Hamilton city council appoints new Ward 7 councillor

18 years ago, Terry Anderson was Hamilton’s ward 7 councillor. Today he finds himself representing that ward again.

“It’s certainly an honour to be appointed by council.”

But it wasn’t without a fight from councilors Matthew Green and Aidan Johnson.

“These backroom deal conversations to me don’t cut the mustard when it comes to democracy.” Matthew Green.

Ward 7 was left vacant after voters elected Donna Skelly to the provincial legislature.

With just over two months until the city’s election, Mayor Fred Eisenberger says councils first choice was to leave the ward vacant but that’s not allowed under the Ontario Municipal Act.

“The province said no, so that really lead us to the next decision which was to fill the appointment and do it as expeditiously as possible.”

Green and Johnson argued that the process of appointing Anderson without any public input was wrong. Adding that council should have opened the position to the public and considered other candidates who may have wanted to fill the role.

Matthew Green says he’s never seen Terry Anderson and calls the discussions about having Anderson fill in for ward , backroom conversations.

“This should not be a process where we are appointing our buddies to fill in a democratic seat at council.”

The mayor, as well as other councillors say with such a short amount of time until the municipal election, Anderson was the right fit because he knows the ropes.

“I think it would be a disservice to the residents of ward 7 to have an inexperienced person who wouldn’t know where the clerks office is.” Terry Whitehead, councilor.

Anderson will participate in two council meetings, answer to constituents during his 8 weeks on council and earn about $10 000 before the fall election.