Two years of turmoil will come to an end this afternoon as the City of Perth swears in its new lord mayor and council.
Two years of turmoil will come to an end this afternoon as the City of Perth swears in its new lord mayor and council.
Elections to the city’s lord mayoralty and eight council positions were held on Saturday, with 6,300 votes cast among dozens of candidates.
Channel 7 presenter Basil Zempilas ultimately triumphed in the lord mayoral race after spending much of the night trailing Activate Perth chair Di Bain.
Mr Zempilas had widely been tipped as the frontrunner in the race; however, an absence of scientific polling and the complicated nature of local government elections made it hard to accurately predict who was leading in the race.
In the end, Ms Bain finished just 284 votes shy of Mr Zempilas, who was elected with 29 per cent of the vote (1,855 votes).
Mr Zempilas thanked his supporters on the evening, writing on Instagram that it was a great honour to have been chosen to be the city's next lord mayor.
"It’s a responsibility I take very seriously - and on behalf of myself and the new councillors, all eight of whom I’ve spoken with today - my promise to you is we will not let you down," he said.
"Collectively we have a remarkable opportunity, a chance to shape Perth’s destiny and make it the place we know it can be.
"Thank you for trusting me to lead our next chapter."
Spacecubed founder Brodie McCulloch finished in third place with about 13 per cent of the vote, followed by journalist Mark Gibson, architect and lawyer Sandy Anghie, local businessman Bruce Reynolds and retired magistrate Tim Schwass.
More than half of the votes cast went to either Mr Zempilas or Ms Bain, with both candidates having received significant support from established political figures.
For Mr Zempilas that included Bob Kucera, who served as his campaign chair, and Dixie Marshall, who contributed in-kind services to his campaign.
Ms Bain, meanwhile, received the backing of Daniel Smith and CGM Communications.
She also disclosed more than $110,000 in contributions from outside donors. Ms Bain told Business News most of that had either come from in-kind support or had directly funded the cost of essential operations, such as mailing promotional materials to voters.
Although she fell short in her bid for lord mayor, Ms Bain was successful in her bid for council, earning 7.4 per cent of the vote and finishing in second place.
She offered her support to Mr Zempilas in a post on LinkedIn, saying she looked forward to working with him on council.
"I will push for excellent ratepayer service and work to ensure we position Perth as one of the most competitive capital cities in Australia for rates," Ms Bain said.
"I'm proud to have campaigned on a positive vision for our city.
"Thank you to everyone who shared this vision and gave me your support, your vote, your advice and kind words."
Ms Anghie will also serve on council after receiving 8 per cent of the vote in that race.
She, too, will serve a three-year term, alongside Strata Community Association WA president Catherine Lezer and former City of Melville deputy mayor Rebecca Gordon.
Four councillors will meanwhile serve just one year before they must recontest their position on council: former City of Joondalup deputy mayor Liam Gobbert, former City of Bayswater councillor Brent Fleeton, physician Viktor Ko and Friends Restaurant owner Clyde Bevan.
Mr Bevan and Ms Lezer had run in support of Mr Zempilas’s candidacy, while Mrs Gordon had been included in Mr Zempilas’s how-to-vote flyers, according to the city’s gift register.
It is not clear whether Mr Zempilas and Mrs Gordon ran in support of each other’s candidacy.
Local television personality Gary Mitchell had also run in support of Mr Zempilas’s campaign. However, he captured 4.6 per cent of the vote and missed out on winning a seat.
It remains to be seen whether he will recontest a position on council when four seats become available next October.
While no candidates have declared they will run in that race as of yet, potential candidates may include Mr Reynolds, who finished just 24 votes behind Mr Bevan, and Reece Harley, who had previously served as a councillor and came within 77 votes of regaining his position.
Mustang Bar owner Michael Keiller and businesswoman Gloria Zhang, who had originally campaigned in support of Mr Zempilas’s candidacy but were deemed ineligible to run due to the nature of their lease agreements, may also choose to run again.
No councillor has said yet whether they will contest the deputy mayor position at tomorrow’s council meeting.
City saga concludes
Mr Zempilas's swearing in as the city’s 56th lord mayor comes two years after his predecessor, Lisa Scaffidi, was suspended from the position following allegations of factional behaviour while on council.
Ms Scaffidi had been elected to the position in 2007 after campaigning on a pro-development platform, an implicit rebuke of the views of the incumbent, Peter Nattrass.
She served more than a decade in the position and received broad acclaim from the city’s voters in that time, increasing her share of the vote when she ran against property developer Anne Bontempo in 2011.
Her reputation took a hit in subsequent years after a series of allegations were made against her by the Corruption and Crime Commission regarding her having accepted a gift courtesy of BHP in 2008.
She successfully challenged a disqualification of her position by the State Administrative Tribunal in 2017, but was suspended along with the city’s eight councillors in 2018.
That coincided with growing dysfunction in the city’s administration that had led a series of chief executives to quit, often citing mental health concerns as their reason for leaving.
Commissioners were then appointed to oversee the city for more than two years, with Michelle Reynolds appointed chief executive in July as a permanent replacement atop the administration.
Ms Reynolds has built a reputation throughout her career as a steady hand in turbulent times, with the city’s chief commissioner, Andrew Hammond, telling Business News in September that her communication skills and record of innovation in bureaucracy made her an excellent candidate for the position.
She will now be charged with inducting Mr Zempilas and the city’s eight councillors and guiding them through the complexities of governing a city that employs 754 people and earned $207 million in revenue last year.
Who sits on the City of Perth’s newly elected council?
Basil Zempilas – Lord Mayor (Expiry of Term – 21 October 2023)
Sandy Anghie – Councillor (Expiry of Term – 21 October 2023)
Di Bain – Councillor (Expiry of Term – 21 October 2023)
Rebecca Gordon – Councillor (Expiry of Term – 21 October 2023)
Catherine Lezer – Councillor (Expiry of Term – 21 October 2023)
Liam Gobbert – Councillor (Expiry of Term – 16 October 2021)
Brent Fleeton – Councillor (Expiry of Term – 16 October 2021)
Viktor Ko – Councillor (Expiry of Term – 16 October 2021)
Clyde Bevan – Councillor (Expiry of Term – 16 October 2021)
