He’s not a seasoned politician and that’s what people like about him.
Mayoral candidate Jim Cessford had that to say about himself in an interview with the Optimist last week as he talked about his decision to enter the political ring.
“It’s really been quite interesting. Public service has always been a very big part of my life for the last 45 years, starting as a police officer. I’ve been on many committees and many different things. When I left the police force, it was time for me to pass the torch to somebody else. I wasn’t really ready to go entirely but it was important for somebody else to take over.
“So I had that time away from public service and I really, really missed it. I did some private consulting and it was interesting, but it wasn’t really like working with the community and it wasn’t problem-solving. I have this protective mindset that I really want to be someone who protects the community,” said the former long-time Delta police chief.
Part of the Independents Working for You ticket, Cessford said he believes city hall has become autocratic, noting several people approached him to run for mayor and he’s glad he made the decision to do so.
“So we stepped into the campaign and it’s been really interesting. I’ve renewed a lot of old friendships with people in the community that I had worked with for many years as chief,” he said.
Cessford noted he has some experience “dabbling” with social media but had to ramp it up with the election campaign.
“Things have changed and through social media we’ve been communicating with people on a regular basis. When we got into the campaign, we started to communicate even more and it’s just taken off with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We started a page, No Voice Too Small, and we had all kinds of people commenting. What we said was that we wanted to listen to people and it’s a great way to hear them. What we heard was that people said they weren’t being listened to, not being heard. I’ve heard from many, many people and we had some great conversations.
“You know, people want to talk to me about some of the smaller things like stop signs in the wrong place, road issues, lack of bicycle lanes, some of those issues. When we go back to my policing days, we implemented ‘no call too small’ here, so every issue is an important issue and if you don’t deal with the little things, the little things become big things. We’ve heard everything from big issues and serious concerns like tunnel replacement, transportation, casino, just many, many issues, but then some of the more minor things that were agitating people like roads not being repaired. We’ve got the full gamut.”
He said one of the so-called “minor issues” included an incident this summer where a North Delta woman witnessed a dog being struck by a train, which forced him to get “into protective mode” and visit her at the site to see what could be done, even though some on social media criticized him for it.
Cessford said during the campaign he’s also heard lots of concerns regarding crime, including criminal activity creeping in from other communities.
“I bristled the other day that somebody called me a politician. I’m not a politician. I’m not polished, but I’m a community leader and a civil servant. That’s what I’m all about. I’m not going to make a bunch of false promises or say things I can’t commit to doing.
“When I came here as police chief, they were concerned about the relationship the police department had with the public. The crime rate was getting to be high. Calls for service were very high, and they contacted me and asked if I could come here and bring community policing to Delta. We said that we were going to reduce the crime rate and would work with the community, be open and transparent… that resulted in a huge drop in the crime rate. After a very short time, after we solved the little things, we cut our calls in half which enabled our members to deal with more serious matters.”
Noting he was never one to just sit behind a desk, Cessford said that while he managed to accomplish what he set out to do as police chief, he has much more to bring.
“Some of my supporters are saying, ‘Jim, you’re not a polished orator. You’re not a politician. You need to speak like a politician.’ I have to tell them that’s not in me. I’m not polished and what you see is what you get. My actions speak for themselves.”
