Flin Flonners will head to the polls this spring to fill a vacancy on city council.
Coun. Leslie Beck has formally resigned her seat to run as MLA for the Liberals.
Following the council meeting last Tuesday, Feb. 2, Beck emailed her letter of resignation to Mayor Cal Huntley, who was unable to attend the meeting.
Beck legally had until March 11 to give up her seat but chose to resign earlier than that.
“I didn’t want any perception of conflict,” she told The Reminder.
It is not clear when the civic by-election will take place, though the process is governed by certain rules.
The process began when Beck submitted her letter of resignation. The city has flexibility as to when to advertise the nomination period for candidates, but this may take place three weeks before nominations open.
Nominations are then accepted for one week. The by-election takes place five weeks after nominations close.
The city’s returning officer, Katie Anderson, will set the election date. It appears likely the by-election will be held after the April 19 Manitoba election.
Mark Kolt, chief administrative officer for the city, said the last municipal election cost between $8,000 and $9,000, and that the by-election will cost roughly the same amount.
That’s assuming, however, that the by-election is contested. It is possible only one person will run and therefore be acclaimed to council.
Beck, who joined council in October 2014, has said she hopes to run for the vacant seat if she is unsuccessful in her bid to become MLA.
This will mark Flin Flon’s first by-election since 1997, when Dennis Ballard filled a vacant council seat a year before becoming mayor.
Council briefly had one vacancy in 2006 when Coun. Nazir Ahmad resigned and moved to Winnipeg. Council at that time was not required to hold a by-election because the vacancy opened so close to the general election.
Huntley urges interested residents to start thinking about running in the next by-election.
“I would encourage anybody who has an interest in their community and civic politics, and has the time to give the community, to put their name forward, absolutely,” he said.
