Shane Judge believes there needs to be a change in attitude for those tasked with running the city.
The retired city hall reporter, who is challenging for the mayor’s chair on Oct. 27, was outraged with the treatment people were receiving from some members of council when asking for an event centre plebiscite at a meeting earlier this year.
“(Councillors) said if you don’t like what we’re doing, run against us,” Judge said. “I said, you know what, I’ll take up that cause. That’s what the trigger was for me, to not only run for city council but to run for mayor.”
Judge first became concerned with the council and administration during the development of the waterfront, with those concerns only heightening during the leasing of municipal lands to Horizon Wind to build a wind farm.
The recent sale of the Municipal Golf Course without information about the bidding process shows the need for more transparency from the group leading the city, he argued.
“I don’t like the direction this group is going with their arrogance and secrecy,” he said. “I want to make a wholesale change and I want it to start at the top.”
Given his background covering developments out of city hall there are few people who have spent as much time inside the building over the past 30 years as Judge has.
That gives him unique experience after watching the various paths charted by previous administrations.
“I think 30 years of watching intimately how council operates and reading all the reports, except the in camera ones councillors get, has put me in a real comfort zone for knowing what to do and what not to do,” Judge said.
“I guess I’ve seen the mistakes and I know how to avoid them.”
One mistake that Judge sees the most recent council making is their pursuit of a new event centre.
There are much more pressing needs for this city, rather than a lavish want.
“We have a declining, shrinking and aging population and we have an aging infrastructure. I know, for example, over the next 20 years we have to do more than $200 million worth of upgrades to our water distribution system,” he said.
“That’s $200 million and you want to put $100 million towards an event and convention centre that’s nice to have, instead of drinking water which you have to have. To me those are just two different priorities and the one that wins for me is water.”
When such a facility needs to be built Judge believes it shouldn’t come with a price tag anywhere near as high as $100 million.
To tackle safety issues Judge proposes giving the Crime Prevention Council $1 million to distribute throughout the city to any group with an idea to foster community engagement.
Real change comes from the grassroots, he said.
“I want to unleash the power of this community to turn itself around,” he said. “I think by putting some real money, for once, into neighbourhoods instead of these grandiose projects is the way to go.”
Find Shane Judge on Facebook.
