Jeff Knoll will be Oakville's next mayor after beating incumbent Rob Burton, who finished third in the 2026 municipal election. The council Knoll leads will face a big decision almost as soon as it takes office: what to do about the Town's top staff job once Chief Administrative Officer Jane Clohecy retires on Thursday, Dec. 31.
Knoll won comfortably, the Town Clerk's official results show, finishing 8,299 votes ahead of runner-up Sean O'Meara. Burton, the sitting mayor, came third.
The Town counted 60,638 ballots, including advance votes, out of 176,984 eligible voters, a turnout of 34.26 per cent.
Knoll is no newcomer to local government. He chairs the Halton Police Board, the civilian board that oversees Halton Regional Police, and has sat on Halton Regional Council, which runs region-wide services such as water, waste collection and regional roads.
Three Town and Regional Councillors, who sit on both Oakville and Halton councils, were acclaimed because no one ran against them: Jonathan McNeice in Ward 1, Janet Haslett-Theall in Ward 3 and Tom Adams in Ward 6.
The outgoing council gets a send-off first. A special council meeting on Monday, Nov. 9 lists recognition of the 2022-2026 term of council on its agenda. A week later, on Monday, Nov. 16 at 6:30 p.m., the newly elected council holds its inaugural meeting at Town Hall, where members take the oath of office and officially begin their four-year term.
Six weeks after that, Town Hall loses its most senior employee. The CAO is the Town's top unelected official: the person who manages Town staff, runs day-to-day operations and carries out council's decisions. Clohecy is retiring after 20 years with the Town, the last six as CAO.
She joined Oakville in 2006 as Commissioner of Community Development, after senior planning positions with the Region of Halton, the City of Markham and the City of Toronto, and is wrapping up a 45-year career in municipal government. She served as Acting CAO for eight months before being appointed to the job in July 2020, succeeding Ray Green, who retired after nearly 15 years as CAO.
The Town says the incoming mayor and council will decide the next steps for the CAO position.
The Town is also recruiting volunteers for five committees and boards for the 2026–2030 term of council, from the Heritage Oakville Advisory Committee, which advises council on protecting historic buildings, to the Committee of Adjustment, which rules on requests for minor exceptions to zoning rules.
Applications close at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 20. Details on each committee and how to apply are on the Town of Oakville's website.
