Nanaimo residents are preparing for a July 8 byelection to fill a vacant council seat.
The city will start accepting nominations on May 23 for candidates to fill in the rest of the term on council, after Wendy Pratt resigned due to ill health in early April.
Nominations must be in by 4 p.m. on June 2.
Former Nanaimo councillor Fred Pattje is part of a group called Our Nanaimo that plans to put questions to all byelection candidates, as well as finding candidates to run for Nanaimo council in the fall of 2018.
“We want much better governance than we are getting now,” Pettje said Monday.
Nanaimo’s council has been rocked by infighting and heated arguments.
A special prosecutor, appointed in December, is advising the RCMP in its investigation of council.
The municipality sent allegations to the RCMP in November regarding Mayor Bill McKay’s financial-disclosure reporting, business dealings and trade missions.
One council member, who was not named, was arrested and released for an alleged offence, which was not described.
Dan McLaughlin, Criminal Justice Branch spokesman, said on Monday that no further information is available.
Also in December, the municipality initiated a civil lawsuit against the mayor, alleging he released confidential information to a former administrative assistant, who was negotiating a settlement with Nanaimo after leaving a city-hall job. Court records show no action has been taken since the suit was filed.
Pettje said answers to five questions Our Nanaimo plans to ask byelection candidates — on planning, finance, how to improve the present governance in the city, economic development and tourism, and social policies — will be posted to the group’s website.
Our Nanaimo does not plan to endorse any candidates, he said. “We want to use this byelection as a bit of a dry run for next year.”
Pattje placed ninth in the 2014 race for eight councillor seats, 100 votes behind Coun. Diane Brennan.
He is not running in the byelection, but is considering running in 2018.
The Our Nanaimo group grew out of Novote2017 members, who organized to fight a proposed events centre near the waterfront in the city. The referendum seeking permission from voters to borrow $80 million for the centre was rejected by 80 per cent of those who cast ballots.
The group wants to identify, vet and possibly mentor viable candidates for the fall 2018 civic elections, when candidates will be running for four-year terms, Pettje said.
“We are looking for expertise.”
Anyone interested in running in the byelection can collect nomination papers from Nanaimo’s legislative services department.
