I caught up with Mayor Rob Keffer this week to discuss a significant milestone: it’s been a decade this month since he was first elected to town council, serving as deputy mayor before winning the top job in 2014 (full disclosure: I managed his two mayoral campaigns).
The mayor spoke to his accomplishments in office over the past 10 years, while noting that he was out on his farm because “the sun is shining, so it’s nice and busy”.
“More than any big thing, it’s been about how we work well together, how we get the little things right and move things forward. Collaboration and working together,” said the mayor, when asked to summarize what he’s most proud of during his time as mayor.
He also mentioned some “big things”, too, pointing to “delivering seniors’ housing, with The Elden and Holland Gardens” as well as significant progress on transit, “something I was pushing for when I was Deputy Mayor and now is very much a part of the town.”
On transit, he pointed to a significant announcement – “a very good press conference” – last week by local MPP and Minister of Transportation, The Honourable Caroline Mulroney, of $576,450 to go towards new transit funding.
“Our transit system, because of funding from the province and federal government, costs our town very little yet delivers a core service,” the mayor said.
Similarly, his work in tandem with Minister Mulroney to move the Bradford Bypass forward is a highlight.
The mayor also celebrated his and council’s efforts “to go line by line, to find efficiencies, savings”, which has resulted in relatively moderate tax rates each year, roughly in line with inflation.
When he first ran for deputy mayor 10 years ago, he was an insurgent candidate opposed to a sense that growth was happening far too fast and taxes were rising too much. Soft-spoken and gentlemanly, Mr. Keffer was something of an odd fit as a “rebel”, but it worked for him, tapping into years of trust he’d built up with long-time residents.
Today as mayor, the town has grown into a 40,000-person suburb. There are some big items that still need tackling – including the downtown revitalization efforts in Bradford – and Keffer’s approach is to make incremental progress.
This spring, his responses to COVID-19 were exemplary; from targeted grants to aid struggling small businesses, to the downtown patio program, to providing a helping hand when Bradford Valley had an outbreak in their long-term care home, he acted quickly to ensure residents felt they were supported.
One of the last things the late Coun. Gary Baynes posted on Facebook before his passing spoke to this effort. It read: “I do find it difficult to explain how much Mayor Keffer’s leadership has done for [the] Town of BWG the past few years and especially the last month [during COVID-19]. I guess all that can be said is, ‘Thank you, Rob!’”
It was well said.
