There is now a fifth candidate running for mayor of Belleville.
Paul Fleming has announced he has filed his nomination papers and will be running for mayor in this year’s election.
Fleming is a partner and Senior Business Strategist with People Minded Business.
His bio on the website states that he has over 30 years of business consulting and organizational executive leadership expertise across a variety of industries.
He joins incumbent Neil Ellis, Cynthia Black, Don Metzger and Kyle Woolven as candidates.
Paul Fleming filed his nomination papers today to run for mayor of Belleville, and started his campaign by giving out his phone number.
You can read his full press release below:
Residents can text or ‘Call Paul’ at 343-296-PAUL (7285).
“Sometimes I’ll be able to answer it myself. Sometimes it’ll be someone on our team. Sometimes you’ll get voicemail,” said Fleming. “But every message gets listened to, and what people tell us gets published. You shouldn’t have to know someone at City Hall to be heard by it.” People can also email callpaul@paulfleming.ca to have their thoughts heard.
Fleming is asking residents two questions: what is great about Belleville, and what would make it better?
“I believe people already know what would make this city better,” he said. “The job of a mayor is to get out and talk with people, go and find that out, be honest about what you heard, and then do something with it.”
Fleming and his wife Janeen chose Belleville in 2018 and live in Old East Hill. He is not launching with a finished platform and says that is deliberate.
“I’ve spent 35 years in senior leadership, and the fastest way to get something wrong is to think you know the answer without asking anybody,” he said. “I have opinions. What I don’t have yet is a few thousand conversations with the people who live here.”
The campaign has committed to three things before online voting opens on October 16:
- Reach every neighbourhood they can in Belleville and Thurlow, on foot and at community events
- Share back what he is hearing as he goes, not only at the end
- Publish a public report by Thanksgiving about what residents said, and what he will do about it
“Anyone can say they’re listening. Sharing it is how you prove it,” said Fleming. “And if what people tell us changes my mind about something, that goes in the report too.”
Fleming said the same discipline should apply to how City Hall spends money. He noted that the City already publishes a performance dashboard, and that much of it still reports 2024 figures.
“Measuring whether something worked can’t be a webpage we built once and stopped updating,” he said.
“What are we spending? What are we trying to achieve? Did it work?”
“You can’t go back and grade spending that never had a goal attached to it, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise,” said Fleming. “What I can do is make sure it changes. Every proposed increase should come with a stated purpose and a way to measure it. If we can’t say what it is meant to achieve, it shouldn’t go in.”
The campaign name is meant literally: Build. Better. Together.
“Build means we have real work to do. Better means we care whether it worked. And Together means people get a genuine say in what comes next, not a survey they never hear about again.”
Fleming has more than 35 years of leadership experience, including roles as Chief Operating Officer. He holds an MBA and co-leads People Minded Business, a Belleville-based non-profit consulting firm.
Belleville residents can vote online beginning October 16. Election day is Monday, October 26.
