Ex-councillor and former political staffer chosen to fill vacancies on Toronto city council

Councillors will make another interim appointment if Coun. Michael Ford wins a provincial seat on Thursday.

thestar.com
June 2, 2022
David Rider

Two familiar faces at Toronto city hall will serve as interim city councillors, representing about 220,000 residents of downtown wards, until autumn.

City council on Wednesday appointed Joe Mihevc, a councillor for 27 years until his defeat in the 2018 civic election, to replace Joe Cressy who recently quit his Ward 10 Spadina---Fort York seat to work at George Brown College.

To replace former Ward 13 Toronto Centre councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, who resigned to run in the provincial election, council chose Robin Buxton Potts, who was chief of staff in Wong-Tam’s council office.

At the selection meeting Mihevc and Buxton Potts both told councillors, who chose them from multiple applicants in both wards, that they will serve until after the Oct. 24 civic election, but will not run for office to try to stay at city hall.

Mihevc, who has taught urban affairs and taken care of his 99-year-old father since his 2018 election loss, told councillors that he sees the interim post as a “modest, caretaking role.”

He acknowledged having done “mediation” work, as a lobbyist registered with the city, for clients including private-sector developers. “Yes, there is such a thing as a progressive developer who is in touch with the common good,” Mihevc said.

Buxton Potts said she learned how to be councillor working for Wong-Tam since 2019, and years before that, for then-councillor Adam Vaughan and his replacement then-interim councillor Ceta Ramkhalawansingh.

Buxton Potts said she plans to hand off constituency files to the ward winner of the fall election in a “very clean, thorough transition.”

More interim appointments could be coming. Coun. Michael Ford (Ward 2---Etobicoke North) will leave city hall if he’s elected provincially on Thursday, and several other council incumbents have been mum about their future.

Interim councillors have the full powers of elected city councillors and earn, for the months they serve, a portion of the roughly $120,000 annual councillor salary.