Professionalism and transparency are some of the priorities for newly-appointed Rocky View County (RVC) Reeve Margaret Bahcheli.
“I think if you have a very professionally run organization with a high-degree of transparency, that translates into benefits at the individual level. It’s important to set that tone at the top and establish that all the way through,” she said.
The Division 3 councillor in her second-term, was acclaimed for the position of reeve at the Organizational Meeting held at the County Office on Oct. 29.
She said prior to the discussion held during orientation sessions with the new council members the week before, she was not expecting to be nominated.
“Absolutely not. The field was wide open, but we did discuss what would best meet the needs of the county,” she said, adding that discussions included experience levels in running meetings and being on council.
Bahcheli said she identified to her fellow council members what her priorities would be.
“I think there was some buy-in to that and certainly enough that there was no opposition. I’m really proud of what it means to be acclaimed reeve in terms of the support from council and that they’re putting their confidence in me,” said the 15-year resident of Elbow Valley.
A former lawyer and financial analyst, Bahcheli said improving the County’s financial disclosure is a personal priority for her.
She said the County’s current financial statements are difficult to understand and “have little meaning to residents” because they are broken down by County departments such as planning, infrastructure and operations, and legislative services. She recommends adopting a second method that’s “more functional.”
“It’s not unusual for organizations to have two sets of books – one is for management purposes and one is for tax purposes. You’re just re-categorizing the same numbers so it has more meaning to the person that’s using the statements,” she said.
“I think when you’re a resident, your questions are more about the overall picture.
“For example, people may ask, how many leased buildings do we have, what do we pay for insurance, what’s our legal bill, how much do we pay for lawyers a year? You can’t tell by the financial statements the way they are now,” she said, adding that she wants to see a shift to “more meaningful disclosure of information.”
Bahcheli said, as the head of council, running tight meetings will be important.
“We all have a second job and that’s back in our divisions. So this is a very busy-type of job. So I want to keep it tight and keep it focused without pushing people through and losing them because it’s moving too fast. So you have to hit that balance.”
She added that “you’re going to hear the term balance a lot when you’re talking about what’s important for a reeve.”
However, Bahcheli said putting on a new hat in council chambers is not going to change everything for her.
“It doesn’t change the way I run a meeting, or the way I view applications, or the way I treat my fellow councillors.”
Bahcheli said she is looking forward to working with council for the next four years and achieving goals started by councillors in the previous terms.
“We’ll be looking at things like the completion of the new ring road, implementing the policies of the new County Plan and we’re looking at drainage plans for major areas in the County,” she said.
“So I think we’ll be seeing a lot of things resolved and worked on in a smooth way. I’d like to think that a lot of the conflict that people were feeling in the past is going to become a part of the past.”
She said she is working on opening up the lines of communication with residents, and has started with an issue-specific email circulating to people in her division.
A website is also in the works, which Bahcheli said she will use as another tool to communicate with residents about issues and inform people about items discussed in council.
See future Rocky View Weekly newspapers for more information on Bahcheli’s website when it is active.
