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Whistler council sworn into office

Melamed outlines the work ahead in inaugural address

It was succinct and ceremonious Monday night as the 15 th Whistler council took their oaths of office.

And though there was no official municipal business on the agenda, the hard work ahead wasn’t far from many minds.

Mayor Ken Melamed highlighted several key issues facing the new council in his inaugural address. They range from Olympic planning and driving more visits to the resort to employee housing projects and provincial negotiations. The list is long. The projects are complex. And the timelines for some things are tight.

"Your new team is not shy of hard work and is ready for the challenges ahead," said Whistler’s new mayor.

"We have a great plan to guide us, and an engaged populace ready to respond to the call."

Several community members, council members’ family and friends, and municipal staff were on hand to witness the ceremony, which began with O Canada performed by the Whistler Singers.

Dressed in a dark blue suit to mark the solemnity of the occasion, Melamed was the first to be officially sworn into office by Madam Justice Sunni S. Stromberg-Stein.

He then stood in his place at the mayor’s seat in the centre of the council table, flanked by two Mounties.

The new councillors then took their turn one by one, each pledging to serve the community for the next three years as the Resort Municipality of Whistler rolls up its sleeves and gets ready for the 2010 Olympic Games.

Council’s work officially begins this week.

"What I said to the administrator is: we’ve got a new council with a lot to do," said Melamed after the ceremony. "I don’t want to put orientation off until January. We need to start to get off the mark."

Originally council was to meet for an all day budget orientation session on Wednesday, Dec. 14. The mayor asked council to meet on Dec. 7 also for a two-hour orientation about how municipal hall works and council’s roles and responsibilities.

"There’s a big learning curve for the new councillors," added the mayor.

There are four rookie councillors on this team – Bob Lorriman, Ralph Forsyth, Tim Wake and Eckhard Zeidler – as well as Nancy Wilhelm-Morden who served three terms on council throughout the ’80s and ’90s.

The only incumbent is Councillor Gord McKeever, who said Monday he was feeling "pleased and eager to get on with it."

The evening ceremony capped off a day that began with a council meeting for the first time on Whistler Mountain for a "team ski." That was the first small step in building a team, something the last council was challenged to do throughout its term.

"More than that (the ski outing) is needed to make a team," said McKeever. "But these are positive steps."

The new team will be participating in a council strategic planning and team building retreat in the third week of January.

"I will leave the specifics of what I expect to be council priorities for the coming term until after our strategic planning session in January," said Melamed in his address. "However, we all know that high on the list will be the development plans for the athletes village, Lot 1/9, and general preparations for 2010."

Work on those things is still ongoing he added later.

The evening also marked the time for the mayor to announce his council appointments.

Melamed appointed himself to the board of some of the municipality’s major partner organizations. Among his duties the mayor will be a part of the board of Tourism Whistler, the Whistler Housing Authority, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and One Whistler.

"I put myself on a lot of the big committees because I feel part of my training as mayor is to get caught up and initiated, if you will, into the bigger focus (of the resort municipality)," he said after the meeting. "As a councillor I really didn’t have access to those committees and so I felt that was actually a gap in my understanding of the way the resort works, so it’s an important part of my training."

As for the other appointments, Melamed canvassed council for their own interests and priorities during their term before making his decisions.

Councillor Wake, former general manager of the Whistler Housing Authority, will continue his work with housing as a WHA board member and council appointee for the non-cost housing initiatives taskforce.

Councillor Zeidler will be able to fulfill his campaign promise of the "green seat" on council as the council representative on AWARE and the Forest and Wildland Advisory Committee.

Former village business owner Councillor Lorriman, will sit on the CC1 taskforce and the Chamber of Commerce.

Councillor Wilhelm-Morden will use her expertise on the RMOW Audit & Finance Standing Committee and the Human Resources Standing Committee.

Councillor McKeever will focus on governance, both on the RMOW Governance & Ethics Standing Committee and the Tourism Whistler Governance Committee.

And Councillor Forsyth who is the council representative on the board of the Whistler Public Library, said he was particularly pleased to also be on the Whistler 2020 Development Corp. board as well, which is responsible for the athletes village.

These are just a snippet of the council appointments.