Coun. Kathy Valentino will serve as the city’s deputy mayor until the next organizational meeting in early November after being appointed to the position by Mayor Colleen Smook at council’s June 7 meeting.
The appointment was made necessary by Coun. Duncan Wong resigning as the chair of the legislative and finance committee near the end of the May 10 council meeting, after the financial plan and the levy bylaw, both of which he voted against, were approved by a majority of councillors. Under the city’s organizational bylaw, that committee must be chaired by the deputy mayor so when Wong resigned from the required position, the mayor had to revoke his appointment as deputy mayor and replace him with someone else, according to a memo from city manager Anthony McInnis.
Council also elected Coun, Andre Proulx as the second representative on the legislative and finance committee in a 5-4 vote over Coun. Les Ellsworth.
During the mayor’s report at the end of the meeting, Ellsworth made his feelings on that decision clear.
“There’s no councillor that puts more time in at City Hall than I do and I’ll continue to do that for the people that elected me but when you hold it against me as an elected body because I voted against the budget, again, I’ll say it and I’ll debate it with anyone, shame on you because you just put a dart in the heart of one of the hardest-working councillors,” Ellsworth said.
