Bryan Hayes chosen to fill Derik Brandt's shoes

It was all over in just one ballot.

Bryan Hayes (shown) needed seven votes from City councillors to become the new Ward 3 councillor.

He got nine.

"I'm not going in with any agenda," said Hayes, who'll be sworn in at the next City Council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 27.

"I have nothing against City Council. I think they're doing a great job," Hayes told SooToday.com

He said his priority will be to create the jobs needed to ensure that his own two children don't have to leave town for work.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. financial analyst was one of five candidates nominated tonight from a pool of 15 applicants.

Council held a special meeting to select a replacement for Derik Brandt, who resigned recently to accept a job in Thunder Bay.

Five applicants received Council nominations

Hayes was the first applicant to be nominated.

His name was put forward by the other Ward 3 Councillor, Pat Mick, who together with Brandt narrowly defeated Hayes in the November, 2000 municipal election.

Ward 6 Councillor Frank Manzo then nominated Robert DeFazio, who represented Ward 3 in 1973 and 1974.

Ward 5 Councillor Duane Jones followed by nominating computer retailer John Pountney.

Councillor Manzo then re-entered the fray with two more nominations, chiropractors Bryan Dumanski and Grace Tridico.

How they voted

Manzo argued that all applicants should be automatically nominated and voted on by Council, a suggestion that was summarily rejected.

All but Councillors Manzo and Jones (Ward 1 Councillor David Orazietti was absent on vacation) then voted for Hayes. Jones voted for John Pountney. Manzo voted for DeFazio, then tried to also vote for Dumanski and Tridico, but those votes were rejected because councillors were only allowed to support one candidate and Manzo had already registered support for DeFazio.

Speaking afterward to reporters, Grace Tridico expressed disappointment that the outcome had been "pre-determined" by Council.

Tridico said she's seriously considering running in the next municipal election.

Bryan Who?

Privately, councillors said they were impressed by Hayes' financial credentials as well as by his volunteer activities, which included serving as chair of the 2001 United Way campaign.

To read the full text of Hayes' application for the job, please click here.

Other Council news

- Mayor John Rowswell was given permission to pay accomodation costs for Taiwanese officials who will be in the Sault this week for preliminary discussions about transpolar cargo initiatives. Ward 6 Councillor Peter Vaudry asked about yesterday's SooToday report quoting the Taipei Times as saying Taiwanese air carriers are unlikely to benefit from transpolar routings because the country maintains no air agreements with Russia or China. But Mayor Rowswell disputed that claim, quoting the City's transpolar consultant as saying that Taiwan now has landing rights in at least one Russian city. The Taiwanese delegation will arrive 2:32 p.m. on Tuesday. It will tour Algoma Steel's Direct Stripmill Production Complex, as well as Algoma Tubes, GP Flakeboard and the Great Lakes Forestry Centre. For a SooToday background article, please click here.

- Councillors voted to look into fast-tracking clean-ups of messy and unsafe properties. For more information, please click here.

- Council observed a moment of silence for former Ward 1 Councillor Charlie Swift, who died late last month. To read SooToday's coverage of Charlie's passing, please click here and here.

- The Jo Forman Athletic Track at Queen Elizabeth Park will be upgraded and resurfaced at a cost of $79,500. The work will be done over the next two weeks by Weather-Flex Inc., which installed the original track and which Iain Little, the City's purchasing manager, says is the only company qualified to do the specialized work needed to ensure the resurfaced track meets all required regulations.

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