Rob Shepley will serve another four years as deputy mayor of the Town of Essex. Shepley was acclaimed to the position following the publishing of the certified list of candidates. He is the only member of council in all of Windsor, Chatham-Kent and Essex County municipalities to be acclaimed this election. Acclaimation occurs when no other candidates run. Shepley received 52 per cent of the votes in the 2022 election, winning by 384 ballots. He says while he appreciates not having to run another campaign, the acclamation doesn’t mean he’ll be sitting back. “But it sure means a lot to me that it’s quite a nice thing for me to not have to go out and knock on those doors. Not that I don’t want to talk to the residents, but there sure is a lot of work and effort that goes into it. Only somebody who’s run before would understand all the effort that goes into running a campaign, knocking on the doors, getting your flyers out, organizing your team and all that.” Shepley says he’ll continue listening to residents, but won’t be knocking on doors to avoid interfering with other candidates. “I’ll always be out and about. However, I want to be certain I don’t interfere with anybody else’s elections. I know they’re all out working very hard and I don’t want to confuse anybody. So I will be more than happy to listen and talk to everybody as I always have. However, I won’t be knocking on doors at this time.” He says looking ahead to his second term, there’s still a lot of work to be done. “I want to look closely at how we spend our taxpayers money, making sure that we plan responsibly for growth and infrastructure and making sure all the four wards have a voice. And just continue representing Essex at the County Council and making sure our municipality has a strong voice there as well.” Shepley says he ran four years ago on the theme of “Working Together” and believes council maintained a strong working relationship despite disagreements. Shepley will begin his second term on Essex council following the municipal election on Monday, October 26.
