The newly elected mayor of Prince George is running late.
When Lyn Hall finally steps off the elevator on the fifth floor of city hall, 10 minutes later than the appointed meeting time with The Citizen, he's contrite.
"I hate being late," says Hall.
Unfortunately, it's a position he's found himself in more frequently since his Nov. 15 election to the mayor's chair. The clock is already counting down the minutes until he has to leave again for another meeting with the crew over at Canada Games House.
On the day Hall sat down with The Citizen, he had officially been the city's mayor for all of 10 days. But it's been a busy transition period.
The fact that he would have a full schedule was no surprise, said Hall, but it's partially his fault his daily agenda is so packed.
In addition to the usual getting-up-to-speed activities, Hall has also gone outside of city hall walls to start forming those partnerships he promised during the election campaign.
"I've intentionally gone out and established meetings with stakeholders and partner groups throughout the entire city - and will continue to do that," said Hall, settling in to his corner office that boasts a new coat of paint for the first time in six years. (Incidentally, the brownish-grey colour is one shade lighter than a tone called "pothole.")
The new mayor wanted to have those conversations before he sat down with the rest of the new council for their strategic planning session in the new year.
"And I intend to keep up that pace. It was a commitment I made; I wanted to meet with as many organizations and as with as many people as possible while I sat in the mayor's chair," Hall said.
One of the first executions of that pledge will be aligning the city more closely with the local educational institutions.
During his Dec. 1 inaugural address, Hall announced the creation of two council committees to link the city, School District 57, the University of Northern B.C. and College of New Caledonia as well as the students passing through those systems.
"There's not a lot of cities that have universities and colleges that do as well as ours do," said Hall. "We all have struggles, but that's a real selling point to people who are looking at coming to Prince George and I think council needs to be directly connected to those organizations. We have a vested interest in their success."
The group that joins Hall around the council table is a mix of veterans and political rookies, from Murry Krause - who was elected to his sixth term - to Jillian Merrick - the 30-year-old, grassroots newcomer - and everyone in between.
After the body of nine was sworn in, Hall touted council's diversity of ages, skill sets and backgrounds and the range of individual strengths.
"People come from different walks of life and that's representative of the community and that's what I was so excited about," Hall said. "What I talked about at the swearing in is that I wanted to be able to ensure that [councillors] are matched with committees that they can fulfill and that the committee structure and the mandate around the committee fulfills their skill set."
When it comes to himself, Hall said he honed his leadership skills in his years at the School District 57 board of trustees, where he was first elected in a 2001 byelection. It was his first successful foray into politics after a couple of fruitless runs at city council in the late 1990s.
"I spent 10 years on the school district, three on council and I just really felt I had the ability to bring what I talked about on the campaign, which was a different style of leadership to the position," Hall said. "And I thought the style of leadership I wanted to bring was similar to what I did at the school board and that it was a style that would bode well for Prince George."
It wasn't as clear cut a path to the mayor's chair as the rate of speculation in the community may have indicated.
"It hadn't been at the back of my mind, nor in the forefront of my mind," Hall said. "I was completely satisfied and committed to being a councillor and at no time during my history on the school board did I ever think about the potential of me being the mayor of the city."
But that changed during the 2013 Christmas holidays.
"My wife started to have a conversation about it with me and then I started to talk to family members who have always been involved in my political career and that was really the impetus for me to take it more seriously," Hall said. "I wanted to get a good feeling from my family about how they felt about it."
Along with the concepts of partnership and collaboration, the word "family" is never far from tripping off Hall's tongue.
In a response to a Citizen questionnaire, Hall listed wife Lorelle and twin daughters Sydney and Jordan as the best gift he's ever received.
"Are you trying to get a tear in my eye? As you probably have found out during a couple of acceptance speeches I'm a pretty emotional guy at times," he said.
That support from his family provided the impetus for Hall to continue mulling over the idea of seeking the chain of office well into the new year. "In my day job, I travelled. So I took one of those trips [in early January], I was on my own and it just gave me an opportunity to really think long and hard about whether I wanted to take the run."
The two-man race against former city councillor Don Zurowski ended Nov. 15 with Hall taking 54 per cent of the votes cast for mayor.
The post-election honeymoon period is an easy one, with everyone settling into their new roles and having a Christmas break from the constant crush of meetings.
But the four years ahead include steering Prince George through its centennial, acting as the face of the city when the country arrives for the 2015 Canada Winter Games and another round of collective bargaining with the municipality's unionized employees when their contract runs out in 2016.
"It's a big job," Hall conceded. "There's a lot going on in Prince George, there's a lot of opportunity in Prince George and I'm just so passionate about making sure we take advantage of every opportunity there is out there."
