Despite an election campaign dominated by criticism of city hall’s spending problems, Revelstoke voters returned all four incumbent candidates to the council table in Saturday’s municipal election, according to the unofficial results.
Tony Scarcella, Linda Nixon, Chris Johnston, Phil Welock, Gary Starling and Steve Bender (listed in order of votes) were the six top vote getters after vote counting ended Saturday night.
Mayor David Raven offered his congratulations to the winners.
“The fact four of them were on council before gives me the message that some of the stuff we are doing is good,” he said. “However there are some real learnings within the platforms and concerns raised during the campaign that we’ll have to be very careful with and considerate of.”
Pat Wells finished seventh, 31 votes behind Bender. Jim Ritchie, Jason Roe, Jody Simm and Rick Hodgson rounded out the pack.
Scarcella, who has been the most critical councillor of the city’s spending and campaigned on a platform of fiscal responsibility and support for families and seniors, received the most votes with 1,248. He was trailed slightly by Nixon, who had 1,230 votes. Johnston and Welock also topped the 1,000 vote mark.
Voter turnout was about 37 per cent, said Teresa Lerose, who was in charge of the election.
She said 1,972 ballots were cast for council. There were 5,284 names on the electoral list and 102 new people showed up to vote.
In school board elections, long-time trustee Alan Chell led the voting. He will be joined on the Board of Education by new trustees Elmer Rorstad and Bryan Dubasov and incumbents Mauro Morrone and Jeff Nicholson.
Incumbent Annie Wilson finished 33 votes behind Dubasov for sixth place, while incumbent Doug Hamilton and Jewelles Smith rounded out the field.
The official results were expected to be tabled at the Nov. 22 council meeting.
The complete, unofficial results are as follows:
City council (six elected):
Tony Scarcella - 1,248
Linda Nixon - 1,230
Chris Johnston - 1,056
Phil Welock - 1,032
Gary Starling - 863
Steve Bender - 742
Pat Wells - 711
Jim Ritchie - 619
Murray Velichko - 619
Jason Roe - 586
Jody Simm - 498
Rick Hodgson - 183
School board (five elected):
Alan Chell - 1,467
Elmer Rorstad - 1,108
Mauro Morrone - 990
Jeff Nicholson - 941
Bryan Dubasov - 935
Annie Wilson - 902
Doug Hamilton - 729
Jewelles Smith - 614
Note: A previous version of this article mis-identified Jim Ritchie's first name as Gary. We apologize for any confusion this may have cause.