City of Brockville seeks members of the public to fill council vacancies

Brockville city council is hanging up the help-wanted sign to fill two vacancies on council.

The city is inviting eligible residents and past candidates to apply for the seats to serve out the remainder of the term.

“Actually, instead of going into those files asking for people to step up and say why they would like to be sitting on council, this might be a good occasion for the people,” said councillor Nathalie Lavergne.

Council was presented with three options to fill the seats: they could hold a byelection, select the runners-up from the 2018 election, or send out an expression of interest to the public, which is what they ended up choosing.

However, not everyone was on board.

“I don’t think the previous election is too old for us; we’re all obviously still here at the table. So I think that moving down the list is the most democratic thing that we can do if we’re not going to be calling a byelection,” said councilor Cameron Wales.

A byelection was deemed the least favourable option, with council saying it would cost over $80,000 and the results likely wouldn’t come in until February.

The councillors who voted in favour of opening it up to the public saw it as the fairest method to go forward.

“There could be a number of previous councillors; there could be people on the list. The people on the list could also make an expression of interest. It’s up to us, because that’s what we were elected for, to make decisions on behalf of the city,” said councillor Larry Journal.

The seats were left vacant by former mayor Jason Baker, who resigned, and councillor Leigh Bursey, who stepped away due to family health reasons.

The city is aiming to have the two new councillors in their seats in December.