Janelle Sandboe has been preparing since the 2017 municipal election to announce her city council candidacy this year.
Sandboe has been involved in various boards and committees since living in Chestermere and is ready to expand to city governance.
“I’ve always volunteered, and I’ve always looked for leadership positions, it’s what I’m good at, it’s what I love doing, I see the value in the policy and it’s where I want to apply my skills,” Sandboe said.
Sandboe’s values include smart growth, partnership, and openness.
“Smart growth is the concept of right-sizing. Our population has grown rapidly and in big steps, we can see that with how the city is laid out, but at this point, we don’t need more population, but we need infrastructure for the population that we have, schools, roads, utilities, and recreation, that’s what we need,” Sandboe said.
Through conversations with residents, Sandboe realized partnership should be a priority, as residents don’t feel as though they are getting the whole story from city council and administration.
“I think it’s largely a communication issue. We need to work on our partnerships, so everyone is happily engaged, and we don’t have so much tension between stakeholders,” Sandboe said.
If elected, Sandboe will promote openness, by making an effort to bring information to residents, and provide opportunities for engagement.
Sandboe is not in favour of rezoning the Lakeside Golf Course land.
“I had a gut reaction that said I don’t want this to happen, but I wasn’t about to make a decision about something I didn’t know all the information about,” Sandboe said.
Adding, “There are a ton of logical arguments for not changing that land in any way, and it goes beyond the recreational value, we don’t want the impact to our wildlife, and we don’t want the impact to our storm drains.”
To address the overcrowding in Chestermere schools, Sandboe will be petitioning for the provincial government to put money into schools in the community.
“We can’t do that until we have land ready to hand out to the school board. It looks like we need to go back to the developers and renegotiate systems so we can have these sites ready as soon as possible,” she said.
Before the election, Sandboe encourages all Chestermere residents to reach out to the candidates and get to know them.
“Reach out to the candidates, having a personal conversation is really important,” she said.
