Back where they started: Council appoints Ryan Gauss to London Police Services Board

After a wrenching process that raised concerns about the need to bring racial diversity to the board that oversees police, London city council returned to their original decision on Tuesday, voting to appoint Ryan Gauss to the Police Services Board. 

Gauss's appointment happened after a series of close votes, a switched vote and in one case, a crucial missed vote. 

In the end, Gauss, who works for London North Centre Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos and ran Mayor Josh Morgan's election campaign, was council's appointment to the board. If that sounds familiar, it's because he was first picked by council to replace Susan Toth back in March.

That decision stirred outrage as Gauss was picked over two diverse candidates, including Joseph Wabegijig, the executive director of Atlohsa Family Healing Services and a member of the Wikwemikong Tribal Police Services Board.

After the pushback in the spring, council returned to the drawing board and whittled the list of candidates down to five and interviewed them in depth in closed-door meetings. In Tuesday's voting, each councillor got to vote for one candidate, with the last-place finisher removed from the ballot, with voting to continue in subsequent rounds until one candidate achieved a majority of the 15-member council.  

In Tuesday's voting, Stephen D'Amelio, a Black man and former director of the Pride London Festival, emerged as the main challenger to Gauss. But in the end, Gauss prevailed after a series of head-scratching twists and turns.

Here's how the voting unfolded. 

Round 1: No majority

Gauss got the most votes in the first round but fell one short of the eight needed for a majority. 

7 votes for Ryan Gauss: Elizabeth Peloza, Jerry Pribil, Peter Cuddy, Paul Van Meerbergen, Steve Hillier, Steve Lehman and Susan Stevenson.

6 votes for Stephen D'Amelio: Josh Morgan, Corrine Rahman, Shawn Lewis, Hadleigh McAlister, Sam Trosow, and Skylar Franke.

2 votes for Joseph Wabegijig: Anna Hopkins and David Ferreira. 

At this point, as the last-place finisher, Wabegijig's name dropped off the ballot. His support likely was impacted by his removal last week from the city's community advisory committee on planning because he'd stopped showing up for meetings.

Round 2: 7-7 tie

At this point, it appeared council was heading for an 8-7 vote in favour of D'Amelio if the pro-Wabegijig votes shifted to D'Amelio. But two unexpected things happened. First, Anna Hopkins left the meeting, telling council she would come back after the decision was made.

Also, Ferreira's vote in Round 2 went to Gauss, not D'Amelio. 

The result was a 7-7 tie vote, which went this way: 

7 votes for Gauss: Ferreira, Peloza, Pribil, Cuddy, Van Meerbergen, Lehman, and Stevenson. 

7 votes for D'Amelio: Morgan, Rahman, McAlister, Franke, Hillier, Lewis, and Trosow. 

Hopkins was not present for the vote and the tie meant a runoff was necessary.

Round 3: Hillier switches his vote, Gauss wins

In the final round of voting, Gauss won by an 8-6 vote.

Here's how that vote broke down:

8 votes for Gauss: Ferriera, Peloza, Pribil, Cuddy, Van Meerbergen, Hillier (switched vote), Lehman, and Stevenson. 

6 votes for D'Amelio: Rahman, McAlister, Morgan, Franke, Lewis, and Trosow.

Again, Hopkins was not present for vote, but at this point, it wouldn't have made a difference which way she voted.

There was also a final ratification vote, but it wasn't unanimous. It passed 12-3 with Hopkins voting with the majority and Trosow, Franke and McAlister casting what amounted to protest votes. 

Why did Hopkins miss the crucial vote?

Hopkins said she decided to sit out the crucial votes after Wabegijig was eliminated in part because she wasn't sure which candidate to support.

"I decided to leave it to my council colleagues," she said. "I don't do the number games, I did what I thought was right for what I felt was a good candidate. The process took place, I just wanted to personally remove myself. I didn't know what I could contribute to the conversation. I didn't know which way to go. I can only do what I think is the right thing. I just felt that I could not contribute any further."

CBC News spoke to D'Amelio by phone after the vote as he wasn't in council chambers. He said he was somewhat disappointed but accepted the decision. 

The decision to appoint Gauss ends a long battle that spurred letters to council calling for the appointment of a diverse candidate. When she stepped down from the police services board in January Toth, a human rights and labour lawyer, had called for her replacement to be Black, Indigenous or a person of colour.