Essex council delays appointment of Ward 3 councillor
CBC
Essex council will wait until the next regular council meeting to decide who will fill a vacant council seat after hearing from applicants during a special meeting of council on Monday.
Ward 4 Coun. Sherry Bondy's motion to defer the decision until March 7 was supported by all members of council except for the remaining Ward 3 councillor, Chris Vander Doelen.
Vander Doelen criticized the decision, saying that ward will not be properly represented for a discussion about short-term rentals during the next meeting, an issue he called "one of the most important and divisive issues" for the area.
Essex town council decided to seek applications from town residents to fill the vacant council seat in Ward 3.
Ward 3 (formerly Colchester South), along with Ward 1 (formerly Essex Centre), has two seats on council.
The vacancy was created when councillor Steve Bjorkman moved into the deputy mayor's chair, after Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche was chosen by council to be the new mayor.
The mayoral seat was vacated by former mayor Larry Snively, who resigned after pleading guilty to an Ontario Elections Act violation.
Council received 12 applications for the open seat, with two applicants removing themselves for consideration during the process.
Ron Rogers, the former Ward 3 councillor elected in a 2017 byelection who came second to Snivley in the 2018 election for mayor, removed his name from consideration on Monday.
Rogers said council needed to appoint someone without political experience in hopes that it would start a new political career.
Former Essex mayor Ron McDermott said he submitted his name because he was worried no one else would step forward.
He removed his name after seeing the list of applications.
"It's unbelievable that we have that many people interested in doing this work," said McDermott.
Council will now appoint one of the following 10 people to council next week:
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