Tara Ney wants to be perfectly clear about her position on whether secondary suites should be legalized in Oak Bay.

"It's a complicated issue and not addressed well by saying 'I'm for it or against it,'" she said, adding that she's neutral on the topic. "My suggestion has always been that we need a very careful and thorough neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood consultation."

Sitting in her Oak Bay office, the psychologist says the topic of secondary suites was one of the most hotly-contested subjects she discussed with voters in her first stab at running for Oak Bay council.

Ney grabbed the second highest number of votes of councillors (3,084) in the Nov. 14 Oak Bay municipal election. With five other incumbent councillors and the mayor being re-elected, Ney is the lone new face. Ney's presence evens out the gender split: there are now three women and three men on council.

Ney is also a University of Victoria professor and professional dispute resolution mediator, and knows how to approach a contested issue's multiple facets. In addition, the daughter of former Nanaimo mayor Frank Ney learned a thing or two from her dad, a politician, she says, who spent "much of his time on the sidewalk talking and listening to people."

Ney took much the same approach in her "sidewalk" campaign, chatting up about 1,000 folks at Oak Bay gathering spots. Listening to residents' concerns has confirmed for her that an approach of balancing the status quo with a forward-looking environmental agenda is what Oak Bay residents want.

"We don't want to change the ambiance but do want to adapt to this new era of environmental responsibility," she said. "My sense is that you do that slowly, nudge it along."

Expanding the organic-waste composting and plastics-recycling programs are two things she'd like to see happen. Banning the use of leaf blowers on Sundays and banning plastic bags altogether are two other efforts she says should be looked into.

"If we set up the programming, people will buy into it," she says.

Ney has been married 31 years to UVic English literature professor Kim Blank. The couple have two children: Acia, 27, and Jenner, 22. Ney attended Nanaimo District secondary school and Malaspina College before finishing a B.A. Honours in Psychology at UVic. She also has a masters in dispute resolution and a Ph.D. in psychology.

As to how she will fit in on Oak Bay council, Ney said growing up in a large family taught her well.

"In a family of 11 there were a lot of differences," she says. "But what our parents always taught us is, if you have differences, in the end you work it out and learn to get along."

Ney has confidence that Oak Bay will come to a consensus about secondary suites and other contentious topics.

"We should be able to do this, to be able to deal with big differences, however polarized, and we should be able to come together to a common solution without dividing the community."

Tara Ney, as well as the re-elected councillors and mayor will be sworn in at an inaugural ceremony at Oak Bay municipal hall on Monday, Dec. 8.

vmoreau@saanichnews.com