It’s the end of an era as veteran city councillor Bill Marra will not be seeking re-election this fall. “I’ve decided to step away from city politics, and I won't be running for city council, I will not be running for mayor, and I will not be seeking any elected office at the municipal level,” Marra said after Monday night’s council meeting. Marra has been representing south-east Windsor around the council table for more than two decades. “I’m very pleased to have served 21 absolutely wonderful and gratifying years, but certainly there comes a time to move on, and for me, it is now,” Marra said. “Six terms just seems to be enough.” Marra said he’d like to spend more time with his family and his other job at Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare. “The humility of serving in an elected capacity, it's a tremendous and awesome trust that citizens of the community put into you and I’m very satisfied that's I’ve done a good job over the years,” said Marra. He was first elected to city council in 1994 and has since served six terms. The only hiccup was in 2003 when Marra lost his bid for mayor to Eddie Francis. He told reporters Monday night that nearly turned him off of running again. He said supporters urged him to run again, and he’d glad he did. This time, Marra said he doesn’t want speculation to become a distraction around the council table because there’s business to do ahead of the upcoming election. “I really wanted to avoid the negative dynamics of speculation, and lot of folks talking about who might run for what, and I thought it important for me to announce early, my intentions, to clear the slate, give other potential candidates the opportunity to give it some thought,” said Marra. Marra is consistently one of the more popular councillors – topping the polls city wide in 2010 and 2014 with nearly 80 per cent of the popular vote. The nomination period for municipal election opens May 1 and closes July 27, 2018. The election will be held on Oct. 22, 2018.
