Adam Hyatt is the fifth person to announce a run at the vacant Mayor’s chair in October, his campaign is largely centered around reforming city hall, saying he wants to cut the fat and roll back salaries of the “fat cats.”
Hyatt was born and raised in Prince George and is an Occupational Health and Safety Practitioner who works as a Territory Account Manager at Surewerx.
He also said in his past life, he “was someone the people of Prince George loved to hate, a hockey referee” in the WHL.
“I am passionate about this community, I think it has a ton of potential” said Hyatt. “I also think it has been absolutely terribly managed for far too long.”
The population of Prince George has remained close to the same over the last few decades, according to Hyatt, but city hall has grown. “My plan is to reduce the number of people in city hall,” he said.
“I think we really need to get back to the basics of what a municipal government should be, which is a lean, mean, efficient, infrastructure and service providing machine, and that includes getting projects done on time, and on budget.”
Hyatt says he also wants to hold the senior, unelected officials in city hall accountable, including aligning their pay with their performance.
On his website, Hyatt elaborates more by pointing at the City Manager, who he says makes $260,000 a year.
The plan on the website says this salary would be rolled back to $100,000, with four potential bonuses of $50k based on quarterly performance.
On the topic of homelessness and downtown, Hyatt says he would want the Youth Custody Centre to be handed over to the city and turned into a rehab center.
He would also increase police on the downtown streets, pulling officers from “lesser important areas of policing” if necessary.
Financially, Hyatt said “we are broke. The current leadership in city hall has run us further and further into debt. We could be looking down the barrel of 20-million dollars just to service our debt.”
He says he would want to drastically reduce spending and not raise taxes to combat this debt.
“It is a bold platform for sure” he said. “Even the negative comments that have started to roll in on social media, I welcome them. Negative comments are participation, and democracy only functions properly with participation.”
The municipal election will be on October 15th.