The Mayor of Steckborn Switzerland: Roger Forrer

I had the pleasure Friday to have lunch with the fathers of three of the Swiss players. One of the fathers, who has two sons on the team, is also the Mayor (Bergmesiter) of Steckborn. Steckborn is a community of 4,000 people located on one arm of Lake Constance.

Roger Forrer has been Mayor for almost 4 years and has an election due in the spring of 2015. You can find Roger's website here. Roger's site is in German; the Google translation is awkward.

Bergemeister of Steckborn Roget Forrer and Marcus Descurtains of Switzerland, 12/19/14

 Through a translator, the other father who was lived in Canada as a boy, we had an interesting conversation about our respective roles and how we manage them. Like us they have a Council with 7 members including the Mayor; the Mayor has one vote as a well. Unlike us they have a party system at the municipal level; however, that is changing and the current Council has only three party member of which Roger is one. Roger's party is the SVP or the Swiss People's Party, a populist party.

One of their biggest challenges, like us, is infrastructure and finances. The conversation was very similar to ones I have had with my Saskatchewan Mayoral colleagues with the only difference being the need for a translator. Municipalities in Switzerland are able to carry debt. Currently they have a debt of about 20 million Swiss Franc or CDN $23.6 million ($1 Cdn = 0.85 Swiss Franc on 12/19/14).

We had a good conversation and we share many of the same challenges including working with different community groups.

Thank you Dave Halpenny for the arranging lunch, Barry Maladine for putting up with us, and Marcus Descurtains for translating.