Baker tells what it's like to be mayor rege

Where do you sit on the political
spectrum? ‘‘Probably right in the
middle. ‘Small ‘I’ Liberal.’ fam a
free enterpriser. I come down on
the side of fiscal conservatism and
probably more liberal sucial pro-
grams.”

You've never liked being referred
to as a politician. Why? “TE guess
I've always had difficulty with that
tide. It always seemed to be not
particularly complimentary. I like
to think of myself as a civil ser-
vant.”’

What's the biggest adjustment you
had to make as mayor? “The fact
is, I'm probably a bit of a loner.
The most difficult adjustment to
doing this job is that [ like people,
1 enjoy them, but m not very
good at small chit-chat.”

What were your goals when you
entered the mayorship? “A control
on planning, preservation of the
environment, a cap on growth,
dealing with garbage and registra-
tion of illegal suites."’

How successful Eave you been in
accomplishing them? ‘On plan-
ning...we now have a statement as
to what we see as the future of the
community, through a number of
neighbourhood official plans, and
we're just completing a district-
wide official community
plan...Preservation of the en-
vironment, through greenbelts,
and preservation of creeks, etc. has
been moderately successful. On
growth...we now have to move
very carefully. We don’t want to
grow to the extent that we destroy
the reason that we came here in the
first place.

Garbage was a major issue when
I first came in...steps were made to
close the landfill on Lynn Creek
and in the late summer we’ll be in-
to our curbside recycling program.
It’s been successful in that we have
had to realize there has to be a bet-
ter way to handle the garbage, but
for me it’s been frustrating in that
it hasn’t moved as quickly as I
would have ftiked...On illegal
suites, we pioneered in bringing,
instead of burying our heads in the
sand, the issue up, and I’m
delighted that some 750 people

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have come forward — one third of
the total legal suites.”

How would you rate your job as
mayor? "Ll hate questions like thai.
| would just us soon leave the rat-
ing to the people who hired me to
do the job."”

Whut's the best part of your job?
“Having people feel that they tive
in a nice community and that
they’re proud to five in that com-
niunity."*

What's your working rebstionship
with council members like? “This
council has been together for quite
some time. AC times Eve been a lit-
tle disappointed, in some cases it's
almost like family squabbles where
we've been Jiving together for
some time and perhaps the level of
civility and manner in dealing with
the issue breaks down and gets into
personalities. | don't think that's
conducive to doing the business we
were clected to do. Alt in all,
there’s a commitment to do our
best. And I guess we succumb to
the pressure and show it in dif-
ferent ways.”’

What's been your most difficult
issue? ‘‘Without question, the In-
ter-River controversy. It was
distressing for me to consistently
see and hear, and still hear, ‘Save
Lynn Canyon Park.’ It simply
wasn’t fact. It was distressing to
me that that misinformation was
perpetuated...We did finally at the
end of this process receive cor-
respondence from people who
knew where they were talking
about...but to get through to that
level of understanding was very,
very difficult, extremely
frustrating.

And you know, the interesting
thing was, one could possibly have
made a snap decision (on Lynn
Canyon Park) some time ago, but
I do believe you have to go

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through a process based on factual
information rather than just) a
whim vote.

You haven't agreed with recent
raises in municipal indemnities.
Why? (Baker’s annual salary is
$54,000). They (council) decided
to change the formula that was
worked out, and that’s fine. What
1 did not agree with is that they
decided to implement it over an
immediate period of time and have
since thrown the formula out, |}
think that’s unfortunate. What
we're dealing with now is whatever
the last council did... You can’t pay
people to do this job, and the sug-
gestion that you get a better quali-
ty of candidate if you do, I think is
an insult. Anyone who is in com-
munity service is in it because they
believe in the system) and they
believe it's something they can
make a contribution to."°

What's a major concern for you
now? “Property tax reform. The
buck is being passed without the
buck being passed to municipal
governments. We're expected to do
more and the only source of in-
come is property tax...And the fact
that we even use the assessment
base for a universal provincial
education program -— what has the
value of your house got to do with
how much you should pay towards
that program? I don’t think that
issue has been properly dealt with
yet?”

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25 - Sunday, June 3, 1990 - North Shore News

NEWS photo Nell Lucente

NORTH VANCOUVER District Mayor Marilyn Baker is a keen and ac-
complished saitor. To escape the rigors of work, Baker, together with
huband Dick and her three children, sail away to the Gulf Isfands on
their 10-metre boat ‘‘Timepeace.”’

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