Donald Mosicki will be stepping forward in October to run for the position of Reeve of Brazeau County.
Mosicki was born and raised in the Warburg area. He currently owns land that falls on both Leduc County and Brazeau County. For the past five years Mosicki and his wife have lived in Division 5 of Brazeau County.
Mosicki’s professional background includes thirty years of experience working in the oilfield out of Drayton Valley. He says that work also took him across B.C. Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
He is also a former member of the RCMP and was a farmer with 120 cattle. That led to him representing the area on the former Alberta Cattle Commission for two terms. He also spent a term representing the area on the Alberta Beef Producers Board. In municipal politics, Mosicki spent one term as a councillor for the Village of Warburg and two terms as a councillor for the County of Leduc. He’s also spent many years volunteering his time with local organizations including 4H and the Alberta Winter Games.
With that background Mosicki opted to run for reeve instead of as a councillor because he says he knows what’s needed to get things done.
“I’ve enough experience behind me that I could probably do a pretty good job as a reeve,” he says.
He says one of the areas that he would like to see improvement on would be the way that the County’s finances are handled.
“I would like to see full transparency on financial matters,” says Mosicki.
Building on that, he’d like to see a change in the way members of council are compensated. Mosicki says that he believes the councillors should be paid a salary, rather than having some councillors making more than others based on which committees they sit on.
“I believe [a person] should have the same restitutions as the others that are elected,” he says. “There seems to be quite a discrepancy in that.”
Mosicki is also concerned with the infrastructure budget of the County after the pandemic. He says he thinks that most of the reserves have been diverted to other areas. He would like to see those reserves built up again.
“Those have to be built up to maintain infrastructure in the future,” he says.
The availability of quality drinking water is another area that Mosicki believes needs to be addressed.
“I think every county in the province should have a plan for protection of potable water,” he says. He thinks the water should be tested to ensure that it’s safe for consumption.
“If you don’t have potable water for several days you’re in trouble.”
He would also like to look at zoning in the County and to talk to the province about how to handle orphan wells.
The County’s relationship with the Town of Drayton Valley also needs to improve, he says.
“It has to work one way or another. We can’t get rid of each other, so we’ve got to work something out,” says Mosicki.
While he thinks the Town can spend too much money, he believes there is a level that both the Town and the County can work with. He says both municipalities have things that they can offer the other, so it’s important for them to work together.
“Overall it’s gotta work both ways,” he says.
