Council to discuss how to move forward without mayor Milobar

May 10, 2017 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — As Peter Milobar prepares to make the move from mayor to MLA, city council will also be entering a time of transition. 

There are three options before city council: Milobar could resign as mayor, forcing a by-election, council could continue on a rotation of deputy mayors, or an interim mayor could be appointed to hold the position until the next municipal election. 

At this point, Milobar isn’t saying whether he intends to resign. 

“Certainly there was a lot of people from the public side leading up to the election saying, ‘don’t have a by-election,’” Milobar said, “but there was also quite a few people quietly saying, ‘no, in a city of 100,000 there should be a duly elected mayor and a full council as much as possible.’ 

“So, I guess we’ll see where the voice of the public start to move now that we know for sure what happened last night in the provincial election locally.”

The conversation is expected to come up at the next city council meeting, which could be Milobar’s last. 

Councillor Arjun Singh says people are telling him that of the three options before council they would prefer to see an interim mayor chosen. 

That’s a position Singh would be willing to fill if required, but he wouldn’t put his name forward in a by-election. 

“If all things go according to how they’re supposed to go, I’m supposed to be president of UBCM in 2019,” Singh explained. “So, I wouldn’t probably run for mayor in the next civic election, I’d probably run for council. 

“I’d like to be mayor one day of the community, I think that’s no secret to most people, but I’m happy to wait, and I’m happy to be on council. It’s a great job and I’m very comfortable being a councillor.”