By Laura Michell
Councillors have been elected to represent the City of Whittlesea for the first time since March 2020.
The new council will likely feature three former councillors, including two who were part of the team sacked by the state government in 2020, and eight fresh faces.
The state government has appointed two municipal monitors to oversee the new councillors in a bid to prevent the governance issues that led to the sacking of the previous council. The council was 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. His 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 last month’s election, meaning Whittlesea ratepayers were unable to elect councillors at the October 2020 election.
Lawrie Cox and Stevan Kozmevski, who were members of the sacked council, were declared the winners in Ganbu Gulinj and Lalor wards respectively. However, Star Weekly understands that the result in Lalor is subject to a recount after Mr Kozmevski polled just 38 voters higher than Ellen McNaught.
As reported by Star Weekly, Mr Cox said he was contesting the election because he believed “a couple of old heads” were needed to guide the new generation of councillors.
He said he wanted to bring strong governance to the council.
Mr Cox served on council from 1979-1986 and then from October 2016- March 2020.
Mr Kozmevski had been a councillor for more than 20 years when the council was dismissed.
Former councillor Christine Stow was elected in North Ward. Ms Stow was originally elected to council in May 2014 on a countback following the death of councillor Nicola Davis, and served until 2016.
Joining them will be Former Freedom Party deputy leader Aidan McLindon, who was elected in Kirrip Ward.
Mr McLindon lead a team of “community independents”, including Nicholas Brooks, who was elected in Thomastown.
Mr McLindon said he was honoured to represent the area he grew up in and pledged to ensure the new council did “the basics brilliantly”. “We need to make the city a priority in every decision we make,” he said.
“[The councillors] need to be a strong united team regardless of political persuasion.”
Also elected were Daniela Zinni, David Lenberg, Jarrod Lappin, Blair Colwell, Deb Gunn and Martin Taylor.
