Luebke to seek another term on council

Brandon City Coun. Bruce Luebke said he will run for his councillor seat in the upcoming October municipal election.

Luebke (Ward 6) had been considering a run at the mayor’s seat but on Thursday told the Sun that he has decided against it.

While he said he has heard from a lot of people that they would like him to run for mayor, Luebke also heard that residents in his ward would also hate to lose him as a councillor if his bid for the city’s top job failed.

“It just leads to me feeling that having my voice at the council table is important for people,” said Luebke, 54.

Luebke, who is the chair of the Keystone Centre board as a city councillor, said he wants to be able to continue that work.

He said he also believes that facing incumbent Mayor Jeff Fawcett in a race could be somewhat of a challenge, based on how voters might perceive the current head of the city.

“When you weighed all those things, it kind of just led me to think, ‘OK, well, I’ve got a lot I can still do as a councillor, I got a lot I can still do as a member of the Keystone Centre board,’ and a lot of the things I think are important to me, I can still try to accomplish as a member of council,” he said.

Former city councillor and Progressive Conservative Brandon East MLA Len Isleifson is also seeking the mayor’s seat.

Luebke was first elected with about 71 per cent of the vote in a two-person race in 2018. He was acclaimed in 2022.

He said he feels good about his decision to run as a councillor, but that “there would be some sleepless nights contemplating everything over the last couple months.”

Luebke also outlined several campaign plans he has.

Recruitment and retention of city staff, improving the city’s transparency and accountability and more engagement with the public were all mentioned as goals for city’s acting deputy mayor.

The city too often consults with the public as a way to “check a box” as opposed to actual engagement, he said. He would like the city to conduct civic satisfaction and performance surveys with the public, which he has seen other municipalities do.

Luebke said he would also like the city to produce an annual report highlighting what it has done over the year, and have budget consultations with the public well before final decisions are made, as opposed to the week before.

“I think we can do a better job of breaking down our budget to make it easier for the public to understand and to get that information out, not post budget, but pre budget,” he said.

Producing an easy to read budget book which would be publicly available would also be important to him, he said.

“We need to do a little bit more of gauging what’s important for our residents,” he said.

The current budget documents — which can be found on the city’s website — are not easy for the average person to understand, he said.

Luebke said he’s also happy with the work he and council have done to progress federal bail reform and build a new outdoor pool in Brandon.

The Ward 6 councillor was the first to officially propose building a new outdoor aquatic centre last August. The plan is currently for construction of a new outdoor pool to be built at the Keystone Centre for a 2028 opening, with construction starting next year.

So far, councillors Heather Karrouze (Ward 1), Shaun Cameron (Ward 4), Shawn Berry (Ward 7), Jason Splett (Ward 8) and Tyson Tame (Ward 10) have confirmed they are also seeking re-election.

Councillors Kris Desjarlais (Ward 2), Barry Cullen (Ward 3) and Glen Parker (Ward 9) have announced they won’t seek another term.

Coun. Greg Hildebrand (Ward 5) has yet to announce his intentions.

Those running for councillor can start registering on Tuesday, while mayoral candidates are already able to register.

The general election is on Oct. 28.

» alambert@brandonsun.com