A new addition to the site! Audio Clips can be found on the above navigation bar.

There you will find short segments with Charlie discussing: what makes a good council, past experience, water and why he is running for council among others.

Four change questions

(The following questionnaire was sent out to all new candidates for City Council. However, none of the current councillors were sent it; neither the four they are supporting or I and the three others they want to get rid of.  I decided to answer them anyway)

1. Leadership Please tell us about a team project you were involved with where you took aleadership role in ensuring that not only facts, figures and logistics were considered, but good judgment too – in solving the problem?

My career has included some 25 years in journalism including jobs as editor and assistant editor – running newsrooms and making all key editorial decisions.

I’ve organized multiple fundraisers, concerts, and events over the years which require all the needs and skills of a leader and I’ve spent years involved in strategic planning roles in various ways and with various organizations. I have chaired or co-chaired many committees and boards over the years. As well I spent three years on Parksville City Council and the Nanaimo Regional District in addition to my last three years on Kelowna Council and the Central Okanagan Regional District.

I was a facilitator for the Federal Government’s Species at Risk Tour throughout B.C. My (challenging) role in more than 20 community sessions was to keep the peace during consultation sessions between municipalities and the SARA presenters.

2. Decision-making What has been your experience in working with conflicting, delayed or ambiguous information? How did you make a decision in this situation?

See all of the above. Good leadership often includes good decision making.

As a journalist I was constantly working with conflicting, delayed, or ambiguous information. I learned how to ask questions, dig to the crux and facts of a matter, and sort out the gobbledygook and b.s. I use those skills regularly on council today.

3. Teamwork Think of a ‘real-life’ project you were involved with in which everything and everyone seemed to lose sight of the central purpose. How did you help narrow the focus?

Years ago I was invited to Ottawa as a consultant on drafting the original Canadian Environmental Protection Act. That process included many participants from across the nation including a large variety of ENGO (Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations) and lobby groups taking part. Due to increasing frustrations a number of environmental and lobby groups were planning on demonstrating the process and creating a major scene. Through a controlled yet passionate talk to the angry group I convinced them to not do so, to remain at the table, and to negotiate their concerns. They finally agreed, the crisis was completely avoided, and at the end – a successful Act was agreed to.

4. Your top election issues:

A) Encouraging job creation and economic development.

B) Moving the Downtown Plan for revitalization, and the Bernard. Ave. streetscape, forward.

C)  Assuring a safe community for all, including women, children, seniors and those with accessibility issues. This means working on many things including crime reduction and sound planning guidelines.

D. Continuing to improve our transportation network and transit efficiency.

5. More about you please take a minute to provide some basics from your resume.

a) What community groups have you served on?

The list is endless. To name just some I currently sit on the Kelowna Accessibility Committee, the Women’s and Community Committee, Chairperson Civic Awards Committee, Uptown Rutland Business Association, Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, Housing Committee, Kelowna Joint Water Committee, Kelowna Volunteer Fair, Sister City Zambia, and more. Past boards include: Director, Kelowna 75^th International Regatta, Kelowna Snowfest, Chair Red Shield Appeal 1998, Crystal Meth Task Force, Director – Association for Community Living Parksville (3-years), Salmon Arm Lions Club, Rain fest, B.C. Environmental Network, B.C. Clean Air Campaign coordinator, Canadian EarthCare Society,  Parksville Youth Task Force, Vancouver Island Regional Library Board, Oceanside Tourism Association…

b) Please list jobs held in past 10 years.

I’ve successfully run my own strategical planning/public relations/communications company Hodge Communications (since 1987). Various contracts including book writing, magazine editing, events co-ordination… Also with Kelowna City Council since 2008 and Central Okanagan Regional District since 2010.

c) Post graduate education/degrees

Grade 12. Twenty-five years plus in journalism.

d) Previous elected office?

Parksville City Council 1997-2000, Nanaimo Regional District 1997-2000, Kelowna City Council 2008 – Present, Central Okanagan Regional District 2010- Present.

e) How long have you lived in Kelowna?

Most of my life. I moved here from Summerland at age seven. I moved to other towns for newspaper work a few times, but this has always been ‘home’. I’ve lived here  for about 38 of my 56 years.

6. Anything else? You would like Kelowna voters to know that:

My work ethic is tremendous. I have an excellent attendance record for council meetings, and public hearings and I sit on several City appointed committees which I am active in. I’ve been available at a restaurant downtown every Thursday afternoon for the past 2 ½ years to meet with the general public or business people and discuss issues or answer questions. No other councillor has done that. I’m a representative of the average Kelowna citizen, and an advocate for those without a voice. My only promise is to listen, work hard, maintain an open mind, and remain accountable.

Please give me three seconds of your time at the ballot box and I’ll give you three years hard work.

Do you wish your responses to this questionnaire posted at FourChange.org?

Yes please.

AM 1150 Questions

 1. How are you going to revitalize the downtown?

   There is no one silver bullet answer, however moving the Downtown Plan forward is a good start. The new plan, unlike the CD21, looks at the entire downtown in its vision. Melding the Downtown Plan with the Bernard Ave. Revitalization sets a canvas for us to start further work on.

  While I concur with moving more people into the core through providing accommodation – high-rises and densification are certainly not the only solutions.  We need to be more diversified in the goal of creating a pedestrian friendly ‘destination’ shopping place downtown.

 We need to look at other possible initiatives for kick starting downtown. Future concepts could include a world class convention centre, and some form of advanced education or high tech education facility.  

   2. How would you tackle the problem of organized crime?

   First and foremost we need to continue lobbying the Feds and the Province for funding support to combat organized crime through the Task Force.

  A great frustration for me, as a councillor, is that although we pay huge amounts for police service we have very little say in how those dollars are allocated to the various police services. However, we do have good communication with the RCMP Superintendent McKinnon regarding efforts and strategies in dealing with organized crime.

   Council could also consider lobbying the Federal and or Provincial governments for changes to certain laws and legislation that would ultimately impact organized crime. That could have a significant impact.

  3. How would you improve transit?

    We have already hugely improved the local transit system including through increased bus routes, increased transit service, and new and/or improved bus shelters. We also need to continue to work with the Province, B.C. Transit and the Transportation Authority in order to maintain better control over our transit issues. Aside from actual transit we have improved the overall transportation mosaic in our community through work on multi-use corridors, bicycle paths, road construction and upgrades.

     4. What would you do to increase the supply of affordable housing?

    Continue the good work and lobbying we have done in the past. We’ve successfully helped acquire grants and funds for a number of projects or initiatives the past three years.

   ‘Affordable’ housing is actually one form – largely dealt with through the Housing Authority. I believe what we really mean is ‘diversified’ housing. We need a combination of house prices that various folks can look at as owners, and then we need a variety of housing which caters to those who can only rent – from houses to bachelor suits, to shelters. As a council we have dealt with nearly all of those categories during the past three years and the work of the Housing Committee has been very good.

  An increase in safe shelters for women is a current priority.

  The new ‘S’ designation allowing for an increase in secondary suites is a significant factor towards the jump in percentages of local rental housing availability in Kelowna during the past year.

     5. What are your plans to make Kelowna a more attractive place to work, live and play?

   Kelowna is already an attractive place to work, live and play which is why we are one of the most popular and fastest growing cities in the land. However, yes, we can always get better.

   The more high tech, clean, and interesting jobs we can encourage and facilitate –the better the draw. Council could direct the Mayor to take on an increased ambassador role for helping attract key corporations, franchises, businesses … to relocate offices or firms in Kelowna. That may take some coordination with related allies such as Economic Development, Tourism, Chamber, and business organizations.

  Setting clear sustainable goals and planning guidelines through such mechanisms as the OCP is another way to make Kelowna a more attractive destination and now that the new OCP is complete the fine tuning is underway.

 Charlie Hodge