With so many young parents like himself in Rossland, 33-year-old council candidate and new dad Andrew Zwicker thinks it’s time there was somebody working for his demographic on city council.
Zwicker moved to Rossland six years ago and was a founding investor and reporter for the Rossland Telegraph. He wrote about city hall for three years, attending more than 150 council meetings, before selling his share in the online newspaper.
“I know the language, I know the procedures. I know how it all works,” Zwicker says of council meetings.
“I’m not going to have that ramp up curve that new councillors typically experience.”
Zwicker considered running for council last term, but with his first son Zack about the be born, the timing wasn’t quite right. Now with a few years of parenting under his belt, he’s eager to win a spot at the council table.
“I see so much untapped potential out there,” he says. “With a really good, committed group of people on council — who can have good discussion and good ideas in the mix — we can make some really cool things happen, and make Rossland become the city that the Official Community Plan talks about it being.”
One of his key priorities is to re-opening the line of communication between council and residents, to make sure everybody knows what’s happening at city hall and how to get involved.
“I want to create opportunities for people to provide their input on council decisions, so they’re not just reading about what happened after the fact,” Zwicker says.
To that end, Zwicker would make himself available for casual meetings with residents one day per week through an initiative he’s calling “Ski with a Councillor Day,” though he’d swap skiing for biking or walking depending on the season and the demographic he’s meeting with.
Zwicker is also interested in repealing the Delegation Bylaw, to bring more essential decision making power back to council.
And he’d work on reducing Rossland’s environmental footprint while creating a new income streams for the city, by spearheading a solar energy pilot program.
Zwicker outlines his ideas at facebook.com/andrewforcouncil.