Busy with meetings as he wraps up consulting projects before taking office, Vernon mayor-elect Victor Cumming hasn’t had a chance to figure out which of his councillors will sit on what committees.
Cumming defeated three others in Saturday’s municipal election.
“I’m meeting with (former Mayor Mund) Akbal and the administrator late Friday, so we’re about a week away,” said Cumming who, along with his council, will be sworn in Monday, Nov. 5.
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Cumming will have Mund’s experience to rely on, not only for selecting committee members but all mayoral matters as Mund successfully campaigned for one of the six council seats.
Mund joins fellow incumbents Scott Anderson, Dalvir Nahal and Brian Quiring, and newcomers Kelly Fehr and Kari Gares on Cumming’s council.
“My first priority four years ago was selecting people for all the committees, RDNO (Regional District of North Okanagan) and GVAC (Greater Vernon Advisory Committee),” said Mund. “I talked to incumbents Juliette (Cunningham), Catherine (Lord), Brian and Bob (Spiers) to get their viewpoints on what they do. You’re in a learning experience so you want to have some credibility when you sit at these boards.
“And there’s nothing better than having experience. I relied on those four, especially in the first year, to guide me until I got up to speed.”
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Having incumbents will be valuable to Cumming and the new councillors in terms of getting caught up with what the city has been working on.
“Victor has been involved working in all kinds of capacities with local governments, he has a pulse on what’s going on,” said Mund. “I’ll be able to help him here and there.”
Mund said Cumming and the two councillors should expect to do quite a bit of reading over the next month.
“In my first month, I read through the entire report on the Civic Arena, read through the whole report on the water plan,” he said. “Kelly and Kari are well educated, they’ve worked as part of organizations, they’ll understand. It’s catching up with some reading is all it is. It’s going back and seeing what kind of information exists. I think all three will catch on real quick.”
Gares is a mortgage broker who is also president of North Okanagan Minor Lacrosse. Fehr is a co-executive director with the Turning Points Collaborative Society (formerly John Howard Society of North Okanagan) and Cumming is an economist and consultant.
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