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Mayor reflects on ‘hardest year’ in public office

Whistler’s ‘defining moment’ almost here; has it been worth it?
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It's been a tension-filled year in Whistler; no one knows that more so than Mayor Ken Melamed.

"It's been the hardest year of my professional life in politics," said the mayor in this week of reflection as he prepares to say goodbye to 2009 and welcome in the long-awaited year of 2010.

After nine years as a councillor and four years as council's leader, a role he never really expected to have, 2009 has left Whistler's mayor at a crossroads.

It's not as though there haven't been some personal milestones and accomplishments this year.

He has travelled far and wide telling Whistler's sustainability story and promoting its Whistler2020 community plan. That included a 10-city trip to Italy and France with 12 speaking engagements, a trip to four communities in Ontario and a whirlwind visit to Minneapolis-St. Paul where he delivered four presentations in eight hours.

He also turned down three other international invitations, choosing instead to speak via video-conference in Belgium and Sweden.

The taxpayer doesn't pay a dime for this.

"It's contributing to what I'm most passionate about, which is creating a better society, a more sustainable society for our children," said Melamed. "And also raising the profile and the respect for Whistler."

But, while Whistler was getting praise and accolades abroad, on the homefront tensions were rising.

The Whistler 2020 sustainability plan essentially puts an end to growth in the municipality. For the first time ever this year, the municipality was truly faced with a budgetary crisis of sorts - how to pay for all the services and upkeep of a world-class resort without relying on new development.

In the spring council passed an unpopular budget that paved the way for almost 20 per cent tax hikes over three years.

That was bad enough but, set against the backdrop of a catastrophic global economic crisis that had everyone on tenterhooks as pension plans floundered and jobs were on the line, it set the community on edge.

By the summertime, with little new information from Olympic organizers, there was a near constant questioning of the value to Whistler of hosting the 2010 Winter Games.

Council began responding to the worry and stress in the community with palpable tension among councillors and the last public meetings of 2009 were argumentative and a little hostile.

The man at the helm of it all, who has been publicly taken to task over the decisions of the past year, had one word for 2009: "brutal."

It's not as though he hasn't seen this before from the inside. He was, after all, part of Mayor Hugh O'Reilly's council in 2005 - a divisive and dysfunctional team, often at odds publicly with each other and with staff. It ultimately resulted in O'Reilly telecommuting from Hawaii, where he took up a new job, for the last four months of his term.

But, though Melamed wishes he could have perhaps changed the way council implemented some of its decisions in 2009, he stands behind those decisions.

Despite council going through the budget with a fine-tooth comb, there was, he said, no way around the tax increases. The new reality for Canadian municipalities is continual downloading from provincial and federal governments. At the same time, Whistler is reaching buildout and cannot rely on new growth to fund its budgets.

But sizable property tax increases bring corresponding scrutiny and critique of public spending. And it seemed this year everyone had an opinion.

"The community is hyper-sensitive about the budget and spending," said Melamed. "They have been hard on council."

It was particularly hard on council in the wake of a decision to begin installing parking meters in previously free lots in the village, a precursor to a resort-wide pay parking system eventually to come to the day skier parking lots.

Though council had approved pay parking in its budget, the decision took the community somewhat by surprise when it came time to actually put their money in the meters.

The outcry, including a public petition and a vocal and angry presence at council meetings, seemed to force council's hand to grant a temporary reprieve as it studied the implications of the parking system.

Pay parking quietly returned to the conference centre in November.

"Did we do it perfectly? No," answered the mayor. "Was the community engagement what it could have been? No."

But council's decision to re-evaluate pay parking, in the end, cost the municipality almost $400,000 in lost parking revenue.

"I wish we hadn't backed down," reflected Melamed. "We lost $390,000."

Given the pressures in the resort, more and more focus and angst shifted to the way the hall was spending money. New jackets for staff during the Games were vilified by some, Olympic tickets for some staff members and friends of Whistler were questioned by others. Decisions like these had some community members shaking their heads, though neither were paid for out of taxpayer monies.

Through it all, the mayor remained committed to supporting municipal staff, a decision too that may have fuelled tension on council and in the community, where there is a belief among some that municipal hall is overstaffed, highly paid and in the driver's seat as far as decisions are made.

"This has been another part of the tension, is that I continue to support staff in every response, in every consideration," he said. "This understanding that the staff take direction from council but that they are the professionals who do our work and that if we're going to build a highly functioning team and we're going to expect the work out of our staff, we need to treat them with respect. And that's the position I've always taken."

As for the much-anticipated 2010 Olympic Games, the mayor says he understands the pressure it has put on the community. Businesses are worried about the 2010 winter season. Some will be directly negatively impacted by the Games.

But he believes Whistler's defining moment is just on the horizon, and we know we're ready.

Still, when the world has come and gone and Whistler gets back to business as normal, the mayor is ready for the tough question.

"I was wrestling with this question through the last year because I know the question is coming: was it worth it? Would you do it again?"

He already has his answer.

"There's no question it has put stresses and strains on our community. The question of whether it's been worth it or not? There's no question in my mind now. The benefits that have accrued to Whistler already are enough to have made it worth it. We don't even have to do the Games. The Games is a bonus."

He begins the list: Cheakamus Crossing, the medals plaza, the highway upgrade, the Peak 2 Peak gondola, the fibre optic upgrades, the transit system, the new wastewater treatment plant, the compost facility, the transfer of ownership of the day skier lots.

"These were all catalyzed by the Games and wouldn't have happened in the same timeframe," said Melamed.

Cheakamus Crossing is, he said, Whistler's crucial Games legacy. The mayor remembers with pride a community open house one sunny Sunday in September where hundreds of new homeowners and members of the public came out to see the $161 million athletes' village, which will become resident housing for hundreds after the Games. It was a proud moment to see the overwhelming reaction of awe and admiration in the eyes of the community.

That all seemed to come crashing down two short months later when homeowners began threatening to pull out of the development after realizing its proximity to a long operating asphalt plant.

The mayor and council braced for the outcry and for a very brief moment in time, Melamed imagined it all unraveling.

"As I sat preparing for that meeting, thinking about what kind of responses there could be to the members of our community, I kept coming back to: Cheakamus Crossing is a fantastic neighbourhood," said the mayor. "That doesn't change. It's going to be one of the greatest legacies of the Games. It's going to change people's lives in Whistler."

Council agreed to move the plant by June 1, 2010, before residents settle into their new homes.

And now, sitting in his office reflecting over the good and the bad of 2009, Melamed is at a defining moment in his professional political career. His New Year's resolution is to take the time to plan out his future.

"I feel like I'm at the right time for a crossroads," he mused. "It'll be 15 years in local government in 2011 and the question is: is it time to do something else?"

He has yet to find the answer.