In two days less than eight months from today, Londoners elect a new city council.

The current mayor and councillors have done little to warrant re-election.

•They voted for a $500-million-plus bus rapid transit plan, known as Shift, that will not be rapid, but is costly and ill-conceived.

• They adopted a multi-year budgeting system that is automatically inflationary and brings in tax hikes double the rate of inflation. Costly and ill-conceived.

• They voted to adopt a ranked ballot system of voting in the election will slightly increase the cost of the election itself and confusion and delay in learning the results. Oh, yes, costly and ill-conceived.

See the pattern here? Costly and ill-conceived is a strong hint. Rookies have been running the show.

All but three of the 15 councillors were newly elected in 2014 and only seven of them had full-time jobs. So the city paycheques they have been receiving since then have been significant. But not earned.

The newcomers may have felt their election was a vote of confidence in them and their ideas. Wrong. It was a massive rejection of a gang of councillors who supported and enabled former Mayor Joe Fontana, whose term was cut short by his conviction for fraud. Who can forget the infamous “Fontana 8” who held sway until the law caught up with Fontana?

Many of the newcomers sprang from the Pints and Politics and Urban League of London groups, whose millennial activist members promote bicycling, transit, environmentalism and other causes in echo-chambers of the like-minded. They are seeking a new champion.

This council will learn what rejection is all about.

Its members have repeatedly backed the Shift plan at every twist and turn. The occasional word of wisdom has come from Coun. Phil Squire, whose ward faces major dislocation. The bus plan, the largest capital project in city history, has become divisive in London because of the way it has been rushed, promoted and rammed through. Voters are unhappy.

Mayor Matt Brown, whose leadership skills and expertise seem limited to ribbon cuttings and greetings to gatherings, with a sideline of adultery, will not be a factor. Expect him to find a post somewhere to avoid his inevitable humiliation at the hands of voters. Many of his backers from last time have fled.

So that leaves us with two mayoral contenders who cannot contend because of a change in municipal election law that prevents those seeking office from doing so until May 1.

This is a change. Previously, filing papers for office began Jan. 1. The reason the provincial government made this charge is unclear. But it clearly tilts the electoral game board in favour of incumbents. Perhaps that was the attraction for the Wynne government.

We are seeing veteran councillors Bill Armstrong and Harold Usher exploit their incumbency by drawing attention to themselves from their council pulpits. The former by seeking the International Plowing Match for London, the latter promoting sister-city status for London, when we already have a sister city we ignore.

But populist Paul Cheng and pragmatic Paul Paolatto have been warned not to campaign or advertise, despite the fact everyone knows they want the mayor’s job.

Both oppose Shift, Cheng adamantly so, wanting the issue placed on the municipal ballot so Londoners have the final say. Paolatto demands to know more about the costs and ridership projections and suggests a slower, more incremental and studied improvement to transit.

Newcomer Cheng needs to become more than a one-issue candidate and avoid simple populist approaches that powered the campaigns of Rob Ford and Donald Trump, with unfortunate results. Cheng says he is listening to Londoners and will have announcements to come once he has developed plans for his platform and is allowed to promote them publicly.

Paolatto, tested on the police services board, aims to focus on the economy. As director of the research parks at Western University, he has plenty of contacts in the business community. He, too, has engaged Londoners and wants to chart a future course that improves job participation in the city and deals with homelessness and drug addiction.

A new council is coming. Count on it. The newer the better.

Chip Martin is a retired London Free Press reporter and author of books on crime and baseball.

martin.chip50@gmail.com

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly estimated the cost of ranked balloting at $500,000.