Bradford West Gwillimbury resident Mauro Di Giovanni wants to see better decisions be made by town council, so he’s running for mayor in the municipal election.
He moved to Bradford in 1972, having lived on 10th Sideroad near the old Langford farm. He eventually moved away for high school and work, and returned in 2000. He, his wife and their two sons have lived here since.
Di Giovanni has been following municipal politics closely in recent years, and says he has witnessed too many decisions made by council in recent years that he believes aren’t supportive of the community and its residents.
One such decision made by council that left him dismayed was allowing a developer near Line 5 and Highway 400 to defer taxes worth $10 million.
“They deferred the payment from time of severance to paying it at the time of a building permit application. I realized that’s not in the best interest of our town and our community. We never got our taxes deferred. So, I feel like now it’s time for me to step up," he said.
Another example of a decision made by council that he did not agree with, was the building of the new fire hall on Melbourne Drive.
“We built the big fire hall, but if you look at the 2013 report, the fire hall was going to be either rebuilt or expanded, they were to hire another 20 firefighters by 2022, and they were supposed to have a fire hall for Bond Head. We don’t have that Bond Head fire hall and now they’re talking about amalgamation with Innisfil,” Di Giovanni said.
He is also not pleased with the town purchasing the 177 Church St. property for the new community hub.
“They purchased that and sole-sourced the $75,000 to a designer and sole-sourced an engineer for about $372,000, and the estimated cost is going to be about $12 million with a 1.5 to three per cent tax increase next year,” he said. “Decisions like that are made, and is it the time now to be spending money when we’re going into tough times economically?”
If elected as Bradford’s next mayor, Di Giovanni wants to ensure more transparency and open ears from council.
“I want to listen to the citizens and what they want, have transparency from the town, change policies and procedures that deal with procurement and sole sourcing,” he said.
Traffic mitigation is another pillar of his platform.
“We want the community to feel safe with traffic flow, and that goes with speeding and other traffic offences,” he said.
Di Giovanni says he cares deeply for the community and enjoys being involved in it.
He coached soccer for about 10 years while supporting his two children as they went through school.
“This is home for me. I grew up here on 10th Sideroad. I played soccer here as a kid. I came back here in 2000 to raise my kids because this is home,” he said.
Di Giovanni is retired, after having worked as a police officer with the RCMP for 29 years, where he provided protection for politicians from around the world.
Since retiring, he has opened his own security company in town.
To learn more about Di Giovanni and his campaign, visit his website here.
Election week is Oct. 14-24.
