Wait for Mayor

Thursday, 17 April 2014 13:57

The town of Tillsonburg is charting its course for selecting its next Mayor.

TILLSONBURG -- A better timeline has been drawn for selecting Tillsonburg's next Mayor after John Lessif announced his resignation earlier this month.

Tillsonburg's Town Clerk this week provided a report outlining information concerning requirements under the local Municipal Act regarding vacant seats of Council.

The act sets out a number of ways which a council seat of a municipality becomes vacant.

In and email to Heart FM, Town Clerk Donna Wilson, says Tillsonburg Council did not get into a lot of process to select a new mayor at this week's Monday's regular meeting, but she did provide council with a list of past practices.

There were two occasions in the records for the Town of Tillsonburg when there was a vacancy on Council and both were required to be filled.

On July 14, 1995 Councillor Bob Parson submitted his resignation to Council in order to accept the Deputy Fire Chief position with the Town of Tillsonburg. The current Clerk made a recommendation to Council to review the results of the past election in 1994 and to appoint the Councillor candidate who was the next runner up in that election.

On August 14 of that year Chris Rosehart was appointed as Councillor for the Town of Tillsonburg.

In 2000, The second case was in an election year when Mayor Cam McKnight provided his resignation as Mayor on May 24, 2000.

Council held a special meeting on May 25, 2000 and asked council for nominations for the position of Mayor. Two names were nominated and council was asked to vote, the vote ended in a tie. The Clerk then put each candidate's name in a box. The name drawn from the box was Brenda Carroll who completed the term of
Council as Mayor.

Wilson expects the mayor's chair to be declared vacant with a vote at council's May 12 meeting.

Within 60 days from the date of the declaration of the vacancy, Council must either appoint a candidate or pass a by-law requiring a by-election to be held which opens up the position to anyone qualified who wants to run.

Wilson says once the Mayor's seat is declared vacant, her office will provide options for appointment, either selecting a member of council to assume the role, or provide another option -- to advertise to any interested members of the public if anyone wishes to submit their name to become Mayor, forcing a by-election.

If council however decides to appoint a new mayor from within its ranks, there will be an additional vacancy on Town Council which will also have to be filled.

Mayor John Lessif's resignation becomes effective April 30, 2014.