Councillor Mike Anthony and his wife Tanya congratulate Sheldon Forgette at City Hall last night. Photos by Jeff Turl.
Voters shouted "we want change" loud and clear in last night's municipal election in North Bay.
Sheldon Forgette, just 23, who has never run for office in his life, beat all council hopefuls to become deputy mayor, budget chief and win a seat on the Police Services Board.
Councillor-elect Derek Shogren is the President of the Chamber of Commerce. He finished 14th last election, but 5th this time.
Newcomers Derek Shogren and Jeff Serran also won seats.
“I'm thrilled certainly, Shogren told BayToday. "I want to thank all my friends and my family all my supporters who have worked so hard over the last six weeks. I've been involved in the community for a lot of years. I've got a lot of skin in the game and people recognize that, and I certainly appreciate that. I'm looking forward to getting down to work. We have lots of challenges ahead. I'm looking forward to December 8 which is our first Council meeting. My strong point is budgeting. I've budgeted millions of dollars and dealt with hundreds of people through my life so I'm interested in getting into the budget process right away."
Voters tossed three veteran councillors aside.
Incumbents Dave Mendicino, Sarah Campbell and Judy Koziol lost their seats on council.
See complete results for mayor, council and school boards here:
http://www.cityofnorthbay.ca/cityhall/council/elections/2014/results
Incumbent mayor Al McDonald easily rolled over his three challengers.
Forgette told BayToday that he would take a few days to decide if he will keep the budget chief post, or hand it off to a more experienced councillor.
That's something McDonald says he would support. In fact Councillor George Maroosis said last night that he might introduce a motion that would allow the mayor to choose who would chair council committees.
“The procedural bylaw has the top three councillors get to be the appointed chair and the top gets to be chief, so I think the Mayor should be able to select his own cabinet. Can you imagine if the Premier would be told who the ministers are going to be? I've been around long enough to see the system and I think it's time for a correction."
That brought a swift response from Forgette who told BayToday, " I think you're taking away the voice of the voters because voters have already decided who the top candidates are. I would oppose this move."
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Jeff Serran will claim a spot on council. Serran is the Executive Director of the Downtown Improvement Area. He jumped from Near North School Board trustee to take a shot at council.
The Memorial Gardens spending scandal took down Dave Mendicino, an 11 year veteran who finished fourth last time.
"“I was obviously very disappointed. We worked really hard on the campaign with our boots on the ground. We are getting a lot of good response and feeling really good about the campaign. I'm going to miss not being on council. It's been a great 11 years. But the voters have spoken and I respect that.”
Forgette credited hard work for his election win.
"“Well, in order to beat incumbents you have to start before everyone. That's exactly what I did. I got off the seat and started working early. There's about a year of planning that went into my campaign before I started the real campaign in January. My wife is probably very happy to see that all the hours that went into this, came of something. Hard work does pay off. As far as branding goes, yes, you need to have a message. The message that's been with me the whole campaigns that we need to attract young professionals, families and seniors back to North Bay. I'm excited to get to work on that.”
Forgette says he intends to spend two terms on council before taking a run at federal politics.
The results mean just one woman will sit on council, Tanya Vrebosch.
The inaugural meeting of the new council is Monday December 8th.
