County Council is having its inaugural meeting at the Ciociaro Club tonight where newly sworn-in councillors will elect the next Essex County Warden.
Kingsville Mayor and past-warden Nelson Santos is putting his name forward for the job.
"In the past four years we haven't had a meeting, a city-county meeting, to talk about priorities," says Santos, noting he wants to see better coordination between County Council and the City of Windsor. "Certainly would like to enhance the opportunity the county can play regionally."
Leamington Mayor John Paterson is also seeking the warden's chair and wants to spend more time representing the county at the provincial and federal levels.
"When you listen to the ministers, the premier, even the federal representatives talk they rarely, if ever, refer to southern Ontario that exists beyond Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph," says Paterson. "We have so much to offer down here. We have a ton of assets down here that we should be pushing."
The two candidates for warden are up against the incumbent, Lakeshore Mayor Tom Bain. He's looking to be re-elected to build off of last term's work with the Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation.
"Job creation is another big area where we want to work with economic development commission and try to not only maintain jobs we've got here, but bring new business to the area," says Bain, adding regional transit is another key focus for him over the next term.
The inaugural meeting for County Council begins at 7pm at the Ciociaro Club with a reception to follow.
