With the List of Official Candidates now certified, it appears that Regional Council has found themselves in a “lame duck” situation. With a little less than the 75% of the current Regional Council vying to return to the Chambers, the Region now has a lame duck Council.
As we have mentioned previously, a lame duck Council occurs when less than 75% of the current Council (in this case Regional Council) have the possibility of coming back. With this certain restrictions are imposed on Regional Council, namely they can’t acquire or sell off assets in excess of $50,000 in value or hire/fire any Officers in the Region among other restrictions.
It is unknown whether the Region anticipated this and delegated certain powers to their CAO or other Directors to handle situations where urgency is required, but the lame duck Council is unable to act.
Given the microscope that that has been focusing on the Region and the troubles surfacing there, it’s not surprising that so many did not file for re-election. If the electorate has been paying attention, we may see many of the incumbents who did re-file pounding the pavement after the election looking for new work.