Nelson gets a new mayor as Deb Kozak unseats John Dooley
By Nelson Daily Staff
Nelson has a new mayor to lead the Heritage City for the next four years.
Current councilor Deb Kozak shocked the pollsters by defeating incumbent Mayor John Dooley and challenger Pat Severyn to capture the top post at 310 Lake Street in the 2014 Nelson Municipal Election.
Unofficial results had Kozak, the first female mayor of Nelson, topping the polls, winning the mayor’s post with 1756 votes, roughly 300 more than the incumbent Dooley.
Dooley finished with 1475 votes while Severyn was well back at 780.
Joining Kozak on council are incumbents Robin Cherbo and Bob Adams along with newcomers Michael Dailly, Valerie Warmington, former councilor Janice Morrison and Anna Purcell, the latter topping the council polls with 2424 votes.
Dailly was second to Purcell with 2167 votes with Cherbo third at 2015, Adams fourth at 1973, Warmington fifth at 1853 and Morrison sixth at 1797.
Justin Pelant was seventh, just over 100 votes behind Morrison, unofficially, at 1687.
Curtis Bendig topped the School Trustee vote in Nelson with 2010 votes.
Back for another term is veteran trustee Bill Maslechko who registered 1767 while Bob Abrahams finished out of the running in third with 1147 votes.
Voting was much higher than the last election in 2011 with 51 percent turnout according to the Civic BC’s website.
In Castlegar Lawrence Chernoff was re-elected mayor.
Chernoff defeated challenger Gord Zaitsoff 1486-832.
Newcomer Bruno Tassone, who topped the ballots with 1346 votes, joined five incumbents Daniel Rye (1324), Deb Mcintosh (1314), Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff (1248), Florio Vassilakakis (1238) and Kevin Chernoff (1186).
In Trail, Political newcomer Mike Martin easily claimed the mayor’s seat in Trail by out-distancing top challenger Doug Jones by more than 800 votes (1,725 to 891).
Stay tuned to The Nelson Daily for more coverage from City Hall reporter Bill Metcalfe.
