Public school board to appoint new trustees in place of byelections

Decision comes after the death of Fred Meissner and resignation of Marie Snyder

The Waterloo Region District School Board has voted to fill two vacant trustee positions by appointment instead of a costly byelection.

The board was faced with filling two vacancies after the sudden death of trustee Fred Meissner earlier this month and trustee Marie Snyder’s resignation for health reasons.

At Monday’s meeting, board chair Joanne Weston explained the board would have to cover all costs of a byelection.

The two vacancies would require byelections in Waterloo, Wilmot, Woolwich and Wellesley.

The City of Waterloo said it would cost $214,000 to host its portion of the byelection.

Costs for the townships had not been received by Monday’s board meeting.

“I think that a byelection would be prohibitively expensive. We know that we are in a tight budget environment,” said trustee Scott Piatkowski, who put forward the motion for an appointment process.

“Extrapolating on the City of Waterloo figure, I think we’re looking at over a half-million dollars to run two byelections, and certainly I can’t justify that.”

Legislation would require the byelection be held in either July or August, he said, which is generally considered a time to avoid holding elections due to low voter turnout.

There’s also a precedent for appointing new trustees, said Weston.

On the last three occasions when the board had a vacancy, it filled them by appointment — two through an interview process and one by appointing the first runnerup in the previous election.

The board voted Monday in favour of an appointment process, after a long discussion in which trustees Cindy Watson and Mike Ramsay said an appointment process was undemocratic.

“Someone could come in and get the position, and yet they didn’t even run for the position,” said Watson.

“Since it’s only been six months, it only makes sense to go with the person next in line.”

Several trustees cited the high cost of a byelection along with historically low voter turnout for standalone trustee byelections as reasons for voting in favour of appointment.

“If I thought we could get a reflection of the democratic process in a result, I might be willing to discuss the idea of spending that kind of money on a byelection,” said trustee Carla Johnson. “But at this point it feels it’s not going to be, so I’m voting in favour of appointment.”

An ad hoc committee will determine how the new trustees are appointed. That committee is to report back to the board on May 29.

‘‘ I think we’re looking at over a half-million dollars to run two byelections, and certainly I can’t justify that.

SCOTT PIATKOWSKI TRUSTEE