Dust off your resume, because council is looking for just the right applicant to join in their ranks.
At their regular meeting on Feb. 24, council voted in favour of proceeding to appoint a councillor to former councillor Brandon Houston’s vacant seat from a pool of applicants.
However, the vote wasn’t unanimous, with Deputy Mayor Tim Fryer, Coun. Rob Ring and Coun. Chris Potts voting against the option.
“With this process, we know the public perception is going to be that we’re playing favourites depending on who gets in. It’s a small community,” said Potts during his remarks.
On Jan. 23, Houston gave the town written notice of his resignation. The rookie councillor had been on a leave of absence since Nov. 18, 2024. Council declared his seat vacant at their Jan. 27 meeting.
Under the municipal act, when a council declares a council seat vacant, municipalities must fill the vacancy within 60 days either through an appointment or by-election, depending on the circumstances.
Options presented by town staff earlier this month to fill the vacancy included:
- Appointment by council from a pool of applicants
- Appoint someone who ran in the 2022 election
- Appoint a member of a previous council
- Appointment of any other qualified individual who consents
- Call a by-election, which staff estimated would cost between $50,000 and $100,000 and would see the seat filled by June or July
A recent poll on CollingwoodToday on the subject completed by 71 readers found that 50.7 per cent of readers that completed the poll were in favour of council appointment from a pool of applicants, whereas 43.7 per cent wanted appointment from 2022 election candidates and 5.63 per cent wanted a by-election. There were no votes for any other option.
Fryer said he continued to be in favour of the second option.
“Voters have given us a mandate of who they supported and what they preferred... back in 2022. That mandate should be discussed,” he said. “I can’t support this motion at this stage.”
Coun. Christopher Baines, who was absent when the matter was discussed at committee of the whole, said he was in support of appointing from a pool of applicants.
“Nothing in the first option would prohibit any candidate who ran in a previous election from running again,” he said.
Ring, who was also absent when the matter was discussed at committee, had a different view.
“At this time, I’m not going to support this. If I had been here (at committee), I would have leaned on the third option because of the time left on this council. At this point, a person with council experience is probably going to be the best person to fill this spot because it’s short-term,” Ring explained. “We have a little over a year to make some big decisions. I don’t think it’s fair to have someone new come on.”
Following the meeting, town clerk Sara Almas said that work was now underway to put together a page on the town’s website that will include a formal application form and process for anyone wishing to apply to the seat.
She said the website and application form would be up by the end of this week, with a mid-March application deadline.
Staff are preparing to add a special meeting of council to the calendar for the third week of March, for applicants to come before council to plead their case. All eligible candidates will be given five minutes to make a speech. At that meeting, council will vote for the applicant they’d like to fill the seat in open session.