Essex council appoints new ward 3 councillor
CBC
After a short discussion, Jason Matyi was appointed Ward 3 councillor for the County of Essex Monday evening.
Councillors appointed Matyi out of 10 total applicants. Initially, council received 12 applications for the open seat, but two applicants removed themselves for consideration during the process.
During Monday's council meeting, councillors nominated and voted on three people from the list of 10. These nominations included Matyi, Bill Caixerio and Mac Goslin.
Mac Goslin received only one vote and was dropped after the first round of voting.
"[Matyi] is someone with deep roots in Ward 3 and a clear commitment to community, he's engaged and he is involved," said Ward 2 Coun. Kim Verbeek.
On Feb. 28, Essex council heard from applicants during a special meeting but decided to delay the decision until its regular council meeting.
During that meeting, Matyi told council that he's lived in Colchester for 25 years, is married and has two kids.
He said he's worked with the same company for 25 years in installing machinery and during the pandemic, he decided to go back to school and is just finishing a bachelor of engineering degree.
The Ward 3 vacancy was created when councillor Steve Bjorkman was named interim deputy mayor after Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche was chosen by council to be the new mayor at the end of January.
The mayoral seat was vacated by former mayor Larry Snively, who resigned after pleading guilty to an Ontario Elections Act violation.
Ward 4 Coun. Sherry Bondy, Ward 1 Coun. Joe Garon, deputy mayor Steve Bjorkman and Verbeek all voted in Matyi's favour, allowing him to takeover the position by earning one vote above Caixerio.
Before councillors moved into the voting process, they commented on their reasons behind voting for a particular person.
Bondy, Garon and Verbeek told council that they didn't think experience was necessary, but were voting for a "new face," as that is what Ward 3 constituents told them they were looking for on council.
"I would love to have a voice at the table with no previous biases or alliances," said Verbeek.