Vernon voters sent a message Saturday. Retired physician Rob Sawatzky handily trounced
incumbent mayor Wayne Lippert during Saturday’s municipal election.
Three incumbent councillors were returned to office while a former
councillor and two newcomers round out the remaining council sears. “The message from voters was they weren’t happy about how things had gone and they wanted change,” said Sawatzky. Sawatzky topped the mayoralty race with 4,421
ballots, while two-term Lippert got 2,538 and businessman Patrick Davies
came in third at 1,858. Veteran politician Patrick Nicol led the pack for
councillor with 5,634 while former councillor Juliette Cunningham
followed with 4,019. Third was O’Keefe Ranch manager Catherine Lord at
3,829, incumbent Bob Spiers with 3,714, architect Brian Quiring at 3,413
and incumbent Mary-Jo O’Keefe at 3,353.
“It will be a very good council to work with,” said Sawatzky, who is expecting some busy days prior to being sworn in Dec. 7. “I will get oriented with administration and council and what we’re looking at. There will be lots to do.” Lippert says he respects the decision made by voters and he believes residents were focused on one issue. “Rob Sawatzky wanted a core service review and
the councillors in there wanted that too. People are concerned about
budgets,” said Lippert. “There was the perception that we had extra staff but people didn’t realize we had revenue coming in to pay for that.” Davies was disappointed that his first foray into politics wasn’t successful. “I am surprised but the people spoke,” he said. “I am just glad to see a different mayor and that there will be change.” Losing their councillor seats were Jack Gilroy at 3,318 votes and Shawn Lee at 3,185 votes. “If they didn’t like what we did, that’s OK,” said Gilroy, who was pursuing a third term. “I am surprised because I had heard such positive things out in the community.” Lee has served one term. The other councillor results were Ruth Hoyte at
3,106, Scott Anderson at 2,386, Jonathon McMurray at 1,867, Kelly Fehr
at 1,591, Lily Kerr at 1,488, Mike Pearson at 1,370 and James Todd at
1,238.
No comments:
Post a Comment