Jeff Genung sees the next four years serving as Mayor of Cochrane as both a privilege and a necessity to finish what he’s started.
Genung was acclaimed as Mayor Sept. 20 after the nominations closed with no one contesting the role.
While it is bittersweet to win by acclamation, he believes it also feels like a vote of confidence from Cochranites and said he is not wasting any time forging ahead on unfinished business.
"I'm grateful to the community for a vote of confidence and my energy and passion to the role is unwavering," he said. "I look forward to serving Cochrane for another four years."
Genung said he ran again because he wants to see through the many projects that council has taken on during his leadership.
“I quickly realized when I got my feet wet after the first election four years ago, that all of the aspirations and visions and goals that I was trying to bring to the town were going to take longer than what I had originally hoped,” he said. “It's just the nature of the beast of working in a government setting. Change is slow and methodical. For a purpose, you can't just flip a switch and change directions.”
The pandemic, in many ways, sent council into crisis management mode, slowing progress on some town projects and providing new opportunities for the Town to capitalize on, like the Highway 1A project.
“There's been a lot of learning through COVID,” Genung said. “It's not all been bad. I've often said we have to look for the opportunities when they present themselves. And, for example, the whole reason the [Highway] 1A project started and has become a town project was funding that was made available to the community through a COVID grant.”
Genung invited then Alberta Minister of Transportation Ric MacIver and then Minister of Municipal Affairs Tracy Allard to the opening of the Jack Tennant Memorial Bridge in October 2020 so they could see the traffic congestion problems firsthand and understand the need for infrastructure upgrades in town.
“We were able to get that $3.5 million and funnel that into a project that saw some traffic congestion projects move forward and get started on quicker,” he said
Genung believes that municipal politics is about relationship building, which he said has not been an easy feat during his recent term on council with the provincial government cycling through staff and ministers.
"It's a lot of work to build relationships with the province, to really tell the story of Cochrane to them and get some of those provincial dollars directed to Cochrane,” he said
Looking ahead at the next four years, Genung said that regardless of who’s on town council the mission should always be to listen to residents first, to use common sense, be communicative and make decisions that are issue-based.
"I believe people want a council that is open, transparent and keeps their debate to the issues and not personalities,” he said.
Municipal election day is Oct. 18 and 19 candidates are in the race for a seat on Cochrane's town council, including all six current councillors who are running for re-election.
