Gilbert pleads with public to stop abusing staff

Penticton City Councillor Isaac Gilbert knows politicians and bureaucrats are bound to face criticism from the public, but he said lines were crossed when a senior manager faced harassment and abuse over infrastructure planning, and he reminds the public that staff and council are not villains.
During a presentation by chief administrative officer Anthony Haddad and Kristen Dixon, general manager of infrastructure, during Tuesday’s regular meeting of council, Gilbert spoke out about some of the abuse senior staff members have received from members of the public recently.
Haddad and Dixon had prepared reports relating to increasing traffic problems at the intersection of Skaha Lake Road and Green Avenue following a request from Coun. Jason Reynen at the last meeting of council on Aug. 18.
Near the end of their presentation, Gilbert interjected and spoke out against members of the public who, in his opinion, have engaged in personal attacks, threats and hatred towards senior staff who work for the City of Penticton.
And he didn’t mince words.
After the majority of council voted in favour of having a third party qualified traffic engineering consultant – with no prior involvement in the design – conduct an objective impact review of the corridor, Gilbert spoke out against those who crossed the line in criticizing senior staff and members of council in relation to this issue and many others.
“I appreciate the discussion that has happened at the table here, but I also have to mention something in regards to this whole process … and the conversation that has happened out in the public,” said Gilbert.
“I think that when people look at this review to see the work that comes into this, I want to point out that, you know, there seems to be this narrative and story in this community that it’s always staff against council and council against staff and we like to villainize people.
“I want to point out that the general manager of infrastructure did not deserve the amount of harassment, and I would say abuse, that she has been experiencing from the community.”
The job of senior managers is to take make informed decisions based on their experience and expertise based on the requests of member of council, said Gilbert.
“They are trying to make the best decision as possible in regards to what it is for the city,” said Gilbert. “What you can see from this is that staff come to us because of master plans, bylaws, procedures and projects that are the legacy of not just this council, but every single council. I will take a very controversial project that we have in this community … and this is bike lanes.
“We’ve been talking about bike lanes in this city and I’ve talked to someone over coffee about this, since 2006. We talked about it then and we talked about it in 2014, talked about it in 2017 and in 2021 – the council of that day decided to go ahead with the lake-to-lake route.
“This has been a legacy of an administration and staff are doing their job and they do not deserve the harassment and abuse by following the procedures, bylaws and plans that this council and other councils have put forward.
“So, I just want to acknowledge the work of what our staff do here and I think that needs to stop in the community. We need to come together and stop the amount of hate that is happening. We need to clear the air here in regards to these projects.”