you financially support the campaign?’

“It was something that she volunteered to do and I thought the questions and comments from some of council were trying to paint a picture in the public that coun. Thorn was looking to personally gain from this, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

He said Thorn stepped up as part of the team to represent the Town as a whole and he felt the need to set the record straight in public. It’s not the same as running for a seat on town council, he said, where all campaign expenses are borne by individual candidates.

Mayor Bill Robertson said he wasn’t comfortable with the spending level set up to $5,000. He said he supports Thorn’s campaign but thought council should have set a lower bar for expenses.

“I thought it was a little excessive for running a campaign to try to get, in my opinion, 250 people to vote for a particular candidate,” said Robertson. “It’s not (Coun. Thorn) I had a problem with, and I don’t have a problem giving some financial support, but $5,000 seemed a little rich.”

However, he said conversations he’s had with Town administration since the council meeting have led him to believe the total campaign expense should come in well below the $5,000 mark.

Okotoks CAO Elaine Vincent said it’s common practice for municipalities to fund campaigns for their councillors to run for a position on the AUMA board. While working for the City of Red Deer, research into campaign expenses revealed 90 per cent of municipalities funded their candidates.

“Municipalities generally fund the campaign because it benefits the region,” said Vincent. “They’re not there representing themselves as an individual, they’re a voice of the municipality and the region at the table.”

She said having Thorn elected to the board would place Okotoks in a strong position to influence what the Province sees as priorities for municipalities.

Thorn would be able to speak to the unique challenges of Okotoks and the Foothills region, she said, like sustainability and growth issues.

“Everyone knows that use related to water, but the provincial policy on water is going to be critical as we move forward,” said Vincent. “If Okotoks has the ability to help influence those decisions, that’s a lever that if we can pull it we want to be able to do that.”

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