Changes Coming To How Deputy Mayor Is Elected

Saint John is changing the way its deputy mayor is selected following a municipal election.

On Monday, council voted in favour of a staff proposal to elect the deputy mayor through a council nomination process.

This would do away with a longstanding tradition of electing the councillor who receives the most votes in the election.

“You can see this isn’t easy because we’re split here now,” Mayor Don Darling said during the debate, which lasted more than 30 minutes.

The new selection process would give all 10 councillors the chance to put their names forward before council elects the deputy mayor by a show of hands.

Traditionally, all 10 councillors who ran in the municipal election had an equal chance at the outset to become deputy mayor, according to common clerk Jonathan Taylor.

But Taylor said that all changed after the city changed from a councillor-at-large election system to a hybrid at-large/ward system following a 2007 plebiscite.

“That meant that now only the two at-large councillors will receive enough votes to become deputy mayor,” Taylor told council Monday night.

In November, council approved a motion introduced by Deputy Mayor Shirley McAlary to codify the deputy mayor selection process in a bylaw.

McAlary, who is not reoffering in the upcoming election, put forward a motion Monday calling for the existing selection process to be maintained, but it was defeated 5-4.

A second motion by Coun. David Hickey to accept the staff recommendation was passed 5-4.

McAlary said she feels it should be left to the voters to decide who the deputy mayor should be.

“The citizens vote you in,” she said. “If they want you to be the deputy mayor, they’ll make sure or hopefully they’re going to try to make sure you get the highest number of votes.”

McAlary said she thinks allowing council to choose who the next deputy mayor will be is a “popularity vote.”

Coun. Gary Sullivan was among three other councillors who joined McAlary in voting against the change.

The councillor-at-large said it should not be up to a handful of people around the council table to choose a deputy mayor.

Both other councillors, like Ward 4 representative Ray Strowbridge, said they like the idea of all councillors being offered the chance to serve if they want to.

“A councillor-at-large could be someone who has zero experience versus and old-timer like me who’s got nine years’ experience,” said Strowbridge.

Ward 1 Councillor Greg Norton agreed, saying it makes sense to give all interested councillors a chance.

“It gives you a range of options in terms of who would be a best fit, whether that’s experience or whether that’s time or whether that’s passion or whether that’s any number of boxes that you could check in a skills matrix,” he said.

The deputy mayor would continue to be appointed for a four-year term.