Belleville City council meets on January 11th via Zoom.
By Beatrice Toplitsky [1]
BELLEVILLE – The ad hoc committee looking at how to replace Pat Culhane on Belleville City council has selected Jennifer McTavish to be appointed.
“She has sat on several city committees over the past several years; she’s known to the council,” Coun. Kelly McCaw told QNet News on Tuesday.
McTavish currently sits on the city’s accessibility advisory committee.
McCaw is the chair of the ad hoc committee that was responsible for recommending a candidate to fill the seat.
Council will be holding a special meeting Wednesday at 2 p.m. to vote on McTavish’s candidacy to fill the Ward 1 seat left vacant November by the death of Coun. Culhane.
The meeting will be held via ZOOM and can be viewed by the public live on Belleville City Hall’s YouTube channel. [2]
Though she chaired the council, McCaw said she did not take part in the final vote to select the candidate that was put forward.
“Even though I didn’t have any part of the process in selecting her, for me I think she ticked a lot of the boxes that I think this council is looking for.”
Following Culhane’s death, council voted on Dec. 14. on whether to appoint local businessman Tyler Allsopp, who had finished seventh in the Ward 1 race in 2018. The top six candidates were elected to council. Allsopp finished a few hundred votes behind sixth place finisher Sean Kelly.
That vote finished in a 4-4 tie meaning Allsopp would not be appointed then.
As a result of the tie vote, a committee was formed to review applicants for the vacant position.
McCaw cited an August 14th Facebook post [3] from Allsopp as her reasoning for voting against his appointment at the December council meeting. In the post, he announced that he would not be running again in 2022.
“My life has changed quite a bit in the last few years in all aspects, and I expect to be too busy to entertain a third run at this point in my life,” he wrote.
“I took that to mean that he was not able to commit the time,” said McCaw.
Tensions were running high at the last council meeting Jan. 11 following criticisms levied at the committee.
In a written statement [4] posted to social media Jan. 8, Coun. Paul Carr criticized what he called a lack of transparency in the committee meetings, which are closed to the public.
In response, McCaw attempted to raise two points of personal privilege at last week’s council meeting, asking for a retraction and apology for statements made by both Carr and Coun. Chris Malette.
“These comments were malicious from my perspective,” she said in last week’s virtual meeting. “They were inappropriate and made without the facts, evidence or verification.”
McCaw’s motion was denied in a 5-3 vote.
It is common practice provincially to fill a municipal-council vacancy with whichever losing candidate in the previous election received the most votes. Belleville council’s decision not to do so this time has sparked disapproval within the community.
Coun. Garnet Thompson gave a notice of motion last week for council to reconsider the vote to appoint Allsopp. The motion would have been discussed at next Monday’s regular council meeting, but now hinges on the outcome of Wednesday’s special meeting.
If the position is not filled by this Friday, Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs may be called in.