Method

What counts

• Direct control: parks, trails, local policy, budgets, and targets council could substantially decide and fund.
• External factors: timing set by the province, Metrolinx, regional scale, or the market. Advocacy still counts, including his chairmanship of regional housing bodies.
• Measurable outcomes outweigh process statements. A park that opened counts more than a priority that was restated.
• Uncontested elections lower the accountability score, because residents did not get a choice. The same rule is noted on ward pages when a councillor is acclaimed.
• Ward grades use the same scale. A verified local improvement, with a contested race, can reach a B. A promise that is only the councillor’s word, or a signature project still unbuilt, stays in the C range. Acclamation lowers the grade. A term with no published ward result stops at C-. That gap is not treated as a documented harm. Their own letter grades are shown beside the tracker grade.
• Portraits are the Town of Newmarket’s official photos of sitting members, loaded from the town site and credited there. News photographs are not reused.
• Pay at the top of each profile is the 2025 public sector salary disclosure, the Sunshine List. It covers salary of $100,000 or more, plus taxable benefits for those who qualify. Ward councillors are under that line. Their profiles say so, and they cite the Town treasurer’s 2025 remuneration statement for the salary that would have been disclosed if it applied.
• “Delivered” requires an independent source. A stated position that cannot yet be checked is labelled new-term or verify, and is not counted as delivered.

Sources

The 2018 and 2026 NewmarketToday questionnaires, the 2018 inaugural address, the September 2026 self-grades, Town budgets and staff reports, the 2025 BMA Municipal Study, York Region’s 2024 Point-in-Time count and sewage schedules, the 2025 public sector salary disclosure, and contemporaneous reporting from NewmarketToday, YorkRegion.com, and the Toronto Star. Primary municipal records are preferred when both exist. Each promise, comparison, vote, grade note, and ward change carries its own links. Pay uses these three.

Limits

Regional homelessness figures are not broken out for Newmarket. Some fiscal comparisons depend on which average is used. Closed-meeting frequency and annual housing completions against the 6,400 target are not in the dataset yet.

Verdicts on the record pages

• SupportedThe published data matches the statement.
• Mixed or narrowPartly true, true only under a narrow framing, or based on a single data point.
• Fell shortThe data cuts against the commitment, or the measured outcome moved the wrong way.
• UnverifiedNo public dataset has been found yet that can test the claim.

Update cycle

The site is reviewed each quarter. New events go on the updates page. Status changes are noted here.

• October 18, 2026

  Councillor profiles use the same order as the mayor: name, Town portrait, tracker grade beside their own letter, then 2025 pay. A profile with no letter grade says so.

• October 18, 2026

  On the mayor’s home page the grade now comes before the salary: his name and Town portrait, then the B- beside his own A / A-, then the 2025 Sunshine List pay. Councillor cards already show the letter, then the amount.

• October 18, 2026

  Added the Town’s portrait of Mayor John Taylor directly under his name on the home page. 2025 pay now sits beside each grade on the home list and the ward cards: Taylor $196,159.20, Vegh $143,178.98, and $55,894.21 for each ward councillor.

• October 18, 2026

  Added 2025 Sunshine List pay to the top of the mayor and councillor profiles. Taylor is $196,159.20 and Vegh is $143,178.98. The seven ward councillors are not on the list. Their town salary is $55,894.21. A same-name York Regional Police sergeant is not the Ward 4 councillor. Source links sit on pay, promises, ward changes, grades, and the quarterly notes. The 2026 campaign filing date is 2 p.m. on March 30, 2027.

• October 18, 2026

  Rebuilt as a multi-page site. The grade stays B-. Skatepark marked delivered. Old Operations Centre marked early stage. Mulock construction ($81.7 million) separated from the tax-funded land purchase. Developer donations left unverified until the March 2027 filing.