{"id":31780,"date":"2022-08-18T20:02:40","date_gmt":"2022-08-19T00:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31780"},"modified":"2022-08-18T20:02:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T00:02:47","slug":"aurora-votes-2022-john-gallo-seeks-re-election-in-ward-5-aurora-needs-someone-who-challenges-now-and-then","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-votes-2022-john-gallo-seeks-re-election-in-ward-5-aurora-needs-someone-who-challenges-now-and-then\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Votes 2022: John Gallo seeks re-election in Ward 5: \u201cAurora needs someone who challenges now and then\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the number of names on Aurora\u2019s Municipal Ballot continue to climb, this week The Auroran continues its traditional profile series of all candidates looking for a seat at the table. This week: incumbent John Gallo, who is seeking re-election in Ward 5.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora needs someone \u201cwith some history\u201d at the Council table \u2013 \u201cas well as someone who challenges now and then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the view of incumbent John Gallo, who is seeking re-election to Council this fall as a Councillor representing Ward 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallo, who has served nearly ten non-consecutive (and eight consecutive) years on Council, says he feels he has contributed to the community and still has more to give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of his top priorities, he says, is keeping an eye on the Town\u2019s finances and how tax-dollars are being spent, \u201cparticularly in Capital projects during this term.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there needs to be some oversight,\u201d he says, of many Capital projects, the spending of which he has critiqued during his time on Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a stance which has sometimes put him in opposition to the majority of Council but that certainly isn\u2019t a negative thing, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think you need the voice throughout the term as \u2018second thought\u2019 and I hope my Council members looked at me as someone who would bring that to the Council table: a different perspective for them to think about, particularly in our finances,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are many projects I took maybe a different angle than the majority of Council members and I hope I provided a different perspective to help them make a better decision and try to do that at the Council table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating at times because I believe some poor decisions were made and not in the best interests of the Town, but I have to accept majority rules and navigate that as best I can and try to convince my Council colleagues of the direction I believe we should be taking. Sometimes I am successful and sometimes I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the projects he differed from the majority on was the redevelopment of Town Square, formerly Library Square. Keeping a focus on this ongoing project is something he says is a \u201chighlight\u201d of what he would like to bring to the table if re-elected, along with steering the Town\u2019s new Official Plan to completion, and a revised and updated Parks & Recreation Master Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are two main areas I tend to focus on and spend a lot of time on [and that is] our finances and our public planning,\u201d says Gallo. \u201cThose are two areas that I tend, for whatever reason, to gravitate [towards] and try to fully understand what we\u2019re doing, the decisions we\u2019re making and the impact of those decisions \u2013 and continue to do that and, again, bring to the Council table, my thoughts on both of those topics, because they are two of the things that impact the Town but don\u2019t really go away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe spent a lot of money, it takes a long time to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Gallo, in his most recent term of Council, had reservations about Aurora ditching the outgoing at-large Council system where residents can elect up to six Council candidates to represent the whole community in favour of a Ward system. But, he\u2019s nevertheless signed up to represent the community he\u2019s called home for nearly 25 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy view on the ward system is obviously it is very new and I still consider myself to be a Councillor for all of Aurora,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery decision at the Council table is one for the entire Town, no matter where it is located, in my view. Obviously there will be a little more concentration on a particular geographic area, but our budgets, our capital projects, and I think it would be wrong to only be focusing on your area and not look at the bigger picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be focusing in on creating some events in the various parts because it is a rather large and populated area with a lot of parks and a lot of businesses and I want to tap into all of those, not only residents but the businesses along Bayview and understand their needs. There are things the Town can help them out with. That is probably one of the things I am going to enjoy while I\u2019m there as a Ward Councillor; it is very difficult to do when you\u2019re a Councillor at large, representing the entire Town and it does take a monumental effort to go to every business and seek their input \u2013 or residents for that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI look forward to listening to them and getting my views out to the residents in the ward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the number of names on Aurora\u2019s Municipal Ballot continue to climb, this week The Auroran continues its traditional profile series of all candidates looking for a seat at the table. This week: incumbent John Gallo, who is seeking re-election in Ward 5. Aurora needs someone \u201cwith some history\u201d at the Council table \u2013 \u201cas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2022-08-18-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8gA","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 11:21:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}