By Greg Nikkel
Weyburn voters spoke loud and clear on Wednesday evening, as they wanted change on city council, with a new mayor and three new councillors elected in addition to three incumbents.
Weyburn’s new council is all-male now, as none of the incumbent women councillors or new candidate made it onto council once the ballots were counted late into the early morning hours on Thursday.
In the mayoralty race, challenger Marcel Roy came out on top with 2,374 votes, or 57.3 per cent of the vote, defeating three-term mayor Debra Button, who had 1,766 votes or 42.7 per cent.
“I was cautiously optimistic,” said Roy about his frame of mind going into election day. “It was a relief when the campaign was over, but now it’s on to the next stage of life for the next four years.”
He said he and council will now be focussing on what is best for the city, and added, “It’s not so much my direction, but council’s, to see how we can work together as a team, to see what we can accomplish for the city.”
Button waited for the mayoralty results at the Legion Hall along with friends and family and a number of council candidates, and was emotional when the results were clear she had been defeated.
“I believe in democracy, and the people have spoken,” she said in a short speech to those gathered, adding she believes in the work that she and council did in the past four years, adding, “I’m excited to see what’s in the future for me.”
For council, 14 candidates vied for the six council seats, and the winning candidates were led by newcomers Jeff Richards, with 2,538 votes, and Jeff Chessall with 2,330 votes, incumbent Mel Van Betuw with 2,029 votes, incumbent Winston Bailey with 1,992 votes, newcomer Brad Wheeler with 1,814 and incumbent Dick Michel with 1,771 votes.
In the Cornerstone School Division election, incumbent Warren Betker won with 1,829 votes, along with newcomer Melanie Sorenson who had 1,708 votes, ahead of Bruce Wagner with 1,312 votes and Brandon Tichkowsky with 562 votes.
Michel is now the veteran on council with 16 years behind him, and admitted he was surprised with some of the results of the council vote.
“I’m very pleased that Weyburn wanted change, and I’ll be a part of that as the people gave me the opportunity to continue serving on council,” he said.
Michel was happy there was a mayoralty race, as it gets more people involved in the voting process, and said of the results, “That’s democracy at its best. That’s the chance you take. The part I feel sorry about is losing the three women. I feel for all those three ladies, they did a helluva job.”
As for the new term with the new council, Michel said, “I’m not afraid of challenge. I’ve done it for 16 years, and got four more from the people of Weyburn, and I feel very proud of that.”
Fellow incumbent Bailey said he was surprised at the mayoralty results.
“I did not see that coming,” he said, noting he took some time on election night to go talk with Roy, “and I told him, if I’m elected, then let’s go to work.”
As one of three on the council of seven with experience, Bailey said this will put a bit of added responsibility on their shoulders as they try to help the new members of council learn the ropes in the coming weeks and months.
“We can really help the new candidates and work with them to make this adjustment as smoothly as possible,” he said.
Bailey feels that now there will be more transparency between council and administration.
“I’m humbled by the confidence shown in me by the voters, and I will be diligent to work for the city. My door’s always open if anyone has concerns,” he said.
Asked about his goal to see the development levy quashed, Bailey said it’s on the agenda for the upcoming council retreat, and predicts it may be gone by the new year.
“I was excited and relieved,” said newcomer Wheeler, adding that his nerves were shot with how long they had to wait to get the results of the council vote. The results weren’t finalized until well after midnight.
He acknowledges that he has a lot to learn about being a councillor, saying, “It’s going to be a steep learning curve. I’m grateful there are three incumbents to work with, to help us get up to speed. There’s some continuity. If we had had a clean slate, that would’ve been chaos.”
Wheeler added he’ll be relying on the knowledge of the veterans, along with any assistance that SUMA will provide, as they put on workshops for new councillors and mayors.
“I’m just thrilled and very grateful to be given this chance. I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I’m looking forward to this challenge, and I welcome the challenge.”
As the top vote-getter of all council candidates, Richards said he was very grateful to everyone who voted in the election, and added, “I would also like to thank everybody who ran — that was hard work.”
While having no council experience, Richards noted he does have experience on committees as well as chairing the district planning commission, and hopes he will be able lend his expertise that way.
Richards said he was pretty happy with how the campaign went, and how clean the campaign was for the most part, and added of the lack of women on council, “We need to have all voices at the council table, whether they’re people new to Weyburn or people who have been here all their lives. It’s important to represent all of them.”
Incumbent Van Betuw was “very happy” to be re-elected, and chuckled as he noted with one term under his belt, he’s actually one of the three veterans now on council.
“I was looking forward to putting my past four years of experience to work,” he said, and added of the long hours of waiting for results, “It was very stressful, but we had so many good candidates. I think we were so fortunate that so many good people stepped forward to run.”
Van Betuw noted that many people indicated a desire for change, and with a new mayor and three new councillors, there will many new ideas coming forward.
“I’m humbled by the amount of votes I did get. With that number of candidates, you have no idea if you’ll get in or not,” he added.
A major project he was working on just before the election was setting public consultation meetings about the new recycling program to be introduced by the city, and Van Betuw feels those meetings will still go ahead, once dates can be established for when they will be held.
As for the make-up of the new council, he said, “We have some new councillors who come from some different walks of life, so we’ll have some different perspectives, which is good.”
Newcomer Jeff Chessall was unable to be reached for a comment before the press deadline.
In the meantime, mayor-elect Roy made his first public appearance at the Farmer Appreciation Banquet hosted by the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday evening, and plans to attend the upcoming Remembrance Day service as well on Friday, Nov. 11.
He is meeting with each councillor individually along with administration, and is reading up on the Cities Act and any other pertinent acts relating to the City of Weyburn. Roy is planning for the upcoming council retreat, where council will discuss issues and priorities for the new council along with next year’s budget, and the new members of council will attend workshops hosted by SUMA.
The new council will be sworn in at the next council meeting, on Monday, Nov. 14, at City Hall.
