Dooley pulls name from race for regional district chair
By Nelson Daily Editor
By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily
Dooley’s out and Kettle is in as nominations officially opened Thursday for the soon-to-be vacant chair of the regional district board of directors.
Mayor John Dooley had entertained the notion of letting his name stand for chair of the Regional District of Central Kootenay board last week — at the behest of several fellow directors — but he opted not to run when voting goes down Dec. 9.
A commitment to the city of Nelson was paramount in the decision, he said after the RDCK’s board meeting on Thursday.
Instead, it was Area B director and current vice chair, John Kettle, that stepped into the breach and is the lone (so far) nominee for the spot New Denver Mayor Gary Wright has held for nine years.
“That’s my first priority, the city of Nelson,” he said. “I could have managed the workload, but, having said that, my first responsibility is to the municipality and I just felt, at this time, I would be biting off a little more than I could chew.”
Area E director Ramona Faust and Slocan director and village councilor Hillary Elliott have put their names in for the vice chair position that Kettle will vacate.
Kettle has been on the board for eight years, the chair of major committees for six years, and vice chair for two and is ready for the job of chair, if it should come his way.
“I’ve been involved in just about every major decision that has happened here in eight years,” he said. “But any of these directors are qualified to be chair, it would be my honour to serve, but we’ll see.”
Wright, an out-of-the-box thinker, was different from his vice chair’s more straightforward, common sense approach, but the process the two followed politically was the same, said Kettle.
