Madawaska Valley Council appoints David Shulist as Mayor

At today’s Council in Committee meeting, members of Council for Madawaska Valley filled the vacancy left by the death of Mayor Mark Willmer last month by voting to appoint Councillor David Shulist to the post. Above from left: Councillor Shelley Maika, Acting Mayor Mary Blank, CAO Suzanne Klatt, Councillors David Shulist and Ernie Peplinski. (Photo: Roger Prince)

CAO Suzanne Klatt began the sequence of events by reporting on the various options available to Council for filling the vacant seat. (The Current listed these in an article on May 4th.) Council chose to fill the vacancy by appointment rather than incur the expense of a By-election this late in the term. When discussing Option 2a that allowed them to consider candidates from the 2022 municipal election, Klatt stated the only other mayoral candidate was Roger Prince. She reminded members of Council that prior to filling the vacancy created when former Councillor Joseph Olsheski resigned, she had circulated to them an application from Roger Prince with details of his experience. She said this meant they knew what Prince could bring to Council.

Members of Council then declined to adopt Option 2a. Similarly, they decided not to fill the vacancy by calling for applications as provided for in Option 2b, or by directly appointing an individual without application (Option 2c). Instead, they selected Option 2d which provides that any one of them can propose that a sitting Councillor becomes mayor. The CAO asked each of them in alphabetical order whose name they would put forward.

Acting Mayor Mary Blank put forward her own name, saying she had considerable support from the public because of her several terms’ experience as a councillor and she is currently Acting Mayor. With just 18 months left in this term, she said it would be quite difficult for someone who was not already on Council to be effective as mayor.

Councillor Shelley Maika suggested that Councillor David Shulist should be appointed mayor, as he was the only one of the sitting Council members who had mayoral experience (2010-2014) and as such had also represented the municipality at County Council. Recently appointed Councillor Ernie Peplinski then spoke, supporting Councillor Maika’s suggestion that Councillor Shulist become mayor. Finally it was Shulist’s turn to speak and, thanking his colleagues for their support, he confirmed that he was willing to serve as mayor.

CAO Klatt then called for the necessary motions. Acting Mayor Blank moved that she be appointed, but without a seconder her motion failed. Councillor Maika moved that Shulist be appointed, Councillor Peplinski seconded the motion, and when Klatt called for the vote the motion succeeded 3-1 with votes from Maika, Peplinski and Shulist.

The CAO said a Special Council meeting would be called in the next 48 hours to amend the necessary By-Laws and Committees by adding David Shulist as Mayor.

A new vacancy on Council

Now that Councillor Shulist is about to become Mayor, his councillor seat will have to be declared vacant. And the whole process begins to fill another vacancy on Council – for the third time in as many months. This would have been avoided had Council appointed Roger Prince who was the only other mayoral candidate in 2022 and who trailed Mark Willmer by less than 700 votes.