Ottawa's newest city councillor will be appointed today from list of 20
Jenna Sudds left her post in Kanata North when she became an MP in September
Ottawa city council members will choose a new city councillor for the ward of Kanata North today from a list of 20 applicants in a process that could see more than one round of voting, but no public input.
The person who fills the seat left vacant by Jenna Sudds, now the Liberal MP for Kanata-Carleton, will represent their constituents for less than a year before a general municipal election takes place in October 2022.
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Several applicants told CBC they also intend to run next year. Many current council members had earlier said they would prefer appointing someone who only wants the job temporarily, but were told they could not require such a pledge from an appointee.
Despite that, the majority of council decided Kanata North's next councillor should be appointed, rather than elected. They felt a by-election held in January would come too late because big files — such as the 2022 budget — would be completed before Sudds's successor took over the seat.
A byelection would also cost more than $550,000 due to COVID-19 restrictions, whereas the City of Ottawa spent just $7,278 on newspaper ads seeking applicants.
Some residents in the ward had pushed for former long-time councillor and pre-amalgamation mayor Marianne Wilkinson to be appointed. They argued she could steer files such as the controversial redevelopment of the Kanata Golf and Country Club. Wilkinson has indeed applied for her old job.
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That has led to Wednesday's special — and unusual — city council meeting.
Two dozen people had applied by the deadline, but four have since withdrawn. About half of the remaining 20 have provided information ahead of time about themselves, and each person will be allowed to give a five-minute presentation to council.
The city clerk will randomly draw names from slips of paper in a box to determine the speaking order, and each council member will be allowed one question of each applicant.
Municipal expert Stéphane Émard-Chabot agrees appointing someone makes sense given how little time is left in the council term, and suggests it should be someone with roots in the community, an understanding of municipal issues, and experience with policy and projects.
"The final piece to me, which is really key, is somebody who will not run in the next election," said Émard-Chabot, a University of Ottawa law professor and one-time Ottawa city councillor.
He said they should make a public declaration, even if no laws can hold them to their word.
"You don't want, through an appointment process, somebody to get a leg up on name recognition and getting volunteers in place over all the other candidates that might be willing and prepared to run in 2022," said Émard-Chabot.
Long day ahead
After council has heard from all would-be Kanata North representatives, they will turn to voting.
Each councillor and the mayor will, in turn, state the applicant they are voting for. The applicant with the most votes, and votes from more than half of council members present, wins. If no one passes the bar of getting more than 50 per cent of votes, voting continues to a new round where those with no votes, and the least votes, are dropped.
Should there be a two-way tie, the names will be put in a box and the city clerk will draw one name to fill the vacancy.
Given the number of applicants, and the number of possible questions, city staff expect the meeting could last into the evening and council members were urged to clear their schedules.
The 20 people who remain on the list for the Kanata North job include a University of Ottawa professor, a former school trustee, business owners, and a public servant, among others:
- Sikandar Arora
- Stewart Cattroll
- Raymond Gianfrancesco
- Cathy Curry
- Peter Lothar Hanschke
- Anupam Kakkar
- Peter Karwacki
- Michael Kempa
- Granda Kopytko
- Siddhartha Kumar
- Matthew Justin Lee
- Stephanie Maghnam
- Christine Moulaison
- Dyna Margaret O'Connell
- Jonathan Reid
- Brandon Roland Russell
- Patty Searl-Clarkson
- Bina Shah
- Marianne Wilkinson
- Syed Khateeb Zaidi
The incoming councillor is expected to be privately sworn in as early as Wednesday afternoon or evening, and will complete orientation and training over the coming days.
with files from Denise Fung and Joanne Chianello