Council slated to choose former councillor Di Biase's replacement Wednesday

yorkregion.com
June 27, 2017
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Vaughan council was slated to appoint former veteran councillor Michael Di Biase’s replacement from among the 56 people who applied for the job at a special council meeting Wednesday, June 28.

Visit yorkregion.com to find out who council selected.

Among those seeking to fill Di Biase’s seat was Joyce Frustaglio, who lost her seat in the 2010 municipal election after 22 years in office.

Following her electoral defeat, Frustaglio landed an appointment as a citizenship judge in 2011.

Longtime council critics and former municipal election hopefuls Carrie Liddy, Richard Lorello and Nick Pinto also applied for the job along with a slew of other past candidates including Elliott Frankl, Josh Martow, Frank Miele and Adriano Volpentesta.

The person council appoints to replace Di Biase will sit on council and the Region of York council and will pull down more than $132,000. But the appointee won’t take on Di Biase’s title of deputy mayor, which comes with a nearly $8,000 salary bump.

Under the city’s bylaw, the deputy mayor is the regional council candidate who garnered the most votes in the 2014 municipal election. In that person's absence, it is the councillor who received the second highest number of votes, which was Regional Coun. Mario Ferri.

He will serve as deputy mayor until the end of the term.

Di Biase, who served on council for nearly 30 years including a stint as mayor, stepped down May 19 following the release of an explosive report by Integrity Commissioner Suzanne Craig that found he sexually harassed a city employee.

Di Biase has vehemently denied the allegations.