About one-third of the role
City Council
The mayor is one of nine members of Owen Sound City Council and shares responsibility for policies, services, bylaws, financial oversight, accountability, and representing residents.
Three broad areas of the mayor's work
Many people see the mayor mainly as the person who chairs City Council meetings. That is one part of the job. Owen Sound's mayor works in three major areas: as a member and leader of City Council, as one of Owen Sound's two representatives at Grey County Council, and as the person responsible for the mayor-specific financial, organizational, administrative, emergency, and public-leadership duties established by Ontario law.
A useful way to understand the position is to think of these as roughly three equal parts:
- City Council: representing residents, evaluating policies, determining services, reviewing budgets, passing bylaws, and working with councillors and City staff.
- Grey County: working with the other eight mayors, nine deputy mayors, and County staff on an approximately $300 million budget covering housing, homelessness, Ontario Works, child care, paramedics, long-term care, County roads, regional planning, economic development, tourism, and County tax policy.
- Mayor-specific leadership and administration: leading and chairing Council, proposing the City budget, setting financial direction, issuing written staff directions under the strong-mayor framework, deciding how powers concerning the CAO, organizational structure, and Council-only committees are used, representing the City publicly, and exercising police and emergency responsibilities.
This three-part model is an explanatory framework. It describes the position without assigning an exact legal or time-based formula. It shows why City Council experience, alongside County and mayor-specific preparation, covers one major area of preparation for mayor.
The three parts in brief
About one-third of the role
Grey County Council
The mayor joins the deputy mayor at Grey County Council and works with regional elected officials and staff on County services, taxation, housing, social programmes, roads, planning, health-related services, and economic development.
About one-third of the role
Mayor-Specific Leadership
The mayor leads and chairs Council, proposes the City budget, sets financial direction, oversees the use of strong-mayor administrative powers, represents the City, promotes public involvement, and carries emergency and police-governance responsibilities.
The mayor-specific role is organizational governance
The mayor-specific portion is closer to organizational governance and business administration. The mayor must gather advice, establish priorities, set budget parameters, give lawful direction, evaluate senior leadership, decide how organizational powers are used, explain decisions publicly, and accept responsibility for the results. The City Manager continues to lead day-to-day administration, while the mayor and Council establish public direction and accountability.
This distinction is essential to the comparison. Reviewing a staff budget and voting on amendments as a councillor differs from personally setting the financial target, directing staff to prepare the mayor's proposed budget, and accepting responsibility for it.
Summary of the comparison
- City Council responsibilities: Carol Merton has the strongest current preparation for the ordinary responsibilities shared by City councillors.
- Grey County responsibilities: Andrii Zvorygin has the strongest documented preparation through his familiarity and working relationships with County mayors, deputy mayors, and staff; sustained attention to County policy and planning; and County-level implementation pathways.
- Mayor-specific responsibilities: Andrii Zvorygin has the strongest documented preparation for the mayor's distinct financial, organizational, strategic, participatory, and intergovernmental responsibilities.
- Additional strength: Richard Thomas brings particularly strong formal chairing and professional communications experience.
The strong-mayor budget distinction
Carol Merton served on Council during Owen Sound's first strong-mayor budget cycle. Mayor Ian Boddy personally held and exercised the mayoral budget authority. On May 1, 2025, Boddy delegated the CAO appointment and dismissal power to Council, organizational-structure authority to the City Manager, and Council-only committee powers to Council. The mayoral budget responsibility was legally non-delegable.
Boddy consulted councillors and senior staff, selected fiscal targets, and personally issued the written budget direction. Merton participated as a councillor who supplied input and later voted during the Council budget process. Her experience is therefore current Council-level budget familiarity, not personal exercise of the strong-mayor budgeting responsibility. See the City's strong-mayor powers record and the linked delegation and budget documents in the sources below.
1. Responsibilities Shared by City Council
Under section 224 of Ontario's Municipal Act, 2001, every member of Council, including the mayor, helps represent residents, develop and evaluate policies, determine services, ensure administrative accountability, maintain financial integrity, and make decisions for the municipality.
| Responsibility | Carol Merton | Richard Thomas | Andrii Zvorygin | Most prepared |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Represent residents and consider the municipality's well-being | Current second-term councillor with eight years representing residents. | Former councillor from 2014 to 2022 with eight years of elected representation. | Extensive canvassing, civic publishing, resident consultation, and community work; zero elected Council terms. | Carol Merton |
| Develop and evaluate policies and programmes | Eight years evaluating staff recommendations and voting on City policy. | Eight years of former Council policy experience. | The most extensive current published policy programme, including costs, stages, implementation paths, and connections across services. The transportation plan and Community Safety & Policing plan add defined implementation stages, preliminary costs, operational requirements, public reporting, and measurable advancement criteria. Candidate-published programmes. | Andrii Zvorygin for current policy development; Carol Merton for formal Council evaluation |
| Determine municipal services and service levels | Current experience reviewing and voting on policing, transit, roads, recreation, wastewater, and other services. | Historical experience across two Council terms. | Phased evening and Sunday transit service with accessibility requirements, ridership and reliability gates, plus a three-stream community-safety model and a costed civilian-response pilot. Transportation plan and Community Safety & Policing plan. Candidate-published programmes. | Carol Merton |
| Understand bylaws, procedure, and staff reports | Strongest current familiarity with Owen Sound's Council procedure, staff, and administrative system. | Substantial former familiarity, ending in 2022. | Closely follows agendas, reports, budgets, and meetings; publishes transcripts and results through HelpOS. | Carol Merton |
| Review budgets and maintain financial integrity | Participated in eight annual City budget processes and service-review work. | Participated in eight earlier City budget processes. | Treasurer experience, business finances, City debt and spending research, detailed financial reforms, and a transit cost model with fare assumptions and household-cost estimates. The Community Safety & Policing plan accounts for police capacity and distinguishes released capacity, cash savings, and future costs avoided; it also proposes a $60,000 ceiling for a 12-week civilian-response pilot. Candidate-published programmes. | Carol Merton for the councillor's budget-oversight role |
| Ensure administrative accountability | Current interaction with the City Manager and directors; participated in service reviews and committee oversight. | Former Council and service-review involvement. | Detailed proposals for management goals, service results, staffing transparency, organizational accountability, and public reporting, extended through transportation scorecards, quarterly reporting, fleet audits, vehicle testing, police-response measurements, safety outcomes, and public programme evaluations. Candidate-published programmes. | Andrii Zvorygin for the published accountability system |
| Ensure transparency in municipal operations | Opposed restrictions on public participation and has a current elected public record. | Professional communicator with former elected experience. | Built HelpOS; publishes agendas, transcripts, decisions, and candidate information; proposes detailed financial and staffing disclosure. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Engage residents and explain decisions | Current elected representative, Health Link host, and electHER Now co-founder. | Broadcaster, writer, fundraiser, and communications-business owner. | Civic publisher, interviewer, podcaster, canvasser, and designer of neighbourhood participation structures. | Andrii Zvorygin for civic participation; Richard Thomas for professional communications |
| Work constructively with Council and staff | Strongest direct and current evidence through eight years on Council. | Eight years of former Council experience and extensive board work. | Working relationships with candidates, municipal officials, and community organizations; application inside an elected Council remains untested. | Carol Merton |
| Overall preparation for the ordinary responsibilities of a City councillor | Strongest current direct experience. | Strong historical experience. | Strong research, policy, financial, and public-participation preparation. | Carol Merton |
Assessment: Carol Merton is most prepared for the ordinary responsibilities shared by City councillors.
Council experience prepares a candidate for the first part of the job. Owen Sound's mayor must also become an effective Grey County councillor, working within a separate government, budget, service structure, and group of elected officials.
2. Responsibilities at Grey County Council
Owen Sound's mayor and deputy mayor become two of Grey County Council's 18 members. Grey County's approximately $300 million combined operating and capital budget covers social housing, homelessness, Ontario Works, child care, paramedics, long-term care, County roads, regional planning, economic development, tourism, and County tax policy. Andrii would also advocate for a separate Public Written County Council Sessions system so County representatives can examine regional issues together in public between formal meetings.
| Responsibility | Carol Merton | Richard Thomas | Andrii Zvorygin | Most prepared |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Understand Grey County government and procedure | Regional involvement through housing, health, safety, and social-service organizations; zero County Council terms. | Regional partnerships and community institutions; zero County Council terms. | Years following County meetings, reports, planning decisions, staff processes, and Council relationships; zero County Council terms. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Work with the other eight mayors | Some regional interaction through Council and community work; limited specific public documentation. | Municipal-partnership positions and former elected experience; limited specific current documentation. | Several years communicating directly with County mayors about land use, housing, resilience, and co-operation. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Work with the nine deputy mayors | Limited specific public documentation. | Limited specific public documentation. | Several years communicating with County deputy mayors and understanding their municipal and County roles. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Work effectively with County staff | Contact through regional housing and social initiatives; depth sparsely documented. | Contact through former Council and regional institutions; depth sparsely documented. | Direct communication with County staff, close study of staff reports, and familiarity with which County departments handle particular issues. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Build trust across County Council | Current experience working within one municipal council. | Former Council and board-chairing experience. | Worked during periods of strained County relationships to encourage mayors and deputy mayors to view one another as partners in public service. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Review the County's approximately $300 million budget | Current municipal-budget oversight and management experience; no County budget responsibility. | Historical municipal-budget and business experience; no County budget responsibility. | Treasurer and business experience combined with sustained County policy involvement; no County budget responsibility. | Andrii Zvorygin, with Carol Merton close on municipal-budget experience |
| Set County tax policy | Current City budget and tax experience. | Historical City tax and budget experience. | Detailed tax, debt, affordability, and regional-finance research. | Carol Merton for direct municipal tax votes; Andrii Zvorygin for current reform preparation |
| Oversee social housing and homelessness services | Strong housing-board, health-care, policing, and community-safety experience. | Previous affordable-housing and development-charge proposals. | Most extensive current housing, homelessness-prevention, affordability, and rural-community programme, with County implementation paths. The Community Safety & Policing plan defines City and County responsibilities and connects housing stability, food access, voluntary recovery, civilian crisis response, neighbourhood support, and police backup. Candidate-published programmes. | Andrii Zvorygin for programme readiness; Carol Merton for institutional experience |
| Oversee Ontario Works and child-care responsibilities | Health, social-service, and community-board background. | Limited directly relevant evidence identified. | Understanding of County social-service jurisdiction and affordability pressures; limited programme-administration experience. | Carol Merton |
| Oversee paramedic services and long-term care | Health-care professional with management experience in hospital, home health, and private practice. | Limited directly relevant evidence identified. | Systems and emergency-preparedness knowledge; limited direct health-service administration. | Carol Merton |
| Make decisions on County roads and regional transportation | Municipal service and infrastructure voting experience. | Historical municipal-service experience. | Detailed phased Owen Sound transportation planning covering service expansion, accessibility, fleet procurement, winter testing, lifecycle costs, local maintenance capacity, regional connections, and published performance gates. This is municipal transit planning; County road and regional-service decisions remain County responsibilities. Candidate-published plan. | Carol Merton for direct municipal infrastructure voting experience; Andrii Zvorygin for detailed current transportation planning |
| Guide regional planning and land-use policy | Housing and community-planning involvement. | Former Council and regional-development experience. | Years of County planning advocacy; detailed understanding of rural and agricultural policies, Official Plan Amendment 23, and the Thornbury Acres residential farm co-operative amendment. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Advance an initiative through County staff and participating municipalities | Affordable Housing Action Working Group proposal focuses primarily on City action. | Previous regional approaches, with limited current implementation detail. | Specific pathway for a County staff framework, pilot programme, model zoning provisions, and voluntary adoption by participating municipalities. Candidate-published programme. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Support regional economic development | Downtown, housing, employment, and business-attraction priorities. | Business owner; emphasized business retention, investors, hospital, college, and culture. | Makerspace, local manufacturing, repair, import replacement, food production, co-operatives, and regional productive capacity. Candidate-published programme. | Andrii Zvorygin, with Richard Thomas strong in conventional promotion |
| Advocate to provincial and federal governments | Council advocacy involving health care, housing, and social policy. | Former elected and communications experience. | Extensive direct engagement with MPs, MPPs, ministers, premiers, public bodies, and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Represent Owen Sound while considering the whole County | Current experience representing Owen Sound; regional health and housing perspective. | Former elected representation and regional community involvement. | Strongest documented effort to connect Owen Sound's interests with County-wide co-operation, rural communities, and shared regional capacity. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Overall preparation for Grey County Council | Strong health, housing, and municipal experience. | Strong communications and former elected experience. | Strongest County-specific relationships, policy familiarity, staff contact, intergovernmental advocacy, and implementation planning. | Andrii Zvorygin |
Assessment: Andrii Zvorygin is most prepared for Grey County Council responsibilities.
City and County Council experience involve reviewing information, debating proposals, and voting collectively. The mayor-specific role adds personal responsibility for leadership, budget preparation, lawful staff direction, organizational decisions, public representation, and emergency authority.
3. Responsibilities Specific to the Mayor
The mayor is head of Council and municipal chief executive officer under sections 225 and 226.1 of the Municipal Act, 2001. Owen Sound's strong-mayor framework adds responsibility for the proposed budget, written staff directions, and powers concerning the CAO, organizational structure, and Council-only committees.
| Responsibility | Carol Merton | Richard Thomas | Andrii Zvorygin | Most prepared |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provide overall leadership and direction to Council | Current Council familiarity and health-care management experience; broad 2026 priorities. | Former councillor and experienced board chair; no detailed 2026 governing programme identified. | Most comprehensive current citywide programme; has built co-operative relationships among candidates and connected policies across departments. Candidate-published programme. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Preside over Council efficiently and fairly | Current procedural knowledge and recent City committee-chairing experience. | Former councillor with seven reported years chairing the Library Board. | Moderates international panels and civic meetings; limited formal parliamentary-chairing experience. | Carol Merton for current municipal procedure; Richard Thomas for chairing duration |
| Prepare the mayor's proposed budget | Supplied councillor input into Boddy's budget and voted during the amendment process; zero personal responsibility for preparing a mayoral budget. | Former Council budget experience, entirely before strong-mayor budgeting. | Grey Bruce Makerspace Treasurer, former federal campaign treasurer, business operator, and extensive City finance researcher. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Set financial targets for staff | Published a general commitment to review operating and capital budgets; limited numerical or departmental direction. | No current 2026 fiscal direction identified. | Published zero-based budgeting, spending review, staffing analysis, service-result reporting, debt scrutiny, and property-tax objectives, alongside transportation phase budgets, household-cost reporting, ridership and reliability thresholds, and the proposed $60,000 civilian-response pilot ceiling. The plans also define police-workload measurements and a verified-savings framework. Candidate-published programmes. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Issue written mayoral budget directions | Never issued a mayoral direction; Mayor Boddy held this responsibility. | Zero experience under the strong-mayor system. | Has developed financial objectives, questions, and service targets that can be translated into written staff directions. Candidate-published programme. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Defend and accept responsibility for the budget | Has defended Council decisions, while Boddy remained responsible for the mayoral proposal. | Former budget voting and professional communications experience. | Explicitly accepts mayoral responsibility for examining spending, proposing the budget, and explaining the choices publicly. Candidate-published programme. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Appoint, evaluate, or dismiss the CAO | Strongest conventional management resume and current familiarity with City leadership. | Business ownership and extensive board leadership. | Detailed expectations for management goals, reporting, compensation, and performance; limited large-organization executive-hiring experience. Candidate-published programme. | Carol Merton |
| Determine the City's organizational structure | Participated in service-review work; no detailed alternative structure published. | Historical Council and service-review participation; no current structure published. | Published three-layer City Hall model, management review, compensation framework, and local-digital capacity plan. Candidate-published programme. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Create Council-only committees and appoint chairs | Strongest familiarity with the current committee structure and its members. | Extensive historical committee and board-chair experience. | Detailed participation and Ward structure; limited formal committee administration. | Carol Merton |
| Give written directions to staff under Part VI.1 | Councillor experience involves collective resolutions, while mayoral direction is exercised individually under the strong-mayor framework. | Former councillor under the earlier governance system. | Detailed, implementation-oriented directions covering finance, staffing, housing, transit, wastewater, transparency, and service delivery, including a transit fleet and contract audit, service-expansion quotations, accessibility and specialized-transit review, vehicle requests for information and winter trials, transportation performance reporting, and a screened civilian-response pilot with OSECC dispatch integration where practical, police-capacity and safety measurements, and zero-based review of policing costs. Candidate-published programmes. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Advance provincial priorities through mayoral proposals | Housing, health-care, safety, and social-policy experience. | Previous regional housing and economic-development positions. | Extensive housing, infrastructure, transit, land-use, and affordability plans connected with provincial responsibilities. Candidate-published programme. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Use or consider the provincial-priority veto | Strongest current familiarity with City bylaws and Council procedure. | Former bylaw and Council experience. | Strong jurisdictional research and intergovernmental understanding. | Carol Merton for current bylaw familiarity; no candidate has exercised the power |
| Publish written mayoral decisions transparently | Current elected accountability and media experience. | Professional communications and former elected experience. | HelpOS publishing record and detailed commitments concerning mayoral decisions, staff directions, budgets, and results. Candidate-published commitments. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Promote public involvement in municipal government | Health Link, electHER Now, committees, and support for public participation. | Broadcasting, writing, community boards, and fundraising. | HelpOS, candidate information, Council transcripts, neighbourhood gatherings, Local Representatives, and resident-shaped policies. Candidate-published programme. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Represent and promote Owen Sound publicly | Current elected representative and television host. | Strongest conventional communications resume; broadcaster, writer, and former councillor. | Podcast host, interviewer, civic publisher, and regular communicator with officials. | Richard Thomas |
| Serve in police governance | Current Police Service Board member with health-care and community-safety experience. | No Police Service Board experience identified. | Detailed Community Safety & Policing plan covering civic, civilian-crisis, and police response; OSECC dispatch; police backup; pilot safety protocols; workload measurement; zero-based budgeting; OPP costing requirements; and a public outcome scorecard. Candidate-published plan; zero Police Services Board terms. | Carol Merton for formal Police Services Board experience; Andrii Zvorygin for current policy, measurement, and budget preparation |
| Exercise emergency leadership | Health-care management and current municipal-governance experience. | Communications and community-board experience. | Resilience planning covering food, energy, infrastructure risk, supply chains, winter transit, crisis-response coordination, dispatch pathways, police backup, and long-term preparedness. Candidate-published plans; formal emergency-control experience remains distinct. | Carol Merton for formal health-care and current municipal-governance experience; Andrii Zvorygin for resilience planning and cross-system preparation |
| Provide a coherent four-year governing programme | Four main 2026 priorities with several specific initiatives. | No dedicated public 2026 platform identified as of August 31, 2026. | Detailed current platform covering finances, staffing, housing, transit, wastewater, neighbourhoods, downtown, policing, food security, and local production, with directly linked transportation and community-safety plans that set stages, costs, decision gates, implementation timelines, and public scorecards. Candidate-published programmes. | Andrii Zvorygin |
| Overall preparation for the distinct responsibilities of mayor | Strong Council, management, police, and procedural experience. | Strong chairing and communications background. | Strongest preparation for budget leadership, written financial direction, organizational reform, transparency, participation, intergovernmental work, service transformation, transportation implementation, community-safety planning, measurable performance management, and an immediately actionable programme. | Andrii Zvorygin |
Assessment: Andrii Zvorygin is most prepared for the distinct responsibilities exercised specifically by the mayor.
Sources and corrections
Sources are provided so residents and candidates can inspect the evidence behind the comparison. If a source has changed, or if a candidate has a sourced correction or addition, contact andrii@zvorygin.ca.
Primary role and legal sources
- Ontario Municipal Act, 2001, including sections 224, 225, 226.1, and Part VI.1.
- City of Owen Sound: Strong Mayor Powers, including the City's public list of decisions and directions.
- City of Owen Sound Candidate Information Session presentation.
- City of Owen Sound Emergency Management Program Response Plan.
- MDE-2025-001: Delegation of CAO Powers.
- MDE-2025-002: Delegation of Organizational Structure Powers.
- MDE-2025-003: Delegation of Committee Powers.
- MDI-2025-001: Mayor's Budget Direction for the 2026 Operating Budget.
Candidate and experience sources
- Carol Merton City biography and Council page.
- Carol Merton Police Service Board biography.
- Carol Merton 2022 candidate profile.
- Richard Thomas background profile.
- Richard Thomas 2022 candidate profile.
- Richard Thomas biography Candidate-published.
- Andrii Zvorygin candidate profile Candidate-published.
- The Most Relevant Experience for Mayor Candidate-published.
- Andrii Zvorygin, Community Safety & Policing Candidate-published.
- Andrii Zvorygin, Reliable Transportation Across Owen Sound Candidate-published.