George Maroosis will fill the vacant seat on North Bay city council.
The longtime city councillor confirmed that he will accept the appointment from city council which was approved during Tuesday’s meeting.
The seat became vacant when long-time city councillor Mike Anthony passed away suddenly at the age of 52.
At the beginning of Tuesday’s council meeting, councillors had to go through the formality of officially declaring Anthony’s seat vacant to begin the process of finding a replacement.
Precedent in the city has seen the 11th-place candidate in the previous election earn the appointment in the event of a council vacancy. Maroosis, who has served over three decades as a councillor in North Bay, was the runner-up in the 2018 election.
Maroosis will be officially sworn in to the position on October 5 during a special meeting of city council. He says that he doesn’t see the situation as an adjustment for him.
“I think that the adjustment has been what my current colleagues have had to face with COVID-19 but we’re getting used to some of the new realities of how we have to do business,” he said in an interview with Moose FM.
Maroosis says that he is hoping to be briefed by city staff to prepare himself for the job, but he already knows what he’ll be focusing on.
“I think one of the things that we have to consider carefully is what the municipality is going to do with projects and the budget and a lot of the financial matters because it is a difficult time out there,” he said in reference to the pandemic.
During Maroosis’ swearing-in, it will also be confirmed that he will sit on the board for the Capitol Centre, while also getting involved in North Bay Hydro Holdings. He will also continue to sit on the board for the North Bay Public Library.
With the restructuring, councillor Mark King will move up to the position of vice-chair of the Infrastructure and Operations Committee, while Mac Bain will be moving to the Downtown Improvement Area board.
Maroosis will be taking over midway through the council term. During his campaign in 2018, Maroosis said that he intends on running again in the next election. He’s unsure whether his appointment will change that.
“I guess like everything else, we’ll see how it goes,” he said.
