Byelection looms for Village of Barons

Posted on May 31, 2023 by Sunny South News

By Erika Mathieu
Sunny South News

The Village of Barons will hold a byelection on June 5 to determine who will fill the vacant councillor position.

On March 14, the Mayor of the Village of Barons, Ed Weistra presented council with a letter of resignation and revealed he would be stepping down as the Village’s mayor, for what village administration cited as, “personal reasons.”

As the Municipal Government Act (MGA) requires that the position of Chief Elected Official (Mayor) be filled at all times, council passed a resolution on March 21 during a special council meeting resulting in the appointment of the Village’s former Deputy Mayor, Daniel Doell to the position of Acting Mayor and appointed Councillor Gorzitza to the position of Deputy Mayor.

Shortly after, council passed a resolution to set a nomination date of April 24 with a by-election to be held on June 5.

According to the Village of Barons, the by-election is for the position of Councillor, after which council will hold an organizational meeting to determine who will take the position as mayor and deputy mayor.

In addition to Doell’s appointment as Chief Elected Official and Gorzitza’s appointment as deputy Chief Elected Official, council also passed a resolution to appoint the Village’s administrator as Returning Officer and to carry out the delivery and control of forthcoming electoral events within the Village.

The June 5 byelection will be the second byelection held since the regular civic election in October 2021. A byelection was held on Jan. 10, 2022 to fill a vacant councillor position after Reno Tarditi announced his resignation from the position of Councillor during the Oct. 27 council meeting citing concerns of favouritism. Ron Gorzitza was elected after successfully campaigning for the vacant councillor position leading up to the Jan. 10 byelection.

At the time of publication, four candidates were in the running for the councillor position. Voting will take place on June 5 at the Barons Community Hall.