The Region of Queens new mayor plans to hit the ground running.

Darlene Norman won the top job in the county by over 200 votes in Saturday’s municipal election against her nearest rival, Susan MacLeod.

Norman says she realizes there’s a lot of people in the county she doesn’t know and plans to get to work right away to remedy that.

“My first goal is to knock on almost every door I can in this county and look them in the eye and say, I’m Darlene Norman. I am your new mayor. Here is my card. If you ever have a question, please contact me,” said Norman.

During her campaign, Norman was critical of infighting between current councilors and staff.

She intends to change the tone and foster cooperation amongst council members, regional staff and the community

“I do believe that there were some members, perhaps unwittingly, that paired up together and you can’t do that as a council,” said Norman. “As a council everybody needs to work as one and been seen as one working unit.”

Norman was complimentary of some of the work the outgoing council has done, particularly in expanding high-speed internet coverage, and collecting on a large amount of unpaid taxes to put the municipality on stronger economic footing.

Norman defeated outgoing mayor David Dagley by close to 500 votes, a margin which, seemed to signify the desire for change on council.

Only two sitting councillors will return to their seats: Kevin Muise will continue to represent district one and Jack Fancy will remain the councillor for district five.

Sitting councillors Brian Fralic and Susan MacLeod gave up their seats in districts three and four, respectively, to challenge David Dagley for mayor.

Replacing Fralic will be Maddie Charlton and Vicki Amirault takes McLeod’s seat.

Another pair of councillors lost their bid for re-election. Heather Kelly is turning over district two to Ralph Gidney while district seven will see Gil Johnson bow out to Carl Hawkes.

New councillor David Brown won District six over Jason Croft after Raymond Fiske decided not to reoffer.

Norman says she plans to speak with each of the new councillors ahead of their first session to hear their priorities.

“I do not have a set agenda. I simply want to hear what fellow council has to say and what they think,” said Norman. “And to understand what the people think, where they want to go.”

Norman will be meeting with Mayor David Dagley, CAO Chris McNeill and Director of Finance Jennifer Keating-Hubley* over the next week to get the lay of the land and to select a day for the new council to be sworn-in.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

* A previous version of this story identified Mallory Plummer as Director of Finance. Ms Plummer is Manager of Finance.