Prince George city councillor Jillian Merrick's bid to become the mayor of Wells has fallen short.
In a three-way race, John (Jay) Vermette was elected, drawing 56 votes during a by-election held Saturday, while Richard Wright drew 32 votes and Merrick garnered 25.
That Vermette had previous experience at the post - he was elected to three-year terms in 2005 and 2011 - was a prime reason he was elected in Merrick's opinion.
"He had served as mayor before and so I think the decision community members had was the name you know and trust for four months or a brand-new name for four years and so they chose the name they know and trust for four months and they'll have to go through the whole process again because Jay won't be running again in October but that's OK because that's what the community wanted for this period," Merrick said.
Also in a three-way race, Diane Andreesen was elected with 69 votes while Mark Dawson drew 27 and Glenda (Buffy) Rummel attracted 17.
A by-election became necessary when two resignations dropped the number of council members below the threshold needed to do business.
Citing frustration over a "negative situation," Robin Sharpe stepped down as mayor in February and Coun. Lorraine Kozar resigned at the same time.
Merrick, who spends about half her time in the community of about 240 people east of Quesnel, said she won't run in Wells this fall when municipal elections for what will be four-year terms are held across the province.
"I think I've done for the community what needed to be done which is to create some discussion around what the community vision is and (create) some competition for the election, but it's clear that I didn't have the support for leadership of the community in the long run and so I recognized that in the outcome and so won't be going through the process again," she said.
Merrick noted there were no candidate forums and the community lacks a newspaper. That made it difficult to get "community conversations happening," she said, but added "everyone put their best foot forward" as opposed to simply throwing their names in the hat.
As for whether she will run again for Prince George council, Merrick said she will announce her intention shortly.
