Waterman will not run again

Photo: Colin Dacre

Summerland mayor Peter Waterman has announced he will not be seeking re-election in this fall’s municipal election.

After one term as mayor and two as a councillor, he is leaving politics to spend more time with family.

“The broad paint brush is that it is rewarding,” he said, referring to his time on council. “But it's not without challenges, and it's not without frustrations.”

Waterman said he has enjoyed working for and interacting with Summerland residents a great deal, but serving the public can be a “challenging and tall order at times.”

“We’ve done a lot. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve moved the municipality and the administration into a very good place,” he told Castanet Tuesday afternoon.

Waterman heaped praise upon the District’s chief administrative officer, Linda Tynan, which council hired in 2015; "she’s just been a stellar performer, with such a depth of experience in administration and finance.”

Waterman said he’s been pleased with how the municipality has aggressively pursued grants and funding opportunities, like the $6M gas tax grant for a solar array awarded earlier this year.

The Summerland Arts Council is another beneficiary of grants obtained by the district, funding upgrades to the group's new home at the old library building.

“When I started, I was quite concerned that council had not done enough to satisfy the arts community and the driver that is in the economy,” he said, adding he’s excited to see how the arts community has organized over the past few years.

Looking back to his time as a councillor, Waterman said he is proud of his work as the local representative to the Okanagan Regional Library Board, “I fought hard to get our new regional library here in the location that it's in.”

With just over three months left in the mayor’s chair, Waterman says he’s happy to see work underway on the skatepark and on the new trail system in Giants Head Mountain. The Wharton Street complex — which will see 88-units of rental housing and commercial space be built — is also moving along smoothly, he said, although it remains to be seen when construction will begin.

During his time as mayor, Waterman had dead rats left on his doorstep and was the subject of graffiti around town. He spoke publicly multiple times about the decline of healthy civil discourse, something he partially attributed to social media and Donald Trump. His tenure was marked by the controversial Banks Crescent development and regional landfill proposal, both of which council ultimately rejected.

Coun. Toni Boot is so far, the only person to announce plans to run for Summerland mayor.