Oops! Bradley named Region chair

Jim Bradley is not the chair of the next Niagara Region council, no matter what the government website said Tuesday afternoon.

For about an hour Tuesday, Bradley was listed on the Region website as regional chair — even though he, along with every other regional councillor-elect, hasn’t been sworn in yet.

The Region’s webpage that listed the membership of regional committees was updated Tuesday afternoon with the names of incoming councillors. Along with naming Bradley as chair, it listed several councillors as committee chairs and vice-chairs.

Region spokesman Peter Criscione said the list was posted in error and when Standard reporters pointed out the changes to the website, it was changed back quickly.

The communications staffer responsible for the website said she was updating the lists of councillor names as preparation for the next term of council, which begins Dec. 6.

She started updating the Region website database by pulling councillor-elect names from the municipal websites, starting with St. Catharines.

She said while the Region’s website lists all councillor names by municipality and then alphabetically, the St. Catharines site listed councillors-elect by vote totals.

As a result, she replaced the name of out-going Regional Chair Alan Caslin, the name of the top of the old regional database, with Bradley, who got the most votes in St. Catharines, and is at the top of the city’s list.

Unbeknownst to her, that action replaced Caslin’s place on the lists with Bradley’s name and automatically listed the councillor-elect as regional chair.

She also did not know that the database list was updating the live Region website, replacing the old names with the new ones.

The new regional chair won’t be decided until council sits for the first time on Dec. 6 when the councillors-elect are sworn in and vote on a chair. Committee membership won’t be selected by council until Dec. 13. Each committee will vote on their respective chairs and vice-chairs.