FALL RIVER: Cathy Deagle Gammon is honoured to have been selected as HRM’s Deputy Mayor and said her first couple of months in the role has been enjoyable.
Deagle Gammon, the representative for Waverley-Fall River-Musquodoboit Valley, was unanimously selected by her peers for the role in late November.
Since that time besides her own duties as councillor she’s attended numerous functions representing HRM and in place of Mayor Mike Savage who had other commitments or had events that overlapped.
She called being Deputy Mayor a privilege.
“It’s a privilege, and it’s a responsibility as well,” she said in an interview prior to the holidays with The Laker News.
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Deagle Gammon said it was pretty cool to receive unanimous support to be the Deputy Mayor.
She said the Deputy Mayor steps in for the mayor chairing a meeting if he needs to step out.
“That’s the governance side of chairing a meeting which I have a comfortability with,” she said.
She said there are moments in time when a discussion or debate will bring forth a motion from the floor, and so one might need to get some legal advice, but that’s the person that’s sitting to her right.
“The help is right there,” she said.
Mayor Savage gets invited to a multitude of events and engagements and asked to bring welcome and opening remarks.
“Of course, he can’t always make everything, so I get to step in for him,” said Deagle Gammon.
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She called it a more beautiful way to be even more connected with community.
“I get to learn different things. For example, it was the anniversary of the Halifax Explosion, and the mayor was at that,” she said. “But at the same time there was the Atlantic solar SolarCity summit. I got to go and bring opening remarks there.
“I learned more about this conference, the kind of people, the kind of brains that are in that room and what they do and how solar is the biggest renewable energy source in the world.”
“It’s a beautiful opportunity to stretch the brain to learn some more. So I really enjoy that.”
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Deagle Gammon said being Deputy Mayor doesn’t give her any further special powers or say on things, like developments etc.
“You’re a little bit closer to the information, but in no way does that change anything else,” she said. “You only have the one vote when it comes to regional council. You just have your own vote.”
She said the other part she likes about being Deputy Mayor is figuring out ways to support other councillors.
“The deputy mayor can help in terms of making sure councillors have all the information, being a little bit of a conduit at times around their issues to help to be a champion or to steer some direction,’ said Deagle Gammon. “That’s the piece that I have seen previous deputy mayors do very, very well.
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“I had the experience in my first year as councillor of Tim Outhit being deputy mayor at the time.
“He did a beautiful job, I thought of making sure that as a new councillor I was aware of process or procedure, those kinds of things.
“I do see that role about developing my skill-set around that.”
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She gets the role in what will be an important year with the municipal elections scheduled for October in HRM.
“That is something that I had to give some considerable thought too, whether I wanted that extra little bit of work coming into an election year,” she said.
“There are pros and cons you’re busy. How much time are you going to have running your campaign and all of those kinds of things. So definitely a consideration.
“But at the end of the day being deputy mayor still won out.”
Deagle Gammon said she is looking forward to collaborating and working with all in HRM during her tenure as deputy mayor.
“So far, so good,” she said with a smile when asked if she is liking her role. “Give me three months and then ask me again.
“We’ll have some experience to stand behind.”
