Over the past weeks while I’ve been doing door-to-door canvassing across Ward 4 I’ve heard many cases of residents who have raised concerns they’ve had with councilors or with city staff. These have included such varied concerns as traffic safety, sidewalk maintenance, snow removal, illegal garbage dumping, and rodent problems.

While some of these situations were resolved in a timely, satisfactory manner, in a number of cases either there was no follow through by the folks the residents had reached out to or they received conflicting information from different representatives.

City councilors don’t wield formal authority over city staff and they are not miracle workers. While they can use influence to elevate the priority of a resident’s concern, there are limits on how much they can achieve or how frequently they intercede.

This is nothing new to me. Over the many years I spent managing projects, I never had formal authority over the interested parties I needed to engage with. In many cases, they had concerns about the direction of the project or specific asks of my project team. While I might not have always been able to fulfill their needs and wants, I ensured that I represented their interests to those who had the authority to do so and made sure that the interested parties were kept in the loop regarding the status of their requests.

And that’s my commitment to you. If I’m elected and you bring a concern to my attention, I will advocate on your behalf with the rest of council and engage city staff appropriately to get it resolved. And if it cannot be resolved, I will let you know as soon as I do and try to provide alternatives.

That’s the least we should expect from our elected officials.

For more information on my campaign platform, please visit kiron4welland.com.

Authorized by the Official Agent for the Kiron Bondale Campaign.

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