Waterloo regional council to consider options to fill seat after councillor's death
The seat held by late Kitchener councillor Kari Williams will be declared vacant
For the second time this year, councillors with the Region of Waterloo will discuss how to fill an empty seat on council — this time, it comes after the death of a councillor.
Kari Williams died of cancer in April of this year. Williams, 40, was elected in 2022 to represent Kitchener, Ont., on regional council.
Region of Waterloo councillors will need to declare the seat vacant and then determine how to fill the seat within 60 days, by Aug. 24.
Once the declaration is made Wednesday, council will have several options to consider before moving forward.
Those options include:
- Appoint from the 2022 election candidates.
- Directly appoint a person to fill the vacancy.
- Appointment by a call for applications.
- Pass a bylaw requiring a byelection be held to fill the vacancy.
Filling the vacancy through an appointment is the most cost-effective since a byelection would cost $800,000.
This isn't the first time this year council has had to fill a vacant seat. In March, they studied their options on how to replace former councillor Rob Deutschmann who resigned his seat to run as the candidate for the Ontario Liberal Party in the riding of Cambridge.
Regional councillors voted to appoint Matt Rodrigues to the seat.