The results are in: Mayor-elect Andrew Black heads up new Tantramar council
About 2500 residents of Tantramar voted in the first mayor and council for the new municipality, with six of the new slate coming from existing council positions in Sackville and Dorchester, and another three new to local politics.
Current Sackville Deputy Mayor Andrew Black will steer the ship as mayor of the new municipality, winning by a margin of about 10% over his next closest competitor, current Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau.
Black won the mayoral contest with 1164 votes, about 46% of the ballots cast. Shawn Mesheau garnered about 36% of the vote, with 922 votes cast. And Bonnie Swift took 17% of the vote with 432 ballots cast in her favour.
In a post on social media, Mesheau congratulated the winning candidates, and thanked his campaign team. He also had thanks for the current and outgoing council. “As the last Mayor of Town of Sackville I wish to recognize and thank the current Council and staff for their efforts over the past 18 months. As Mayor I also want to thank Sackvillians for entrusting us to serve their interests. I have had a wonderful experience in my 14 years as an elected official,” wrote Mesheau.
Three new faces, five ‘incumbents’ elected to council
In Ward 1, current Dorchester Mayor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell beat out her colleague Robert Corkerton with 176 out of 258 votes cast.… Continue
Resignation and call for review after Dorchester’s Borne recommended over Sackville’s Burke
Before a three-person HR committee appointed to recommend a CAO for the soon-to-be-amalgamated town of Tantramar could complete their work, the member representing Sackville resigned over concerns that the process was unfair and rushed. Despite that resignation, consultant Chad Peters passed along a recommendation to hire Dorchester’s Jennifer Borne for the top municipal job.
This week, Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau wrote to Peters’ boss, Minister Daniel Allain, calling for a review of what he called the “fundamentally flawed” hiring process, and a spokesperson for Allain’s department says a meeting will be scheduled.
‘It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t reasonable’: Andrew Black on why he resigned from committee to hire a new CAO
Sackville Deputy Mayor Andrew Black says that in mid-June, when it became apparent to him that his original misgivings about the CAO hiring process were well-founded, he decided he had to resign. “I felt that it was an unfair process,” says Black. “I felt that it was fairly biased. It wasn’t reasonable, which is, you know, terminology that has been used by the minister and his department for this process, that it would be ‘fair and reasonable’, and it was not,” says Black. “And so I left.”
Black’s resignation left the committee with two members, Dorchester Deputy Mayor Robert Corkerton and Sackville local service district resident Chris Milner, who remained on the committee for the rest of the process and recommended that Dorchester CAO Jennifer Borne take the top job in the new municipality.… Continue
New Tantramar CAO could be hired by end of month, says province
A committee has been struck to give a recommendation on the hiring of the new town of Tantramar’s Chief Administrative Officer. Sackville Deputy Mayor Andrew Black, Dorchester Deputy Mayor Robert Corkerton and local service district resident Chris Milner have been selected to sit on the committee.
The province has also hired HR consultant Jennifer Murray Consulting to oversee the hiring process and assess candidates across the province.
Based on feedback from Jennifer Murray Consulting and the hiring committee, amalgamation facilitator Chad Peters will submit a recommendation to the provincial department of local government. Department spokesperson Anne Mooers says the process is underway and should be completed by the end of the month.
Elected councils typically head up the hiring of a CAO, and the CAO then handles hiring of all other municipal staff. But there won’t be an elected council for the town of Tantramar until the municipal election on November 28, so the provincial department of local government will make the final decision on who will head up the town of Tantramar, along with all other amalgamated municipalities in the province.
Both Sackville and Dorchester have existing CAOs, with Jamie Burke in the top job for Sackville, and Jennifer Borne heading up the village of Dorchester.… Continue
Councillors express dismay at under-representation; ask for a single Sackville ward with reps at-large
On Thursday evening, Sackville’s municipal reform committee met for a third time, with a narrow mandate of providing input on whether Sackvillians would elect their future Entity 40 representatives at large, or in up to four separate wards.
But before they got to that question, councillors sounded off on a previous decision made by the province, to forego its own representation-by-population guidelines and allot just 50% of representatives to the former town of Sackville, which is home to 68% of the population of the new Entity 40.
Right off the bat, Councillor Allison Butcher asked Deputy Mayor Andrew Black if there was any chance of changing what she called “a skew as far as population goes?”
“No,” said Black. “That has been decided. That meeting that we had on the 15th, whatever decision was made at the end of that night with the advisory committee that was there, that decision was final.”
It’s become a theme of the municipal reform process so far: rushed decisions made in private meetings, with no substantive engagement with councils, much less the general public.
It was enough for Butcher to forego her usual attempts to put a positive spin on her comments: “At the risk of sounding really, really jaded, it probably doesn’t matter what I think should happen with the four councillors representing the 7000 people,” said Butcher, “because I’m starting to feel like it doesn’t matter what we think.”
Black told the committee that after a 1.5 hour meeting on February 15 with provincially appointed facilitator Chad Peters and the eight appointees to the provincial advisory committee, there was a consensus reached among all members, including himself and Mayor Shawn Mesheau.… Continue
Sackville town council elects Andrew Black as deputy mayor
The town of Sackville has a new deputy mayor.
At their meeting Monday night, Sackville town council elected Andrew Black to the position, in a five to three vote. Councillor Micheal Tower was also nominated for the position.
The deputy mayor can chair council or otherwise act as mayor if the elected mayor is unable to attend or fulfill duties. Most recently, former deputy mayor Ron Aiken served as acting mayor for about eight months after the elected mayor, John Higham, resigned.
Andrew Black will be deputy mayor for at least a one year term, after which council will hold another vote for the position.
Last month, mayor Shawn Mesheau appointed the new slate of councillors to their roles as liaison councillors, who are responsible for meeting with staff monthly. In recent years, there have been two councillors for each portfolio, but this year Mayor Mesheau opted to appoint one each, and also requested that meeting dates with staff be circulated so that other councillors could attend any liaison meeting.
Here are the new assignments, which are for a period of one year:
Finance and Administration – Councillor Bill Evans
Tourism and Business Development – Councillor Kenneth Hicks
Public Property and Facilities – Councillor Matt Estabrooks
Recreation Program and Events – Councillor Allison Butcher Public Safety – Councillor Andrew Black
Policy By-Law – Councillor Bruce Phinney
Human Resources – Councillor Sabine Dietz
Corporate Affairs and Strategic Development – Councillor Michael Tower
There are also a handful of boards and committees that mayor and councillors sit on.… Continue