Back where they started: Council appoints Ryan Gauss to London Police Services Board

After a wrenching process that raised concerns about the need to bring racial diversity to the board that oversees police, London city council returned to their original decision on Tuesday, voting to appoint Ryan Gauss to the Police Services Board. 

Gauss's appointment happened after a series of close votes, a switched vote and in one case, a crucial missed vote. 

In the end, Gauss, who works for London North Centre Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos and ran Mayor Josh Morgan's election campaign, was council's appointment to the board. If that sounds familiar, it's because he was first picked by council to replace Susan Toth back in March.

That decision stirred outrage as Gauss was picked over two diverse candidates, including Joseph Wabegijig, the executive director of Atlohsa Family Healing Services and a member of the Wikwemikong Tribal Police Services Board.

After the pushback in the spring, council returned to the drawing board and whittled the list of candidates down to five and interviewed them in depth in closed-door meetings. In Tuesday's voting, each councillor got to vote for one candidate, with the last-place finisher removed from the ballot, with voting to continue in subsequent rounds until one candidate achieved a majority of the 15-member council. 

In Tuesday's voting, Stephen D'Amelio, a Black man and former director of the Pride London Festival, emerged as the main challenger to Gauss. But in the end, Gauss prevailed after a series of head-scratching twists and turns.

Here's how the voting unfolded. 

Gauss got the most votes in the first round but fell one short of the eight needed for a majority. 

7 votes for Ryan Gauss: Elizabeth Peloza, Jerry Pribil, Peter Cuddy, Paul Van Meerbergen, Steve Hillier, Steve Lehman and Susan Stevenson.

6 votes for Stephen D'Amelio: Josh Morgan, Corrine Rahman, Shawn Lewis, Hadleigh McAlister, Sam Trosow, and Skylar Franke.

2 votes for Joseph Wabegijig: Anna Hopkins and David Ferreira. 

At this point, as the last-place finisher, Wabegijig's name dropped off the ballot. His support likely was impacted by his removal last week from the city's community advisory committee on planning because he'd stopped showing up for meetings.

At this point, it appeared council was heading for an 8-7 vote in favour of D'Amelio if the pro-Wabegijig votes shifted to D'Amelio. But two unexpected things happened. First, Anna Hopkins left the meeting, telling council she would come back after the decision was made.

Also, Ferreira's vote in Round 2 went to Gauss, not D'Amelio.