SEVEN-time Mildura mayor Glenn Milne says he’s unsure whether he will contest for another year in the top job after romping to a resounding victory in this year’s local government elections.
Cr Milne was last elected mayor in 2016-17 but received almost twice the number of first preference votes in this year’s tally to be the first elected to council at Thursday’s formal poll calculation of preferences.
He was one of four sitting councillors to be re-elected to the new-look council, with five newcomers gaining a place at the civic table.
Former mayor Mark Eckel and former deputy mayor Jason Modica were returned, as was Helen Healy.
Millewa farmer Ian Arney finished second in first-preference votes, followed by fellow first-time councillor Liam Wood, while Stefano de Pieri, Cyndi Power and Jodi Reynolds will also take on civic duties for the next four years.
Four councillors, including mayor Simon Clemence, deputy mayor Min Poole, Greg Brown and Anthony Cirillo did not recontest their seats, while Gavin Sedgmen finished 16th of 18 candidates in first-preference votes.
Cr Milne said it was too early to make a decision about whether he would stand for either the mayor or deputy mayor’s position.
“It’s really up to the councillors, but that’s going to be an interesting exercise,” Cr Milne said.
“I really don’t know … I want to see what the feeling is among the councillors.
“Some of them I have met for the first time and know very little about them, so it’s just a wait and see.
“There will be some lobbying and some discussions going on, but everyone needs to get in the room and see where everything goes from there.”
But Cr Milne said the next term of local government would be critical for the region and would “absolutely” require strong leadership.
“We need to understand what the community is saying and what the community expectation is because they are the voters and you have got to consider what will the community will expect and accept,” he said.
“This four years is going to be extremely difficult and there’s some big expectations and council is going to have to deliver.
“They don’t want game-playing — people will be all over everybody if they get it wrong so there’s a lot riding on it.
“The bottom line is that it will be one of the most important periods that we have faced in the past 20 or 30 years because the impacts of COVID-19 have been great.
“We haven’t seen the worst of it yet and as a council we’ve got to be concerned and we have a lot of work to do.”
Councillors will formally meet for the first time on November 17 to elect a mayor and deputy mayor.
From an enrolment of 40,720 voters, 28,805 ballot papers were counted and a further 2484 ballots were declared informal.*****BREAKOUT******
Mildura’s new-look council:
Glenn MILNE (first elected, 4887 first preference votes)
Ian ARNEY (second elected, 2662)
Liam WOOD (third elected, 2321)
Jason MODICA (fourth elected, 2239)
Stefano DE PIERI (fifth elected, 2220)
Mark ECKEL (sixth elected, 1780)
Helen HEALY (seventh elected, 1642)
Cyndi POWER (eighth elected, 1740)
Jodi REYNOLDS (ninth elected, 1617)
The others:
10. Katie CLEMENTS 1417
11. Troy BAILEY 1037
12. Kym KINGDON 951
13. Julie WATERS 943
14. Dean WICKHAM 899
15. Domenico CAPOGRECO 793
16. Gavin SEDGMEN 780
17. Paul O’NEILL 479
18. Angy FIKARIS 398
