Essex Town Council will have a new look after its next municipal election.
The deputy mayor will be elected at-large and six councilors will now be elected from the same ward boundaries.
Little opposition was raised to electing a deputy mayor, but councilors Randy Voakes and Steven Bjorkman voted against the two remaining aspects of the decision.
Bjorkman says the representation per-ward needs to be looked at. However, his biggest concern is with the idea of eight-opinions when it comes time to vote.
"My fear with eight councilors is that we will have impasses where it's difficult to find common ground," says Bjorkman. "We're going to have issues that come before council where we'll have ties and a tie is a defeat."
Current Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche told AM800 News other councils do just fine without keeping odd numbers to break stalemates.
"At different conferences I've talked to other communities where they've had eight and some even 10," Meloche says. "Even at county council we have 14-members. To be quite honest with you, I can't ever remember a time where there was a seven-to-seven vote."
Adding a councilor will cost the town $25,000 a year, but Meloche says it will pay off in the long run.
He's still representing council at county meetings and Ward 2 at town meetings. Meloche says the amount of time taken up with the current model is, “taxing."
"It takes a lot of time away from doing major projects and helping out the mayor," says Meloche." We're going to define a role for that deputy mayor to be more involved with making sure that policies are passed that we need to make ourselves grow and be a better town."
Meloche says there simply wasn't enough time to move forward with boundary changes, but the information gathered will be used to make an informed decision on that topic at a later date.