Chatham-Kent residents have voted for change.
Michael Bondy was chosen as the municipality’s next mayor during Monday’s election, earning 43.4 per cent of the vote over his six opponents. Incumbent Mayor Darrin Canniff was denied a third term, earning the second most votes at 31.6 per cent.
During an election celebration at his family’s home in Chatham, Bondy said it’s clear that voters wanted change in the municipal government.
“Clearly they did, they voted that way,” he said “I felt there was a call for change. The number of candidates alone indicates a change was desired from the community. I think our local government had lost trust with the public.”
There were 84 candidates vying to fill the 15 seats in council chambers at the Chatham-Kent Civic Centre, the highest number of candidates in nearly 20 years.
Bondy, a long-time councillor who has spent the last 16 years in municipal office, said he believes his victory came down to listening to the public and responding appropriately.
“Over the last 16 years I’ve kept my word, I’ve told the truth, I’ve admitted my mistakes. I’m not afraid of bad news,” he said. “I’ve tried my best to be responsive to people when they’ve contacted me… I’ve listened to people.”
During his campaign, Bondy promised to examine and restructure administration and municipal departments to reduce overhead costs. He said that will be an immediate priority once he is sworn in.
“I had suggested throughout the campaign that I was going to make a lot of changes at city hall and I plan on keeping those promises… I look forward to working with the new council,” he said. “Buckle up, it’s going to be a fun four years.”
While layoffs aren’t necessarily on the table, he said municipal staff should expect cuts to address “efficiencies, redundancies, duplications.”
“There may be cuts that do affect people. That’s part of the game. It’s a business,” said Bondy. “It’s not going to make everybody happy, but this isn’t a job to make everybody happy, it’s a job to run things efficiently.”
Budget clarity is another priority that Bondy intends to tackle.
“I plan on dealing with the budget in a completely different way… In the last 16 years of my terms, the budget has been very confusing to the public and, frankly, confusing to council,” he said. “All the other stuff is kind of window dressing. The budget is what counts.”
The mayor-elect also addressed the divisiveness of this election, specifically the “mud slinging” directed toward him and his family during the campaign.
“I was surprised by the mudslinging, I can say that. I expected it to be a little rough, but not what I experienced or what my kids experienced over the last three months. I felt it was inappropriate and unnecessary,” said Bondy. “The social media stuff was very unkind and very personal.”
A total of seven incumbent councillors will regain their seats to join Bondy at the Civic Centre, along with seven new faces who will fill out the rest of council chambers.
In Ward 5, two new councillors will represent Wallaceburg and the surrounding area.
Jim Blake says he will be approaching the council chambers with Wallaceburg as a priority.
“We are not on an island. We’re all a part of the same group, but I think we really need to make the municipality realize that we are unique, as everyone says they are, but we are unique,” Blake said. “We have things such as the river that we need to exploit, need to make sure that we get some development downtown and just putting it out there that Wallaceburg is a place that you can grow, it’s a great place to live.”
Wallaceburg’s other representative, Bill Wolsing says his priorities will be the municipal budget, supporting the homeless, and ensuring there are activities for children and youth.
“A fresh start for new councillors in this area is a good thing. Looks like we are going to have a pretty good team here, as a whole in Chatham-Kent council we should do okay.”
According to the unofficial preliminary results, 40.79 per cent of 89,987 eligible electors cast a ballot in this year’s election.
The members of the next term of Chatham-Kent Council is as follows:
Ward 1
Mark Authier
Melissa Harrigan
Ward 2
Anthony Ceccacci
Albert Pilbeam
Ward 3
Emery Huszka
Ward 4
Rhonda Jubenville
Ward 5
Jim Blake
Bill Wolsing
Ward 6
Alysson Storey
Brian Machado
Ward 7
Steve Kenney
Amy Finn
Ward 8
Brock McGregor
Conor Allin
