attracted 3,000 members in its first week. Lehman also worked on issues related to small business in Barrie, including eliminating the basic business license fee. Mayor of Barrie In February 2010, Lehman announced that he would be a candidate for mayor of Barrie in the October 2010 elections. The race included the incumbent mayor, a former mayor, a former MPP, another city councillor, and several additional candidates. Lehman's campaign was the first in Barrie to use social media in a manner that is now more typical of elections in larger urban centres. Lehman won the election on 25 October 2010, with 39% of the popular vote. He was sworn in as the 46th mayor of Barrie in December 2010. During his first term in office, major new office/industrial campuses were developed in Barrie by IBM, TD Bank, Cogeco, Napoleon, and others. Barrie led all metropolitan areas east of Alberta in the rate of job creation from 2010 to 2014. Lehman launched a series of service reviews to modernize city services, and the City made the high-profile hirings of Carla Ladd as CAO of the City of Barrie in 2011 and Kimberley Greenwood as Chief of Police in 2013. Lehman drove a major overhaul and expansion of the city's transit system, launched in 2013. Initially beset by route and scheduling problems, the plan later helped deliver a dramatic increase in transit ridership, particularly after Georgian College and the City signed a student pass agreement a few years later. The city built a number of new public facilities during this time, including its first branch public library, a performing arts centre, the Allandale Waterfront GO Station, and the Military Heritage Park. Lehman's leadership resulted in annual tax increases declining from an average of 3.9% in the previous decade to 2.7% over the 2010 to 2020 period. In October 2014, Lehman was re-elected for a second term, winning by a large margin with 92.3% of the popular vote. In 2014 and 2015, Barrie had the lowest crime index of any Canadian metropolitan areas. Lehman's second term was again characterized by economic expansion, further reduction in crime, and the construction of more public facilities, together with a further shifting growth patterns from suburban to more urban redevelopment. The city completed a major new public square in the city's historic downtown, Meridian Place, which includes an outdoor performing arts stage and in the adjacent Memorial