Swan ratepayers to chose their mayor

The mayoral election for the City of Swan will be held on October 21, and this time it will have some added twists and turns. The election, which is held every four years, was previously contested and voted on only by sitting councillors.
This time, it is up to the ratepayers to determine who gets to wear the prestigious chains, along with the generous pay-packet of $142,000.

Not only is it up to ratepayers to vote, but the new mayor, unlike in previous years, does not have to be a current sitting councillor. Anyone from the community is allowed to nominate, providing they are a resident of the City of Swan.

Another interesting twist is the addition of optional preferential voting for both councillors as well as the mayor.

This means voters can number their ballot paper choices in order of preference from 1 to 10.

How these preferences fall will make for some interesting viewing, especially if we are going to see factional how-to-vote cards turn up in letterboxes.

This will be the first in a series of articles leading up to the election.
We started by asking all the candidates in which order of importance they would rate the following issues: Roads, Rates & Rubbish, Cost of Living, Climate Change, Environment, Small Business Prosperity, Crime & Home/Business Security.

As all respondents pointed out in one way or another, it is difficult to make a definitive list as many subjects are intertwined, but for the sake of the exercise it was interesting to see how the candidates dealt with it.

Here are their responses:

Charlie Zannino:

1. Roads, Rates & Rubbish – core business for councils
2. Climate Change/Environment – believes the city should champion conservation/revegetation
3. Crime & Home/Business Security – community safety plans, CCTV, improved lighting
4. Small Business prosperity  – economic development programs to support small business, tourism and investment to stimulate improved job choices and youth employment
5. Cost of Living – primarily federal/state issue however, believes the City must undertake measures to minimise rates, fees and charges to offset and acknowledge the very real cost of living pressures by residents.   

Cate McCullough:

Cate did not want to rate any one issue higher than the other, explaining they are all linked, and elected members need to be across all of them and have a good understanding of each.
“A good understanding of each enables me to reconcile information with our Long Term Financial Plan, Business Plan & Strategic Community Plan to see where and how I need to advocate for each area based on community expectations, budget constraints and the urgencies within each realm.” she said.

Aaron Bowman:

Aaron found it hard to rate any in order of preference and instead provided what he has received from community feedback.

1. Cost of living
2. Better use of rates
3. Better roadworks management
4. Safety/antisocial behaviour
   

“We need a mayor  that not only portrays at all times, but can also ensure the City of Swan Council upholds its values which are: Respect; Excellence, Accountability and Leadership.We need to improve the transparency on all council decisions and we need to reign in non essential spending.We need to provide incentives for more street tree plantings.We need to work together.” he said.

Jagdip Singh:

Jagdip had no trouble rating

1. Cost of living
2. Roads, rates, rubbish
3. Crime and home/business security
4. Small business prosperity
5. Environment
6. Climate change

Rod Henderson:

Rod added some more to his list.

1. My highest priority is to provide best value for your Rates and as low as is possible
2. Rates & Rubbish
3. Cost of Living
4. Roads
5. Small Business Prosperity
6. Crime & Home/Business Security – Primarily a State issue
7. Environment
8. Climate Change

Rashelle Predovnik

Responded early, but did not get her list in by the deadline.

Ian Johnson

Did not respond to e-mail request.

Kevin Bailey

Did not respond to e-mail request.

Lucky Saini

Did not respond to e-mail request.

Tanya Richardson

Did not respond to e-mail request.

The Ellenbrook Times would like to thank those candidates who took the time to respond. In an election where the ratepayers vote for such an important role as mayor, it is extremely important to be able to access as much information about the candidates as possible.