Bent ready to run again for CBS’s big chair

By Craig Westcott

It wasn’t quite as big a personal decision as last time, but Darrin Bent says he gave it a lot of consideration before deciding to seek re-election as mayor of CBS this fall.
“It’s always a big decision, because it’s a big commitment, not only for the campaign process, but of course you’re saying, ‘I’m going to be here for four more years,’ and you don’t make those decisions lightly,” Bent said last week. “I’ve decided that I am going to run again. I feel there are lots of things still in progress that I would like see through to an end… Before I made the decision I wanted to make sure that I had the full commitment to the same amount of work in the campaign this time, with the same amount of effort, spend the money and have the support, and that’s all come together, and so I’m ready to hit the campaign trail. I won’t do it in July – I’ll give people July (to enjoy the summer), but they can expect to see me in August for sure.”
Bent said council this past term has done some wonderful things and he hopes to continue doing them.
As “part time” mayor, Bent reckons he spends 25 to 40 hours a week on council business, depending on the week.
“And those hours aren’t Monday to Friday 9 to 5,” he said. “They’re anytime when anything may happen, or anything comes up, and I think the people who reach out to me know that I get back to them quickly, and I don’t really much care what time of day that is…. And of course, once you’ve been asked a question, you’re thinking about that, you’re not thinking about what you are doing at home, so it takes up that time too. And of course it takes up family time as well, but we’re all in for that and happy to do it and we’ve decided that it is something that we feel is important, we feel the work that I’ve been doing is important and the tone that we’ve set for the town is important to continue. So, we’re going to keep going until somebody tells us to stop.”
Bent said he manages to keep track of nearly all the issues going on in the Town and is happy to help the ward councillors in their individual areas. 
“I also understand the responsibilities of representing the town and take it very seriously,” he said. “I’m always concerned about the reputation of the town, always concerned about the tone of council, and how it’s seen and how we interact with the residents. It’s important to me that that stays very positive, and I believe that it’s important for our town for growth, for investment, that Conception Bay South is seen as a positive, bright spot as a municipality in our province and a great place, an attractive place and the right place to raise a family, the right place to retire, the right place to set up a business. We have one of the fastest growing populations in the province and I think that’s because of the reputation of our town, the tone that we’re setting.”
When Bent campaigned for mayor the first time, his pledges included a commitment to making council’s deiberations more transparent, and to grow the business base. One of the first things council did after getting elected was to make public the minutes of committee meetings, something which had been concealed by so-called “blanket motions” for many years previously. The fostering of a bigger business base remains something Bent continues to pursue.
“We have come a long way in four years,” said the mayor. “Our commercial revenue growth is up by half a million dollars a year from when we took over, and it continues to grow this year… It’s very important to the town that we build on our commercial revenue. It’s what will help pay the bills, and cover the increasing cost going forward, and it will help shield residents from higher tax burdens. Without the commercial growth, the residential taxpayer is left to pay the bills for the town. To me, Conception Bay South lagged behind and we’ve made the turn on that. Over the past four years we have seen great commercial growth.”
Bent said the town has nearly 600 small businesses, which form the backbone of its economy. “We’re very proud of that and of the sustainability of most of those businesses,” he said. “A lot of them faced some serious challenges during Covid, but on the other side of it, you drive around now and you see that most all of them are still here and thriving and growing today.”
Speaking of Covid, Bent said it created was of the most challenging periods in council’s history. It sparked product and service shortages that in turn caused hyperinflation that drove up costs exorbitantly. But council got through it.
“We came through a shutdown that we weathered fairly well,” he said. “We managed the debt prudently to keep us in a good fiscal position… If we had revenue that we could put towards debt, we did. Right now, we’re not facing the same increases in costs that we faced when we took over… But we’re still seeing the increased prices. Things aren’t dropping in price, they’re just not going up anymore. And that’s still a challenge. It’s a challenge always to meet the demands of a growing community, and the growth that we’ve seen in the past while.”
In response, the Town is reviewing the operations of its planning department and enforcement divisions to see if there are ways to improve services, Bent said. 
“For the past two years we’ve been doing reviews of all departments, because Covid changed everything for everybody, and we have to find new ways of doing things that make sense in today’s world,” Bent added. “We have to make sure that we always keep our residents first in mind. They’re facing the same challenges with taxes and so forth… We have to keep in mind the challenges that our seniors face, and we also have to keep in mind what our seniors’ needs are when it comes to programming and to ensuring they have the things the Town has traditionally provided for them, and new things.” 
One thing he will fight for, if re-elected, is an increase in capital works funding from the province.
“In our view, we have been underfunded for many years,” said Bent. “Especially in comparison to some of our neighbours who don’t have the amount of roads or infrastructure, and water and sewer to keep up that we do. Yet we’re getting less money and that’s got to change. We’ve met with the Province – they know the concern. I just recently sent a letter outlining this to the new minister to make sure he is fully abreast of our concerns with regards to this, and as a Town we expect this to be addressed. I don’t begrudge any other municipality getting the money they do, but it has to be apples to apples. We have to have our fair share compared to others. We’ve been lacking in that for some time, and it is critically important because the responsibility is left to us as a municipality to ensure that our infrastructure is up to the safety standards, is functioning and working the way it needs to be for the residents when it comes to water, sewer, roads, and so forth. We depend on multi-year capital works funding to help us with that and it needs to be upgraded for Conception Bay South to reflect our growth, our size, and the amount of infrastructure we have to deal with.”
Bent would especially like to finish the last three or four per cent of the town that doesn’t have water and sewer services and that will be a priority if re-elected, he indicated. But mostly what residents can expect is more of the same in terms of responding to their needs, he said, and setting the tone for growth.
“This is a fantastic place, I can’t imagine being anywhere else,” Bent said. “Over the past four years I couldn’t have been prouder to be mayor of this town, and I hope that that shows in the way that I portray the town and the way that I react to the things that we deal with here, both good and bad. This is a great place to live. All we can do is to make it that much better. And we don’t want to lose that momentum… I think there is more work to do and more work for me to do, and I would be absolutely honoured to be given the opportunity to serve as mayor for the next four years.”