By Laura Michell
Two members of the sacked Whittlesea council are contesting next month’s council election.
Former councillors Lawrie Cox and Stevan Kozmevski have nominated for the Ganbu Gulinj and Lalor wards respectively.
Mr Cox served on council from 1979-1986 and then from October 2016- March 2020, when the council was sacked by the state government.
Mr Kozmevski had been a councillor for more than 20 years when the council was dismissed.
Mr Cox, Mr Kozmevski and former councillors Emilia Sterjova, Ricky Kirkham, Mary Lalios, Norm Kelly, Tom Joseph, Kris Pavlidis, Sam Alessi, Alahna Desiato and Caz Monteleone were sacked by the government following a report from municipal monitor Yehudi Blacher that found serious governance failures at the council.
Mr Blacher was appointed by the government to oversee the council in December 2019, following the sacking of former chief executive Simon Overland and complaints of bullying at the council.
The council sacked three chief executives between April 2016 and December 2019.
Mr Blacher’s report to the government said the governance of the council had collapsed, “along with its reputation”.
He labelled Whittlesea a “broken council” in which “poisons run deep”, and found that the council’s deep divides and personality conflicts had rendered it “dysfunctional”.
Administrators were appointed to the council to perform the duties of councillors until this year’s election.
Mr Cox was outspoken about the conduct of some of his fellow councillors during his last four years on council.
As reported by Star Weekly, he labelled the council an “unsafe working environment” and was critical of its decision to sack Mr Overland.
Mr Cox said he was throwing his hat in the ring again because he believed “a couple of old heads” were needed to guide the new generation of councillors.
“For me, it is a little bit of unfinished business. From a governance point of view, I was disappointed with what occurred,” he said.
“The games that people played ultimately led to the dysfunction. I think the clean out had to occur to try and change it.”
Mr Cox said he wanted to bring strong governance to the council if he was re-elected, as well as addressing infrastructure issues in Wollert.
He said the challenges facing Wollert residents were similar to those experienced by Epping residents in the 1970s and criticised the administrators for failing to deliver critical infrastructure in the suburb.
Mr Kozmevski was contacted for comment.
