Barrow gets 4th term; DiPaola, Perrelli take Richmond Hill regional seats

All incumbents voted back into office

Yorkregion.com
October 25, 2018
Kim Zarzour

Richmond Hill voters chose to stick with what they know when they cast their municipal election ballots this week, and some are predicting interesting times ahead.

All incumbents, including the mayor, were voted back into office along with two former councillors who now hold regional council positions.

The regional councillor seats were left vacant after the two long-standing councillors, Brenda Hogg and Vito Spatafora, opted not to seek re-election.

Joe DiPaola, a local councillor from 1998 to 2006, who ran unsuccessfully for the federal Conservatives, won 11,758 votes (22.35 per cent) and Carmine Perrelli, former Ward 2 councillor from 2010 to 2014, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2014, won 11,418 votes (21.71 per cent).

Public school board trustee Carol Chan was ahead in advanced polls, but fell to third with 9,448 votes and lawyer Jason Cherniak earned 8,878 votes.

This new role will be a “step up”, Di Paola said. “It’s a big responsibility but I’m sure with my experience, I will be a strong advocate for Richmond Hill.”

He said he will focus on his mandate to freeze taxes, get the subway to Richmond Hill and improve community safety.

The Liberal reached out twice to Carmine Perrelli for comment, but both times he hung up.

Greg Beros, who won in Ward 1, also hung up on The Liberal when the paper asked for his comments on the election results.

Beros won 2,323 votes compared to runner-up Carol Davidson’s 1,687 votes.

Ward 2 saw a race between incumbent Tom Muench with 1,827 votes and Scott Thompson’s 1,076.

Castro Liu was acclaimed in Ward 3, and Ward 4 and Ward 6 incumbents David West and Godwin Chan won by wide margins.

In Ward 5, Karen Cilevitz faced a stiff fight waged primarily on social media, but still managed to win in all her polling stations with 3,137 votes, compared to former councillor Nick Papa’s 2,247 -- leaving her as the only female on council.

Cilevitz expressed her appreciation for voter support and vowed to focus on ensuring intensification and infrastructure meets residents’ needs, but her partner, Derek Christie, had another view of the result, saying, “after being followed, hacked, threatened … lied about, libelled and smeared … the people have spoken”.

Many in the community saw the results as a sign voters are leaning toward more conservative values and a focus on budgets and taxes, while a few voiced concern that council will be more fractured.

Cherniak, whose endorsements showed his Liberal leanings, noted that the three regional councillors who ranked above him were Conservatives and many residents who asked his political affiliation were looking for Conservatives.

“I knew it would be a tough battle,” he said. “I was up against a school board trustee and a former councillor who barely lost the last election [and] a second former councillor who ran for mayor last time and has spent years raising money.

“Politics is not easy. It can chew you up and spit you out,” but it was worth it, he added.

Some residents were still asking questions a day after the polls closed.

One woman, who did not leave her name, left a voice message for The Liberal, asking for an investigation into why two Ward 1 candidates -- Greg Beros and Lidia Kafieh -- were able to run for office despite not living in the ward.

Under the Ontario Municipal Act, candidates are not required to live in the ward they are seeking to represent, but they do need to be residents or property owners in the municipality or are the spouse of residents and owners.

A caller also asked for an investigation into which developers paid for candidates’ election signs.

Resident Dan Di Persio was disappointed with results. “So all the incumbents won and the two that retired were replaced by former councillors. So much for change,” he said.

Todd Hansen, who ran for the Ward 1 councillor job in 2014, is worried.

“Richmond Hill council will be raucous for the next four years due to the antics and incompetence of certain councillors.”

But Mayor Dave Barrow said council will do well despite the divergent opinions, “as long as we’re focused on the task at hand. Less reacting and more proacting.”

Chan is also optimistic.

It’s too early to say how everyone will get along, he said, “but it will be interesting”, adding all councillors seem to be galvanized on two issues he has championed -- the subway extension and budget control.

“The results are not what I would have predicted, but it’s what the electorate has chosen and we’ve got to make it work,” said West. “A good idea is a good idea no matter where it comes from and we’ve all got to work together to implement the good ideas.”

While other municipalities ventured into online voting, Richmond Hill stayed with tried-and-true paper ballots and the process appears to have gone relatively smoothly.

The town hall polling station saw a few confused voters who didn’t see their polling station in their voters package and thought they should vote at the Beaver Creek offices, and others reported that a Ward 1 polling station that was supposed to be listed as 10725 Yonge was missing the last digit, but there was no word that anyone mistakenly drove all the way down to St. Clair and Yonge.

This was the 12th municipal election for Richmond Hill residents Kitty and Joseph Cheung. They cast their ballot at the town hall polling station just minutes before polls closed and they say they were disappointed to see so many names on the voters list still not crossed off.

Municipal elections are too important not to vote, Kitty said. The Cheungs are concerned about safety in the local school parking lot where the park is under construction and hoped for a councillor who would understand what’s going on in the neighbourhood.

“We want someone who has passion, not just listen to small groups of people,” Kitty said, “and will make wise and appropriate decisions.”