After a long campaign in May, the candidates in Ward 2 were dealt a heavy blow.  There were numerous issues around the marking and counting of ballots.  These issue lead to the call for a byelection in Ward 2.  Once again, the candidates were faced with the task of running another full campaign.  The final decision will be made tomorrow; however, the question is - who will come out on top?

I believe the strongest candidate is Carl White.  Carl has the proven experience to get things done on council, as well as the common sense to do what is right. He has also been open to looking at various ideas before making decisions.

I believe he is a strong contrast to Patty Higgins who has shown herself to be close minded to issues (including the Irving Oil Headquaters plan), as well as easy confused when being asked questions.  Just take a look at what she was saying during the last debates:

“Patty Higgins, a vocal opponent of the pipeline through Rockwood Park, also plugged for consultations. But she got her facts wrong and was confusing at times. She suggested the province and the city should swap land for the old YM/YWCA site so the police would have better surveillance and could land a helicopter on the roof, even though the police don’t have one. She also said something incomprehensible about the unemployment rate, making it sound like it was running at 180 per cent.”

This city needs a strong voice in the Council’s table, and I belive the best person to do that is Carl White.

Tomorrow, get out and vote, and encourage your friends and family to vote as well.  Every vote counts!

Tonight, I attended my first City of Saint John Common Council meeting. This is part of my new goal to become more involved in municipal politics. I think that it is best to see what is happening first hand - at the council meetings.

I know that I am not the only one who is interested in what is going on in Saint John. That is why I am going to start attending and blogging about what took place at the public council meetings. Instead of trying to document every little detail, I want to try and capture the important things that took place (along with any interesting observations).

I’m calling this “A Common Minute” and tonight is my first post!

City of Saint John Common Council Meeting - June 09, 2008

The meeting began twenty minutes late; however, it was quickly called to order once everyone arrived. Before business began, the 2008 Environmental Awards were handed out. I would highly recommend reading about these great local companies and groups.

Several Councillors spoke, during Members Comments, about successful events that went on in the city. An interesting mention, by Snook, was a group called PULSE that organized a graffiti cleaning event in the Lower South End.

Next, public hearings began. There were several proposed zoning amendments that were all motioned by Titus and seconded by McGuire. Each was quickly passed until 9.3(a)(b) came up. This one involved rezoning of 47-55 Golden Grove Road. Many residents spoke against the rezoning. Issues raised were around: increased flooding, increased car traffic, safety, and appearance. There were concerns that promises would be made, but not followed up on. One resident explained that a privacy fence was supposed to be created around a previous development, but it never happened. The developer did speak in favour of the rezoning. He cited that the area has always flooded and would continue to flood. He did not believe that it would increase flooding. The developer seemed open to working with residents and any conditions council made. No final decision was made tonight.

As part of the previous discussion, McGuire made a good point about “missing a step”. He explained that we seem to be skipping a step where we ask both sides if comprises would be acceptable before the issues make it to the council meetings.

Finally, the submissions by Council Members started. This is where the meeting became interesting. Titus made his many promised motions to Council.

This Monday, Deputy Mayor Stephen Chase will present two motions to council - one asking for a definitive date to hear from experts about a public-private partnership and another calling on the province to investigate what caused the latest boil-water order.

This comes after the third boil water order since February of this year. In the latest incident, approximately 40,000 residents living east of the Reversing Falls Bridge were asked to boil water on June 2, after Saint John Water staff detected a break in a chlorine injection line.

“What I’d like to see is the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Health undertake a joint investigation of the incident and also a review of Saint John Water’s protocols for maintenance and operation of that water facility,” said Chase.

Chase also wants to see presentations on public-private partnerships from experts by Sept. 15.

“I’m asking council, let’s get on with that. Let’s get that piece underway so council and the public is understanding of the opportunities there.”

Council already passed a motion by Chase affirming that the city would always retain control and ownership of the system.

“No. 1, the federal government established a rule that if you are requesting infrastructure money, you have to show that you’ve examined the possibilities of public-private partnership,” said Chase.

“We have to do it, maybe people should start to understand that,” he added, frustration slipping into his voice.

I am very glad that Stephen is standing up for the citizens on this important issue. All options need to be looked at, and the best option needs to be implemented. We cannot wait for someone to become sick before moving on this issue!

The chief electoral officer has decided to hold a byelection to fill the final Ward 2 seat.

It has been a very troubling situation for the candidates in this ward after missing ballots changed the results several times. To add to the issues, there have also been reports of ballot tampering by elections staff!

The issue I see with this is that they are now saying anyone in the Ward 2 is free to run. It doesn’t make any sense to allow anyone other then White, Higgins, and McCormack to run.

Let’s face it, they have already put their names forward, run a full campaign, and then had to deal with these issues. Letting anyone run put them at an advantage because of the costs associated with running a campaign. These candidates now have to pay for two campaigns!

If someone else had wanted to run, they should have put their name down from the beginning.

Letting others get involved now is just plain wrong. This byelection should be between the candidates who were on the ballot.

The issues were not with the candidates, it was with the ballots and election officials.

Today, my latest Letter to the Editor was published. It was a response to a letter published the previous day.

Way deputy mayor is picked is fine
Telegraph-Journal

I want to reply to the letter about revisiting the way the deputy mayor is chosen (May 27). The motion that was passed by the previous council: “11.6 - Position of Deputy Mayor On motion of Deputy Mayor Hooton, Seconded by Councillor Chase, resolved that the current system of electing the deputy mayor, which is the election of the councillor who receives the most votes in the municipal election, be maintained. Question being taken, the motion was carried.”

The motion does not say that ward candidates are not included. At-large candidates are the most likely to become Deputy Mayor because of the vast number of votes that they receive; however, the fact that Councillor Stephen Chase received more votes then the current mayor shows that this system does make sense.

The Deputy Mayor should be someone with large support throughout the city. Changing the system, as suggested by the letter writer, will only make things less democratic.

I support the current system, and I look forward to Coun. Stephen Chase as our deputy mayor.

Shawn Peterson
Saint John

Here is the letter I was responding to:

Revisit way deputy mayor is chosen
Telegraph-Journal

While the previous Saint John council passed a motion that would make the candidate with the most votes “deputy mayor” this decision seems to me to remain problematic to the point where I believe the newly elected council should revisit the issue with fresh eyes. What the previous council embraced as a solution neither seems fair or reasonable.

The idea that the position of deputy mayor should be chosen - due the sheer numbers - only from the pool of successful at-large candidates creates the impression that city council is comprised of two tiers. However, the ward system surely was never meant to introduce a hierarchy of councillors, with some having more claims to democratic legitimacy than others.

Why should it be the case that those running within a ward be excluded from being considered for the position of deputy mayor? A two-tiered council where basically only the at-large candidates contend for deputy mayor makes little democratic sense.

If the deputy mayor’s position were not going to be elected directly by the people according to the percentage of votes, then perhaps the councillors themselves should choose who gains this position. This would make the most sense in terms of promoting the idea that the council should make every effort to work together.

I strongly urge the newly elected council to revisit this question immediately and rescind the decision of the previous council in favour of a more democratic process by which the deputy mayor is chosen.

Charles Murphy
Saint John

A lot has been said about the electronic voting machine used in the 2008 Municipal Election. Most of which is negative; however, I would argue that the machines worked quite well, the issue is with the people working the machines.

These “mystery ballots” were special ballots that were not opened until election night. When the workers tried to feed them into the machine, it said that there were problems with the ballot. Well, with the voter not there to correct it, they simply stuck them in a drawer. That was an error on their part. They should have alerted other officials immediatly. But this is nothing compared to the next issue - ballot tampering.

There are stories of workers marking on the ballots so that they would be accepted by the machine (because the voter did not darken their choices enough). That is something I find quite disturbing. Would you want someone filling out your ballot? There is a reason the machine wouldn’t accept the ballot, and that’s why the voter should have gotten it back and been asked to darken their choices.

The worst part is that the ballots may now be tampered with, and it will be impossible for a judge to look at them and determine who marked on the ballot - the voter or the worker.

These machines work great as long as the people running them follow the rules. I hope this serves as a wakeup call to the election officials and will ensure that these problems are fixed in time for the next election.

Can you believe this?

A recount was held today to try and determine a winner in Ward 2. The result was a tie.

Incumbent Carl White and Patty Higgins have now agreed to request a judicial recount. They will each ask the judge to scrutinize up to 15 disputed ballots, rather than do a full recount of every ballot cast.

In the event of a tie after the judicial recount, the winner could be determined by drawing a name out of a box.

Now that’s democracy for you!

Last night, Councillor Stephen Chase was sworn in, then promptly chosen as Deputy Mayor by Council.

This comes after rumors that people were trying to change the way the Deputy Mayor was chosen.

On election night, Chase received the most votes (even more then Mayor Ivan Court).

I fully support the process in which the Deputy Mayor is selected, and I look forward to Stephen Chase keeping Council focused on getting the most “bang for our tax paying buck”.

Lately, there has been a great deal of discussion around the position of Deputy Mayor. Many people are trying to figure out if Stephen Chase will be the Deputy Mayor. There have been rumors that Ivan Court does not want this; but, could he actually pick someone else?

On February 12th, 2008, the following motion was passed by Council:

11.6 - Position of Deputy Mayor
On motion of Deputy Mayor Hooton
Seconded by Councillor Chase
RESOLVED that the current system of electing the Deputy Mayor which is the election of the Councillor who receives the most votes in the municipal election be maintained.
Question being taken the motion was carried

The important thing to note is that everyone on Common Council voted in favor of this motion, including Ivan Court.

This motion clearly shows that Stephen Chase will be the deputy mayor when he is sworn in for this new Council term.

Any changes to this position would require a motion to be made in the next session; but, would this be a motion that the people support? Since Stephen was elected with the most votes (even more votes then than Ivan himself), he has demonstrated his support with the people in this city.

I can’t see any motion to remove him being successful.

Today, CBC and the Telegraph-Journal wrote stories around the Ward 2 recount.

It looks like these rejected ballots were actually special ballots, ones that were filled out ahead of time, and not read into the machine until election night.

This was too late to detect the error in the ballots. However, even though there were problems with the ballot (in once case, someone marked two people for Mayor), the section for the Ward was marked fine.

These two ballots were set aside on election night by workers. It took until yesterday for these two ballots were finally looked at by officials in Fredericton.

CBC describes it below:

The problem developed when poll officers attempted to insert the two special ballots into the machine but the machine rejected them, Jones said.

The mayor section of the ballot had been spoiled though the councillor section was valid, Jones said. The machine recognized that part of the ballot had been spoiled and asked if that was correct and if the voter wanted to proceed with scanning the results.

But seeing that the councillor section was valid and unsure how to proceed, the poll officers apparently set the ballots aside, Jones said.

“Sometimes the machine doesn’t pick them up for various reasons and it tells them to take a look at something,” said Mary Aculiffe, a returning officer in Saint John. “They had set them aside in the spoiled ballots and when we took a look at them, we decided they were really not spoiled.”

The Telegraph-Journal describes it as a glitch; however, I don’t think that is the case.

A comment on the CBC article said it best:

Before people start jumping up and down whining about the machines.. If you read carefully you will see that the machine did its job and said there is something wrong here!! How do you want to proceed? And it was the election people that did not do their job and find out how to deal with it right then. The machine worked. The put the ballots aside and forgot about them.