The majority of Stratford councilors voted Monday evening to appoint council newcomer Harjinder Nijjar as the city’s new deputy mayor for a two-year term ending Nov. 14, 2024.
Following some discomfort expressed by Stratford’s new council last month around voting in open session to appoint a deputy mayor, the majority of councilors voted without discussion at Monday’s last council meeting of the year to appoint Harjinder Nijjar to the position.
One of two councilors to be nominated for the second-highest-ranking council position by their colleagues, Nijjar received the support of seven of the 10 councilors who voted. count. Jo-Dee Burbach, who is serving her second term, was also nominated for deputy mayor, but the motion was defeated with six members voting against her nomination.
Nijjar, 51, was elected to his first term on Stratford city council in October’s municipal election with 4,335 votes. He is an IT professional and business owner who grew up in Stratford after his parents immigrated to the city from India when he was a toddler.
Nijjar currently serves as a member on the city’s finance and labor relations subcommittee, infrastructure, transportation and safety subcommittee, and social services subcommittee. He also serves as a council representative on Stratford’s active transportation advisory committee, the municipal golf course association, the Perth and Stratford Housing Corporation, the Stratford Police Services Board, the Stratford town and gown advisory committee and the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority board of directors .
Similar to those in other Ontario municipalities, Stratford’s deputy mayor is tasked with covering any absences by the mayor, including presiding at council meetings. The position is typically appointed by members of council following a municipal election. The deputy mayor position also comes with an annual salary of $22,713.60.
In the past, Stratford city councilors made the appointment during meetings closed to the public, a practice that was recently scrutinized in a sweeping closed-meeting report released in October. That third-party investigation – triggered by complaints from a local citizens’ group – showed city hall broke several transparency rules at nearly five dozen closed-door meetings throughout an 18-month period beginning in January 2020.
Faced with appointing the city’s new deputy mayor at council’s Nov. 28 meeting, it was clear many councilors felt uncomfortable – not because the public was watching, but because some of them wanted to spare the feelings of their colleagues and maintain good working relationships.
In a council report included in Monday’s meeting agenda, city clerk Tatiana Dafoe explained that all council votes to supplement a deputy mayor must be held in open session in accordance with council voting procedures outlined in Ontario’s Municipal Act.
Nijjar will serve as deputy mayor at least until Nov. 14, 2024, at which point council will once again vote to appoint a councilor to that position for another two-year term.