The next mayor in Plympton-Wyoming will have a back up.
Town council has agreed the position of deputy mayor will be reinstated.
In 2014, council decided to do away with the position suggesting council members could take turns filling in for the mayor should the need arise.
But recently Mayor Lonny Napper brought the issue up again, saying he wanted to be sure there would be representation for the town at county council should anything happen to the mayor.
“At the county level, we will soon be able to have an alternate… so if the mayor cannot attend, the deputy mayor can,” says Chief Administrative Officer Carolyn Tripp.
Right now, if the mayor were to be sick, a councillor would not be able to go to Lambton County Council in his place.
Napper says that has happened before. When former Plympton-Wyoming Mayor Pat Davidson became the Member of Parliament for Sarnia-Lambton, council did not have a representative at the county level for two months as council grappled with who would replace Davidson. There wasn’t a formal process in place. “Under amalgamation, we didn’t spell that out,” says Napper. Now, the rules will be clear; voters will select the deputy mayor who will replace the mayor should the need arise.
Napper adds the new deputy mayor would be able to step in at a moments notice as well. “The mayor can keep that person kind of in the loop and then when he is called upon to act, he will act.”
The new deputy mayor will be on the ballot in the 2018 election.