Town council has declared the seat of councillor Matt Sammut vacant, and it will remain that way until after the Oct. 22 municipal election.
Sammut served on council since the 2014 election and recently decided to move to New Brunswick.
He officially resign his seat as of Aug. 20.
“On behalf of all of council, I would like to thank Matt for his hard work in helping to create a better future for the town,” said Mayor Allan Alls.
“He will be missed on council and we wish him and his family the very best.”
Because of the short time until the election, the town is not required to fill the seat.
Erin council is in what is known as a “lame duck” period, which restricts its decision-making authority on staff appointments or dismissals, on selling property and on authorizing expenditures over $50,000 that are not included in the budget.
This is intended to defer major decisions to the incoming council, though authority has been delegated to staff to deal with urgent situations.
The lame duck provision applies when less than 75 per cent of council is running in the election.
In Erin, only three members of the five-member council are seeking re-election. Sammut has resigned and Jeff Duncan is running for the county seat.
Council has decided to have only one meeting per month until the new council is sworn in.
Those meetings will be at 3pm on Oct. 2 and on Nov. 6.
