Citizens all over the Comox Valley cast their vote in the 2014 municipal election this evening, deciding who will be serving in local public office for the next four years.
In Courtenay Larry Jangula was re-elected mayor, defeating challenger Jon Ambler 3483 to 2502 votes.
Goat news caught up with Jangula once the news was broken.
Meanwhile, Jon Ambler says running for mayor was a great experience.
On Council, David Frisch (3671), Manno Theos (3033), Bob Wells (2985), Rebecca Lennox (2835), Doug Hillian (2592), and Erik Erikkson (2448) were elected, with just Theos and Hillian the holdovers from the previous council.
In Comox, Paul Ives was re-elected mayor over challenger Tom Grant 2,276 votes to 1,995. Ives says, now the real work begins.
There are plenty of familiar faces on council, as all four councilors who sought re-election were voted back in. Leading the way was Hugh Mackinnon (2,782), followed by Russ Arnott (2,659), Barbara Price (2,599) Ken Grant (2,463), Maureen Swift (2,275) and Marg Grant (1,896).
Cumberland Mayor Leslie Baird was already back in by acclamation, while incumbent Gwyn Sproule garnered the most votes on council (703). Next was Jesse Ann-Ketler (609), Roger Kishi (555), and Sean Sullivan (538).
As for the Comox Valley Regional District, Area A Regional Director is Bruce Joliffe (52%), while Rod Nichol (73%) was elected Director of Area B. Area C went to Edwin Grieve (62%).
As for the School Trustee race, Janice Caton (2265) and Cliff Boldt (1784) were elected in Courtenay, Peter Coleman won in Comox handily (1,350), and in Cumberland, Vickey Brown was already back in by acclamation. For the regional district, Sheila McDonnell (65%) is your Area A school trustee, while in Area B, Tom Weber was already in by acclamation. Ian Hargreaves (56%) was elected for Area C.
For the Island Trust;
David Critchely (46%) and Laura Busheikin (44%) were elected for Denman Island, while on Hornby Island, Tony Law and Alex Allen were both already in by acclamation.
As for the homelessness question, the $10 option proved to be the most popular. The question posed on the ballot was, how much annual property tax would you be willing to pay to reduce homelessness? The options were $0, up to $5, and up to $10, based on a home assessed at $300,000.
In Courtenay, 2444 voted for the $10 option, while $0 was next with 1588, and $5 received 1275 votes.
Same story in Comox, where 1,831 people voted for the $10 option, 1,160 voted for $0, and 1,068 voted for $5.
Finally, in Cumberland, 514 voted for the $10 option, 243 for the $5 option, and 218 for $0.
