Things took an unexpected turn at the La Broquerie Council’s organizational meeting on Wednesday.

The annual meeting is held to determine who will be in charge of what committees in the coming year as well as who will assume the role of deputy reeve, an internally elected position.

Louis Weiss and Ivan Normandeau will be working together more closely in the coming year.For the past five years, the deputy reeve’s shoes have been filled by Darrell Unger and Council was prepared to let that streak continue.

“I nominate Darrell Unger,” stated Councillor Larry Tetrault in a motion that was quickly seconded by Councillor Alvin Derksen. In unanimous agreement, Council prepared to move on, but before they did so Unger spoke up.

“I will not let my name stand.”

In his stead, Unger nominated Councillor Ivan Normandeau, who is now serving in his second term.

“I was a bit surprised,” remarked Normandeau after the fact, “I kind of thought we would stay status quo, but I guess Mr. Unger didn’t feel like he wanted to be Deputy Reeve any more.”

As deputy reeve, Normandeau will become Reeve Lewis Weiss’ right-hand man as well as his replacement in the case of truancy or conflict of interest.

Weiss too says the change caught him off guard, nevertheless he welcomes Normandeau’s experience.

“Ivan is a great guy,” Weiss comments, “you can tell he tries to be very fair, he tries to look at every angle when he makes a decision, and I know he’ll put some common sense into the mix so I think it will be very good.”

Normandeau will start as deputy reeve on January 1st of 2020.