Andy staying on, for now, as St. John's mayor

St. John's Mayor Andy Wells says he will stick around city hall for at least eight more months, putting off an early byelection to replace him.

Wells, who takes over as full-time chair of Newfoundland and Labrador's Public Utilities Board on March 1, said Thursday he did not want to put taxpayers through the cost of a byelection by resigning early.

Wells said he has decided to stay as mayor — even though he also considers that post a full-time job — until at least September in order to avoid a forced vote.

The City of St. John's Act dictates that a byelection must be held if the mayor steps down more than 12 months before the next scheduled election. Residents of St. John's vote in September 2009.

Wells said he also would have supported Marie White, a former city councillor, if she had decided to run for the mayor's chair, which would have caused problems at council.

"I would have been accused of causing a byelection in order to give her a chance to become mayor at a cost of $400,000 to the taxpayers. That would have come up. There's no question about that," Wells told CBC News.

"In a sense, you can't really win on this one, so I decided to take the route, go the route of trying to save the citizens of St. John's money."

Dennis O'Keefe, the current deputy mayor, has already said he would have run if a mayoralty byelection had been called.

Meanwhile, Wells said he has not decided whether to resign as mayor at the end of September, by which point a byelection would not be triggered.

Wells has said a byelection could cost as much as $500,000. Several councillors have said Wells should resign sooner rather than later.

Premier Danny Williams appointed Wells earlier this month to head the PUB, at a salary of about $175,000. 

Wells has been a fixture on St. John's city council since 1977. He has served as mayor since 1997.