Tuesday, December 3, 2024

City of Swan moves to elect Mayor by popular vote

The City of Swan will elect its next Mayor by popular vote in next year’s elections, giving the community the opportunity to have a direct say in who leads the Council.

The Council will also be reducing its number of Councillors by one to 14, not including the Mayor, it announced today.

“These changes have triggered a review of the City’s wards and representation to ensure there is fair and equitable representation for the whole community,” Council said in a statement.

The City currently has 15 Councillors, including the Mayor, and five wards: Altone, Midland/Guildford, Pearce, Swan Valley/Gidgegannup and Whiteman.

Currently, the City’s elected councillors elect the Mayor.

As there will be a reduction in the number of Councillors, the City must review its ward boundaries to ensure consistency of representation within wards.

City of Swan CEO, Cliff Frewing said the changes will have an impact on how the City of Swan community vote and are represented by elected members.

“We want to ensure our community is well informed of what these changes mean and encourage views to be shared with the City on how the Council structure will look in 2023,” said Mr Frewing.

A public feedback period will be open for the next six weeks until December 21.

Once the feedback period has closed, community feedback will be collated and presented to Council, which will review and make a recommendation to the Local Government Advisory Board, Council said.

The Local Government Advisory Board will then make a recommendation to the Minister for Local Government, who will have the final say in accepting or rejecting the changes put forward by the Council.

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