Voters in Lillooet returned former mayor Dennis Bontron and former councillor Marge Lampman to their previous roles in a special by-election on Saturday, March 17.
The pair are expected to be sworn in at a special ceremony this week and are due to participate in the next scheduled council meeting planned for Monday, April 2.
The by-election was called after the mysterious resignations of Mayor Ted Anchor and Councillor Kevin Taylor, who resigned on Jan. 5 after just one month in power.
Bontron and Lampman will join three councillors who had been trying to keep council business going for almost three months on their own — Kevin Anderson, Greg deStrake and Wendy Parke.
In an interview with Pique at the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District meeting of March 26, Anderson said it was good to have a full council in operation once more.
"We were blindsided with the resignations, and we're quite happy with the results (of the by-election). Both politicians have been in there before and come with a wealth of knowledge," he said.
"I've worked with them both, personally, and can get along with them both."
When asked what the last few months had been like for running Lillooet, Anderson said having just three councillors had been problematic, not least because all councillors had to be present for any votes.
"It's been very difficult because in order to get a quorum, all of us had to be there and we all have busy lives. There was a lot of stuff happening within the community, emergency situations (such as ongoing flooding in the Conwayville area that has led to evacuations). And then there was past business coming forward, working on the previous council's mandate. We weren't able to get that done."
Anderson said he remained puzzled by the mystery of Anchor and Taylor's resignations.
The pair said when they resigned that they were unable to go into the details of why they felt compelled to leave office, but instead issued public statements.
Anchor described himself as being in "a tenuous position" with no alternative but to resign to protect his "credibility and integrity."
Taylor was more forceful in his statement, saying that he felt his principles had been compromised while on council. "I ran on the platform of honesty and openness to the public, that I would work towards change for the betterment of our community."
