The Town of Essex is getting a little help as it grapples with options for picking a deputy mayor in future elections.
Current Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche says it'll hire a consultant.
"Because there are so many options, and there were so many different views from council, we thought we need somebody to give us some idea of what we want to see happen here," says Meloche. "Go to the public -- get a measure of what the public wants to see."
The options include electing a deputy mayor at large.
Meloche says the consultant may also come back with recommendations to redraw the ward boundaries or get rid of the ward system altogether. He suggests he might favour reworking the ward boundaries.
"Going back some 20 years ago when we amalgamated Colchester North, Colchester South, Essex and Harrow, there wasn't a lot of vision," he says. "In today's world, they're not necessarily the right borders for those maybe some of these wards."
Right now, the deputy mayor is chosen by councillors at the beginning of the term, but Councillor Sherry Bondy questioned if it was the most democratic option.
Council would like to have the changes in place in time for the next municipal election in 2018.
-- With files from Ricardo Veneza
