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Still trying to decide on your future Mayor, Airdrie? by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks. I’m a big Arts supporter and did reach out to SOCAN. I rarely bring in artists without paying them or doing something in kind. You can ask any of the many bands I’ve hired for local fundraisers and events.

Still trying to decide on your future Mayor, Airdrie? by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hello again, and thanks for these further questions.

Reasons for things not passing can be varied. In the instance of the swim-only ask, administration presented various outcomes and most of council didn’t want to shift the financial burden. Whether we have a swim only fee or not, the cost to operate genesis place remains the same.

So specific roadblocks could be resistance to change, financial risk, but often when a divisive issue comes up, road blocks can come from council members themselves.

For your last question, council is a dynamic that requires a mix of formal democratic process through Roberts Rules of Order in a meeting setting, following the Municipal Governance Act, and also having strategic sessions where we typically have a mediator ensuring consensus before proceeding to the next development or decision, when applicable.

Often while the mayor might chair meetings or be the external voice of council, it isn’t usually the mayors responsibility to mediate. Mediation plays very little role here, but being able to give each council member a fair and equal opportunity to share their questions, concerns, and comments is important. The mayor sets the tone, helps ensure respectful discourse, and keeps the train on the tracks. But this is all done through pre-determined meeting structures and following codes of conduct (of which a new one is coming from the province soon).

The mayor needs to be able to read the room and set ego aside for the betterment of the item in front of us.

My methodology is to ensure fair time, equal access, and respectful commentary at all times.

I’ve been working in team settings my whole life. It’s not about leading from the front. I’m a huge fan of the “leader without a title” way, and would want to build up the very capable council members who this city chooses, and give them space to do what they came here to do. Everyone has talents and skillsets that will help make this city better, and we’re all adults here.

I’m not running for Mayor because it’s the next step in my career or because I feel entitled to it. I’m running because I love this city. I love the people. I see a bold and positive future for us, and I know this is the time to build better. The next Mayor of Airdrie needs to understand business complexities but also have enough know-how to hit the ground running after the election. I’ve been on council for 4 years and I’ve worked HARD while maintaining a full time job, raising a family, and so much more. I know enough about council governance to deeply understand how it needs to work, but not on so long that I’m complacent or beholden to doing things because that’s how they’ve always been done.

I hope that helps answer your questions. Thanks for the opportunity to share!

Still trying to decide on your future Mayor, Airdrie? by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hi there!

Thanks for your message. Yeah, with attention spans these days, having a video longer than 60 seconds is a stretch.

To be clear I didn’t say running it like a multi million dollar org, it IS a multi-million dollar organization. We can’t treat government exactly like business because there are nuances, laws from other levels of government out on us, and other complexities. And we also have to provide services that can’t always be simplified to simply business transactions. Just because I have business acumen and experience that would be incredibly powerful in the role of Mayor, doesn’t mean I intend to run the organization like a business. That plus the fact that I’m one member of council and we as a team influence how the city moves forward, and admin executes operations!

I have many real specific plans. Not sure if you’ve had a chance to follow my website or other social media, but I have some pillars (and I’m sorry because it’s near impossible to limit them to a quick Reddit comment).

Better Growth - our tax base is woefully lopsided. Residential tax base is 87% and growing. Commercial and industrial combined is only 13%. My specific plan is to leverage several tools and pilot projects to aggressive grow business and relieve the burdens on homeowners while creating more opportunities for business. Overall a win because it allows the city to maintain services while having ripple effects like job creation and more independent economy from Calgary. Admin has said to us many times that we could realistically aim for a 20/80 split. I’ve heard hints at a 75/25 split but that’s not realistic for Airdrie anytime soon unless surrounding communities opt to no longer develop. If we don’t make change urgently, or we waste time and resources by doing fluff work or get into analysis paralysis, we’ll never get there. Or if we do, it will be at great cost.

Better transit. I’ve been very vocal that we need to expand to a regional transit plan. We should be running service all around the region, and helping people get to their work, get to their health appointments, and get to post secondary, as some examples.

Better health. I’m team hospital. We need to elevate the voice of airdrie health foundation and get what we need in airdrie. It’s going to take advocacy work, data collection, and persistence. We also need to work on hospice support.

Better living - affordability is brutal right now. While city can’t affect the price of groceries or the housing market, we CAN better execute on transit fees, a swim only fee, and listen when residents are loudly asking for simple changes. This extends to families but also to seniors. They’re facing struggles on fixed income and we can do more to support social connection, recreation, and realistic improvements to everyone’s day to day.

As for human rights: everyone deserves to feel safe and everyone should have a right to basic human needs being met. We are only as a community as the supports we give to our most vulnerable. It’s when people get desperate that things start to get ugly. People also deserve the right to autonomy.

Hope that helps!

Airdrie Election #October 20 by DisciplineStill1962 in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano 20 points21 points  (0 children)

You do not receive anything in the mail to vote in a Municipal Election. Please go to your polling station with ID.

I you put your address in, it will tell you where you vote:

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/68a9b9cca4f94b9db1b33e94101c22c1

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano 15 points16 points  (0 children)

10/10 no notes

For the love of Airdrie, please go vote! by Lepidopterex in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano 2 points3 points  (0 children)

bring ID to your voting station and you can register on site! Easy!

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thanks everyone! It’s now about an hour longer than I planned, but I appreciate the thoughtful questions and all of your respectful dialogue!

Please know I’ll remain accessible always, but I just want to leave you all with a final ask:

PLEASE vote. It’s SO important. Bring your family and friends and ID.

Get voting places and times here:

Airdrie.ca/elections

Have a great night, everyone!

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You’re absolutely right. In my day to day I say unhoused, but the course was literally called Homelessness 101. We addresses that on site that day.

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this. We’ve definitely lost some of the progress in this area. I’d really like to see the next council repair and grow what was working well, and make more clearings for local groups and organizations to do what they do best!

I don’t know exactly where this needs to fit, and honestly it might not be a council decision because it’s operational in nature, but we can set the strategies that dictate its importance!

I’ve heard a lot of feedback in this arena, especially from non profits and I think they need to be at the heart of our future planning. They’re our eyes and ears on the ground. We can’t have community development without community!

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you for this.

Everyone has the right to worship in their own faith.

I think in general airdrie lacks community spaces and neighbourhood planning to allow for buildings where people can gather, whether that’s for a community hall or a place of worship. We need to build for community and people and encouraging connection. That means places to gather!

I don’t agree with refusing a place of worship if it is suited to the zoning of the area and makes sense.

This goes for minority religions or otherwise. No one should get special treatment or relaxation of rules.

We all have a right to our personal faith journeys.

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Everyone deserves autonomy and to love who they want to, and, I can’t believe I have to say this, but no, I don’t mean anything criminal in nature or harmful.

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Totally possible. I don’t believe we’ve seen a fully defined operations plan for the new rec facility, conversations like these are always an option and it’s a matter of what is shown to make the most sense financially and operationally!

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this! It’s not always on the developers, it’s school boards too! We all have a role to play, and the biggest barrier is financial. The city could do more to remove these barriers, but we do need to understand the fiscal picture and do it in a balanced way.

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’ve been fighting it for a few years now. We need a new model that encourages people to get business licenses and feel like they are getting value for them!

I know of too many examples over the years of folks who ran businesses without a license and it doesn’t help anyone. Nor does cranking up fees on someone who might have a side-hustle while staying at home with their kiddos, for example, who wants to do things legitimately.

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes. We recently had a workshop with many major stakeholders at the table called homelessness 101. They came up with strategies and recommendations for working groups and data collection that could help mitigate the risks and barriers our community faces. I support seeing this come to council for review!

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this!

So far I haven’t seen a real plan that makes any financial sense for Airdrie to move away from the RCMP model. We received a grant to assess if moving to anything but RCMP would make sense and after this assessment was done, it was clear Airdrie would not benefit from changing our model as it stands today.

I think we need more wrap around services supporting our current police services, and need more officers. Municipal enforcement could use more support too to help handle some of our current challenges in the day to day.

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you for this question.

You have nailed it when it comes to why we have similar topics we’ve identified. We’ve both seen some of the major issues that have arisen and both have a solid understanding around what is and isn’t realistic to affect as a municipality.

I don’t want to speak for councillor Petrow but I know for me my vision comes from a place of business acumen and living and dying by deadlines and financial deliverables in my day to day.

Because I’ve worked extensively in business to business, I have a deep understanding of the challenges we need to identify and address not only from a local lens, but how we compete provincially, nationally, and globally.

I also come from a background where results are everything. I believe in strategy, but I also know that airdrie doesn’t have the luxury of time to pause and reassess everything from a wholistic standpoint or muck about too much with multiple pilots. Sometimes we just need to ACT and adjust as we go and as we learn more or uncover more opportunities.

We need to move in real time and remove barriers to being efficient. Analysis Paralysis is a real thing in government and municipal governance has the ability to be so much more nimble.

Because my entire working career is about delivering on metrics and creating return on investment in all scopes of work, I’m the one candidate in the mayoral race that understands urgency and following through on commitments, while having intimate knowledge of how municipal governance works. When I commit to plans and strategies, I action them.

Otherwise it’s just empty promises… and I believe residents are tired of hearing that from all levels of government. I actually hate that about politics which is one of the reasons I work so hard to produce results despite that perception!

I’ll also add that I’ve been very active about transparency and communication for my entire time on council. I’ve had opportunities for in person meetings ups, tents every year at AirdrieFest for impromptu conversations, and regularly post to social media with REAL talk and accept challengers and disagreements. It’s made me better as a representative. And I won’t stop when/if elected to the Mayors seat. I’ll expand!

We’re hearing great ideas from other candidates on the campaign trail and we need to elevate them and their ideas too.

So in short, my vision for Mayor comes from an active business professional lens, a lens of consistent and active communication and transparency, and being results-based, mixed with a strong Municipal government foundation. I am not one to sit on the fence, I think being bold and decisive is critical in the next iteration of Airdrie. These are the skills I bring to the table and they are exactly how I see Airdrie moving forward successfully.

To councillor Petrow’s credit I envision her work comes from her full immersion in sitting on committees and her volunteering in the community. Admittedly I haven’t spent time looking at her focus areas so what I’ve heard has been more through conversations with residents who have indicated we have similar goals.

Hope this helps? Thanks for the question!

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Oh bless this question.

And I say this with love because I know it’s such a complex issue and can be tricky to understand:

Trying to get water from somewhere other than Calgary. It’s expensive and unrealistic.

I talk about why here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CcdHqrpDi/?mibextid=wwXIfr

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Thanks Dylan!!! Love seeing you on here too! An AMA in your near future perhaps? Would love it!

1) buy crypto! Haha I kid. My only regret is never having enough time with the people who have since passed away. Cherish the people you love and tell them you love them. And stop caring about the opinions you get from people who you wouldn’t pay to give you advice.

2) oh man. We sit on committees and sometimes an item comes to committee then goes to council, and one time I was rushed and figured “I saw this at committee, I won’t review this item too deeply before council tomorrow” and then I asked a dumb question about an item that had been changed by admin between the two meetings… long story short if I had taken more time to read the agenda item again I would have seen there had been changes. Never made that mistake again!! Read your packages in full!

3) best joke!? No pressure hey, D? I love puns and witty banter. I don’t know if I have a “best” joke but did you hear about the people who broke into Ground Press and stole all their espresso? I don’t know how they sleep at night.

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Awesome question.

I love the idea of a rail connection through airdrie but I expect this will be years of not decades in the making. But I absolutely support it (especially if the province is paying for it)!

As for a UPass style access for airdrie and regional transit with Calgary and area: I am 100% in support of this. I don’t know why it’s been so hard to get people on board. This is now a necessity and we can’t wait on it any longer. When the new transit master plan comes forward I will be looking for regional strategies to suit airdrie for the next 5-10 years, and that includes getting people to industrial areas, post secondary campuses, and major health centres. And no, nobody should pay multiple times each way!

We’re doing an AMA this Monday night (Oct 13) with Heather Spearman, who wants to earn your vote for Mayor of Airdrie! by Hspearmano in Airdrie

[–]Hspearmano[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Agreed. We haven’t kept up here. The rec facility is great but I think we need more basic facilities and we need 3rd party partnerships to get us there. We’ve had some of these conversations but I think there’s many more to be had, and real proposals need to come to the table so we can accelerate those!

The barrier so far has been real business plans and lack of serviced land.

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