Council appoints former alderman to Ward 7
Terry Anderson will represent Mountain area until Oct. 22 election. Seat vacant since Donna Skelly was elected MPP
City council has appointed former alderman Terry Anderson to temporarily fill a vacant Ward 7 seat until the Oct. 22 election.
The Mountain ward has been without a councillor since late June when Donna Skelly left to become the new Progressive Conservative MPP for Flamborough-Glanbrook.
The city had asked the province for permission to keep the seat vacant in light of the looming election, but new Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark squashed the idea in a letter received by council Friday.
Council then approved a motion to appoint Anderson, a preamalgamation alderman for Ward 7 who is now a partner with an insurance brokerage.
Anderson said in a later interview a number of council members sounded him out after the provincial election about whether he would be willing to jump back into his old ward.
“It’s an honour to be asked to serve. I believe the people in the ward deserve to have a voice at the table, even for that short time period,” he said, adding he has not been “bitten by the political bug” and has no plans to use the appointment as a springboard back into politics.
The 57-year-old said he has “no particular issue” he wants to advance over the remaining two months of council business before the election. “I just want to focus on being there for residents to call and speaking on their behalf.”
Coun. Matthew Green denounced what he called “backroom” discussions that resulted in Anderson being pitched for the role, arguing the process was undemocratic.
Green had previously pitched an open application process similar to the one used to fill a recent Toronto council vacancy. Coun. Aidan Johnson also supported a public process and was the only other councillor to oppose Anderson’s appointment.
Mountain Coun. Terry Whitehead, on the other hand, argued appointing a councillor with no previous experience for just two months would do “a disservice to the ward.”
Coun. Lloyd Ferguson added he would have preferred to leave the seat vacant and save the city several thousand dollars in salary. The City of St. Catharines ignored provincial law earlier this summer in deciding against filling its own vacant council seat.
Instead, that city voted to use salary savings to pay for a fireworks display.