The municipality of Brighton will fill the vacancy on council through an appointment by application.
A seat remains open following the recent passing of Councillor Byron Faretis.
On Monday, council voted in favour of the application method over other options including a by-election and selecting the person who finished just out of the running in the 2022 election.
Mayor Brian Ostrander says the next place finisher was William Schmidt but he is not eligible as he no longer lives in the community.
There was a lengthy discussion about holding a by-election.
“But whether you’re electing, you know, one person or seven people, the process remains the same. And it would have been close to a $40,000 price tag and that doesn’t factor in staff time so essentially now you’ve seconded your entire clerk’s department to running an election to fill one seat for a couple of years.”
He says appointment by application is the most practical and economical solution.
It will be an open and transparent process inviting input from the public.
“What we will want people to do is ensure that they’re providing their feedback to members of council in a constructive way based on whomever files and shows interest in joining us around the council horseshoe and providing their service to the municipality.”
Ostrander says a replacement must be appointed 60 days from the time the seat was declared vacant which was December 9.
He expects council will meet several times before making a final decision in early February.
The clerk’s office is now working on the plan for application process and will share information in the coming days.
