It’s a busy week for swearing-in ceremonies, as the Regional Municipality of York’s new 21-member regional council gets set to take its oath of elected office on Dec. 6.
One of the newly minted members’ first official duties Thursday night is to elect a new chairperson, who is the head of council and acts as the CEO of the municipal corporation, and may vote on matters in the event of a tie.
The members of regional council themselves are elected in what is known as a "double direct" form of election. In this type of system, those elected as mayor or regional councillor for an area municipality earn a seat on both local council and regional council for four years.
Chair and CEO Wayne Emmerson is currently serving his first four-year term, which runs 2014 to 2018.
York Regional Council is the political body that sets policies, direction and budgets for the nine municipalities that make up York Region. It’s the second tier or regional level of government, in addition to the local government, and is responsible for such things as funding York Regional Police and York Regional Transit/Viva. The Region managed a $2.2 billion budget in 2018.
A new, 400,000-plus-square-foot administrative headquarters is now under construction beside its current facility on Yonge Street in Newmarket. Once completed, the $212-million Administrative Centre Annex will offer a variety of public services, including public health clinics, Ontario Works, provincial offences act courts, social services and more.
The Regional Municipality of York consists of nine local cities and towns and provides a variety of programs and services to 1.2 million residents and 51,000 businesses with 620,000 employees.
The ceremony and inaugural meeting of regional council will be held Thursday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. in the York Region Administrative Centre Council Chambers, 17250 Yonge St. Members of the public are welcome to attend.
Here are the regional council members to be sworn in for the 2018 to 2022 term:
Chairperson and CEO to be elected by regional council members.
Aurora
Tom Mrakas, Mayor
East Gwillimbury
Virginia Hackson, Mayor
Georgina
Margaret Quirk, Mayor
Robert Grossi, Regional Councillor
King
Steve Pellegrini, Mayor
Markham
Frank Scarpitti, Mayor
Don Hamilton, Regional Councillor
Jack Heath, Regional Councillor
Joe Li, Regional Councillor
Jim Jones, Regional Councillor
Newmarket
John Taylor, Mayor
Tom Vegh, Regional Councillor
Richmond Hill
David Barrow, Mayor
Joe DiPaola, Regional Councillor
Carmine Perrelli, Regional Councillor
Vaughan
Maurizio Bevilacqua, Mayor
Mario Ferri, Regional Councillor
Gino Rosati, Regional Councillor
Linda Jackson, Regional Councillor
Whitchurch-Stouffville
Iain Lovatt, Mayor
