Former White Rock city administrator Wayne Baldwin will be running for council in November's civic election.

Baldwin, who served as city administrator for 23 years under four mayors, confirmed his intention to run for a seat on White Rock council in an interview with the Now on Wednesday.

Baldwin will run on the Team White Rock slate, which is still in the process of selecting other candidates.

"I offer a lot of experience," said Baldwin, who admits that stumping for votes might be a tougher job than running city hall.

Baldwin said his frustration with the way the city is currently being run prompted him to enter the race.

As an observer from the sidelines for the past five years, Baldwin says he's dismayed with the bickering and divisiveness on council at the expense of city taxpayers.

He said council has made a number of decisions he opposes, including amending White Rock's Official Community Plan and making redevelopment in the city more cumbersome.

He believes council should take a non-partisan approach toward development, a polarizing issue in the city.

He rejected the "pro-development" label when it was posed to him, but went on to say that he's "certainly not against it" if the project has merit.

"We need to strike some kind of middle ground that's reasonable for everyone and not one extreme or another," he said.

Baldwin also said the city's core services review was a misguided project that has resulted in a loss of services.

"We lost some services that we shouldn't have lost, like police dispatch. That's been a negative effect on service levels," he said.

He referred to the debate about contracting out of firefighting services as a "colossal waste of time" because the city went through a similar exercise only a couple of years ago.

Baldwin said he's still working on defining his own platform and will unveil details soon.

But for now, the broad strokes include a call for greater civility during public discourse.

"There has to be a bit more civility and respect. That's not there right now," he said.

Baldwin also said the city's business should be conducted in a more judicious style.

"The decision making process has to be a lot more inclusive," he said.

Altogether, the Team White Rock slate expects to field five candidates in the municipal election on Nov. 19.

So far, two other names have cropped up as possible contenders - former councillor Cliff Annable and Brad Forster, hubby of former White Rock mayor Judy Forster. Both are on the executive of the Team White Rock political machine.

mbabic@thenownewspaper.com

Twitter@marisababic