Full call of the card for 2016 Vic elections, plus some 2020 results

Firstly, thanks to the MAV for producing this fabulous 3 page compilation of interesting data on the 2016 election results, which has assisted our qualitative list, particularly with data on retirements and defeats.

* Alpine Shire Council: 7 spots, no wards. 13 candidates. 1 retirement, 1 defeat. See results. 5-2 male majority.
Jan Vonarx is the only retiree after 3 terms so that leaves 5 blokes and 1 female incumbent contesting, up against 7 challengers. Let's hope at least one of the challenging females - Narda, Kitty or Sarah - get over the line. All 3 are said to be quite capable. The best of the incumbents - Ron Janas, Tony Keeble, John Forsyth and Peter Roper - are all likely to be returned and did indeed win the first 4 spots. Comeback candidate Narda Cain fell short but the two other females were elected for a repeat 5-2 male majority. Ron Janas was the last mayor and got the nod again on November 8 at the mayoral selection council meeting.

2020 update: a historic 4-3 female majority with only Peter Roper departing of the long-serving quartet of men mentioned above.

* Ararat Rural City Council:
7 spots, no wards. 13 candidates. 1 retirement, 3 defeats. See results. 4-3 male majority.
Colin McKenzie is the only retiree (health issues) leaving a 3-3 gender split with the incumbents recontesting. Gary and Fay Hull are both seeking another term but aren't related. The majority are very Ararat-focused, arguably at the expense of the rural areas but Paul Hooper is regarded as one of the best. Amongst the challengers, Jo Armstrong looks the most likely prospect and deserves support. Jo and Paul topped the vote and the new council has a 4-3 male majority, retaining the status quo. Indeed, Jo scored 24.8%, one of the most impressive challenging votes in the state. Why not make her mayor straight away? Then again, Paul Hooper has been mayor the past 3 years and is in the top 10 incumbents state-wide in terms of mayoral terms overall, so he's obviously pretty good and that's what they did.

2020 update:

Ballarat City Council:
9 spots, 3 wards of 3. 28 candidates. 0 retirements, 4 defeats. See results. 6-3 male majority.
Not many lefties in Ballarat. Green Belinda Coates did well as the only progressive in a conservative council, leveraging the deputy mayor position from the fighting Liberal. She deserves a second term and got it. Vicky Coltman, whose husband ran locally for the Liberals in the state election, was the leading Liberal on council but Amy Johnston is also well known. The incumbent Councillors are on the nose with some, due to a 22.5% rate increase over four years and continuing controversies about the 2012 election when the Ballarat branch of the Liberal Party ran several members as Independents (Johnson included, as well as former Mayor Joshua Morris) to gain a 6-3 voting bloc majority on Council. In Central ward Labor's Ron Egeberg was defeated and impressive Liberal Sam McIntosh was returned. In South Ward, out-going Labor mayor Mayor Des Hudson topped the vote in a field of 12 after 16 years of service. In North Ward, Amy Johnson surged home comfortably. Shame to see a 6-3 male majority but all up the incumbents did quite well, with the exception of Vicki Coltman. The biggest vote of all went to independent local doctor Mark Harris. We like the sound of him in this Ballarat Courier article. Why not make him mayor? Des Hudson was mayor last year. The final numbers finished with 3 card carrying Liberals (Amy Johnson, Ben Taylor and Sam McIntosh), 2 Labor (Des Hudson and Daniel Moloney), the Green Belinda Coates and 3 independents who tend to lean conservative. Hence it was no surprise when Liberal Samantha McIntosh was elected mayor for 20-17.

2020 update: a 5-4 male majority with most of the familiar names being returned. See results.

Banyule City Council:
7 vacancies, 7 wards. 19 candidates. 1 retirement, 1 defeat. See results. 6-1 male majority.
Two of the seven wards were uncontested, probably reflecting the extra effort required with attendance voting. Liberal Jenny Mulholland faced the largest field in the wealthiest part of the locality taking in Eaglemont and Ivanhoe. Another Liberal Steve Briffa exited last term to run in the state election but his printing business is keeping busy supporting Liberals in the area, including in neighbouring Nillumbik. Tom Mellican, Wayne Phillips and mayor Craig Langdon all cantered home but the Green Peter Castaldo beat Jenny Mulholland in Griffin ward, based around leafy Ivanhoe, with 57.3% of the 2PP. Tom Mellican got the mayoral nod and was a good choice.

2020 update: expanded from 7 single member wards to 9 and was one of the most vigorously contested Melbourne councils with all 7 incumbents going again. Finished with a 5-4 male majority including two Greens and the defeat of long serving councillors Wayne Phillips and Craig Langdon. See results.

* Bass Coast Shire Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3. 21 candidates. 2 retirements, 4 defeats. See results.
Phillip Island is a big issue with a chaotic secessionist movement up and running, backed by a biased local paper. Five of the 9 candidates on the new 3 member Island ward want separation from Bass Coast, under the guise of the Phillip Island Progress Association. Two were elected and it was a shame to see impressive incumbent Kimberley Brown defeated. The overly negative Phil Wright (see his farewell article) also departed with a primary of just 5% and in the end only one incumbent survived. We also now have a blokey 7-2 combination in charge. What now for the secessionists given both sides of State politics don't support separation from Bass Coast? Our disparaging comments about the Phillip Island secessionists has attracted plenty of attention and we particularly liked this musical performance by one of the candidates supporting staying with the mainlanders. The female mayor didn't recontest so most likely to see a male replacement. Ultimately, this was one of the biggest shake-outs across Victoria so it will be interesting to see how the secessionist councillors play it going forward. Newcomer Pamela Rothfield is the mayor, one of 32 females across the state.

2020 update: delivered a 6-3 male majority with the problem being the Phillip Island ward which is three men.

* Baw Baw Shire Council 9 spots, and 3 wards of 3. 21 candidates. 2 retirements, 1 defeat. See results.
Baw Baw has 4 councillors attempting to be re-elected - Peter Kostas, Deborah Brown, Trisha Jones and Mikaela Power - and Gerard Murphy has decided to run in Central Goldfield after delivering a poor attendance record at Baw Baw. They were all returned comfortably except for Deborah Brown who was unlucky to lose with an 18% primary vote. The 2016 Community Satisfaction Survey has slipped to one of the worst in the state with 6/7 indicators at just 50% or below and showing a continued downward slide over the past 3 years. "We've just begun" and "there's more to be done" slogans are ringing a bit hollow, but the incumbents weren't cleaned out. The new council has a 6-3 male majority. Joe Gauci was mayor last time and narrowly topped the primaries in his ward. His colleagues elected him as a back to back mayor.

2020 update: the ward structure remained the same and delivered a 6-3 male majority with Danny Goss the new mayor.

* Bayside City Council
7 spots, 1 ward of 3 and 2 wards of 2. 33 candidates. 2 retirements, 1 defeats. See results.
The field looks interesting with a potential soap opera developing because former Liberal Councillor Stephen Hartney is running again. He was on council for 12 months then left abruptly to be a staffer for Federal Liberal MP Jason Wood. Hartney's former wife Hana Hartney and current partner Sonia Castelli are both running in a different ward, supporting Cr James Long, who has taken on Sonia as a lodger, hence her presence on the electoral roll. See Herald Sun wrap of these "only in Brighton" proceedings. It might have been time for James Long to retire, something that Liberal Felicity Frederico has chosen to do this time around. However, Long got back easily, as did his lodger Sonia, but her boyfriend Hartney missed out. The longest serving councillor, Alex Del Porto, who stood as an independent against Louise Asher in Brighton in 1999, was comfortably returned along with popular stockbroker Michael Heffernan in the ward which Hartney contested. Hartney threw everything at Heffernan who topped the vote with 28% against just 11.8% for the returning Liberal challenger. Another independent Clarke Martin did well taking on veteran Liberal Murray Thompson in the safe seat of Sandringham at the last state election. He's been prominent over the Beaumaris school site and, with the benefit of the donkey vote, dominated with an impressive 27% primary. The other prospective challenger is Liberal member Rob Grinter, an impressive businessman who led the Hampton Traders Association and is campaigning hard. He won and will be good, provided he can make the time away from his business. James Long was the last mayor and with a disappointing 6-1 male majority, it could be years before we get another female mayor in Bayside. Veteran Alex Del Porto was elected mayor.

2020 update: more to 7 single member wards which delivered an improved 4-3 male majority with Laurence Evans the new mayor. Veteran Alex Del Porto and Sonia Castelli got back but there was plenty of changes with James Long, stockbroker Michael Heffernan and Rob Grinter amongst the departures.

* Benalla Rural City Council 7 spots, no wards. 20 candidates. 2 retirements, 3 defeats. See results.
A 4-3 female majority with 2 retirements - mayor Justin King and Suzy Martin - leaving 5 incumbents facing 15 challengers in an undivided electorate. The field spits 13-7 male so there's a lot of blokes challenging female incumbents here. The 3 contesting female incumbents are worth supporting, although Cr Andrew Vale, from a property developer family, is under pressure after only attending 72% of meetings. The out-going mayor Justin King, 30, will be missed after doing a good job. He's just landed a full time job with the Education Department working in the disability space. Of the challenging candidates, car dealer Danny Claridge and Alison Ballard look the best of them. Don Firth is attempting a comeback. In the end, Andrew Vale was ousted, but Don Firth did pull off his comeback and then landed the mayoralty. A 4-3 female majority has moved decisively the other way to be 6-1 male dominated. Not good at all for the female incumbents as only Barb Alexander got back.

2020 update: delivered a 5-2 male majority with 2 newcomers and car dealer Danny Claridge landed the mayoralty.

Greater Bendigo City Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 32 candidates. See results at 5pm Saturday.
Veterans Rod Fyffe and Barry Lyons are the two councillors to see if you want to get things done in Bendigo, but only Rod Fyffe lived to fight another day. Cr Fyffe is regarded as Labor friendly and has probably supported MAV President Bill McArthur for too long, although Bill was defeated in Golden Plains. Good to see the back of anti-Mosque campaigner Elise Chapman, who was endorsed as Pauline Hanson's Victorian Senate candidate before pulling out. She polled 13% to be coming 2nd on primaries, only to finish 4th in her ward due to a lack of preference support. Cr Helen Leach has been her biggest supporter and was also dumped with a primary of just 8.7%, although Julie Hoskin has similar views and has emerged as a new councillor. Wayne Gregson fell short in his comeback attempt despite a 10% primary. The Bendigo Advertiser produced some timely online coverage on Saturday night summarising the killing fields with only 2 of the 7 incumbents who contested getting back, namely Rod Fyffe and James Williams. The 5-4 female majority is to be welcomed, one of only 16 in the state, and this helped deliver Margaret O'Rourke as a new councillor as mayor.

2020 update: a 5-4 male majority. See results.

Boroondara City Council
10 spots, 10 wards. 33 candidates. 3 retirements, 1 defeat. See results.
Lawyer and ex Liberal Jim Parke was the only incumbent to get back uncontested and Jack Wegman is going again. He was a good former mayor who these days is CEO of the Sporting Shooters Association and was forced to preferences for the first time in many elections. The biggest field of 6 took on Labor's Steve Hurd in Glenferrie ward but he sneaked back with 53.28% of the 2PP, helped by being top of the ticket. Judith Voce in Cotham is an effective representative but is facing down 4 challengers and was defeated by Liberal Felicity Sinfield, an associate of Liberal MP Tim Smith. Former mayor and MAV director Coral Ross got back with the second biggest primary vote of any incumbent after the impressive Jane Addis in Maling ward and Boroondara appears set for its most Liberal influenced council in many years. Federal member Josh Frydenberg tends to keep out of council politics but Tim Smith, the Liberal member for Kew, is a former Stonnington mayor and also backed incoming councillor Cynthia Watson. Liberal Phillip Healy was elected mayor.

2020 update: Three key retirements with MAV President Coral Ross, Jack Wegnan and Philip Healy not contesting but Steve Hurd was the only incumbent to be defeated and we finished with a 6-5 female majority.

Brimbank City Council
11 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 1 ward of 2. 67 candidates. See results at 11.30am Sunday.
Sacked in 2009, they have one of the largest fields. Pent up demand, it seems. Who will be the first mayor? Lots of Labor candidates but observers describe it as a mess and a lottery so fingers crossed we get a cohesive new board to run Brimbank. The ballot draw was critical here as 3 of the 4 candidates who finished top of the ticket were elected. Maybe we need the Tasmanian Robson Rotation system in Victoria as this is distorting outcomes. Generally, it was the 3 biggest primary votes which held on to win, with the notable exception in Horseshoe Bend where Nghi Ta topped the primaries with 23% but then didn't win 1 of the 2 spots. Six former councillors contested but only Sam David and Margaret Guidice prevailed. Strong female numbers elected, which is a good sign so good prospects for a female mayor. In fact, 7 out of 11 was one of best female ratios and the highest in the state for actual numbers. Check out the corporate photo here. They elected John Hedditch as mayor in a tight 6-5 vote and he proved a very able leader.

2020 update: a big field of 55 candidates across the four wards and finished with a very healthy 8-5 female majority. See results.

Buloke Shire Council
7 spots, 2 wards of 2 and 1 ward of 3. 11 candidates. 4 retirements, 0 defeats. See results.
Had a really tough time with a deteriorating financial position which lead to a change of CEO. Councillors took the shock disclosures and subsequent austerity hard and 4 of the 7 have retired, including veteran mayor Reid Mather. There are 8 challengers in the field, including 2 females. A 5-2 male majority was returned with all three incumbents getting back. David Pollard got the highest primary and he also won an open mayoral vote 4-3 against fellow returned incumbent Ellen White. Graeme Milne beat Daryl Warren 4-3 for the position of deputy mayor. This was all done in Wycheproof on Wednesday November 2 with about 35 in the gallery and they were first in the state to get this new council contacts page online by lunch time November 3. Beat that.

2020 update: the new council is 5 males and 2 females and only two of the positions were contested. See results.

* Campaspe Shire Council
9 spots, 2 wards of 3 and 3 wards of 1. 16 candidates. 3 retirements, 1 defeat. See results 4pm Saturday.
Have made excellent governance and engagement reforms over the current term, which started with changing the CEO. The 3 single member wards all returned the incumbents - Leigh Wilson, Adrian Weston and Leanne Pentreath - without any competition, reflecting their good work. Leigh Wilson has done particularly well as mayor. Emma Bradbury, CEO of the Murray Darling Association, is retiring after moving across the border to Moama. Ian Maddison has also exited, leaving Paul Jarman as the only recontesting incumbent in Echuca, but he was defeated. The Kyabram Free Press and Riverina Herald do a good independent job 3 times a week keeping everyone honest, which is a proud tradition of the Shepparton-based McPherson Media Group. Of the challengers, Rohan Burgess looks a good option in Echuca and Neil Repacholi, attempting a comeback in Kyabram, also has some useful corporate experience. However, neither were successful. Tom Weyrich had a messy experience over the border as Mayor of Murray Shire and failed to make the transition. Annie Vickers and Eric Grumont are a couple contesting in Echuca who are very negative on council. Vickers got up and Grumont missed. Excessive negativity can poison the well for everyone. Finished with a 5-4 male majority. See some early coverage in The Kyabram Free Press. Leigh Wilson was considered a strong chance to go back to back as mayor, but they went with Adrian Weston instead.

2020 update: finished with a 6-3 male majority but opted for a female mayor first up with Chrissy Weller.

Cardinia Shire Council
9 spots, 1 ward of 2, 1 ward of 3 and 1 ward of 4. 21 candidates. 2 retirements, 2 defeats. See results at 7pm Saturday.
A growth area without a huge field - the 5 men and 4 women must have done a good job these past 4 years. Seven councillors are recontesting with only Tania Baxter and George Blenkhorn departing. The first ever Green, 29 year old nurse Michael Schilling, was elected, and union man Colin Ross romped home with an impressive 36% primary, well ahead of incumbent mayor Jodie Owen on 16%. New council has a 6-3 male majority and the mayor is Brett Owen.

2020 update: 6-3 male majority retained. See results.

Casey City Council:
11 spots, 5 wards of 2 and 1 ward of 1. 84 candidates. 0 retirements, 4 defeats. See results at 10am Monday.
Long-serving CEO Mike Tyler was almost removed but then those councillors who opposed him were largely defeated in 2012 when a conservative group gained the ascendancy. Some have stood for the Liberal Party and there has been controversy over developer donations. Mayor Sam Aziz has been pushing a law and order campaign for more police and a 24 hour police station. Casey was rejected by the Essential Services Commission when requesting a rate variation earlier this year, which wasn't a smart political move that is now being used against the incumbents. Casey Fields remains the greatest achievement of Tyler and the councillors of the day who supported the bargain basement farm acquisition and conversion to a giant sporting complex. Local lawyer and transparency advocate Chris Andrew campaigned strongly in a different ward from where he lives but fell short despite the 50 corflutes and direct mail. Geoff Ablett easily got the highest primary vote with 55%. Despite the huge field of 85 candidates across the 6 wards, only one recipient of the donkey vote got up, in contrast to Wyndham and Brimbank. Delivered a 7-4 male majority and mayor Aziz successfully put his hand up for another term as mayor, before it all went pear-shaped in front of IBAC and then there was no election in 2020.

2020 update: no election as the council was sacked in disgrace for widespread corruption.

Central Goldfields Shire Council
7 spots, 3 wards of 1 and 1 ward of 4. 10 candidates. 2 retirements, 0 defeats. See results from Friday.
Maintained its 4-3 male majority council with only two blokes retiring so could have been an opportunity for a female majority, but it didn't happen. Newcomer Chris Meddows-Taylor elected unopposed in a single member ward, which is unusual. He was mayor four years in a row from 2008-2012 before being narrowly defeated by a conservative candidate John Van Beveren who had previously been an unsuccessful candidate for the Liberals in the State seat of Ripon and also was an unsuccessful Liberal candidate for council elections in Ballarat. Van Beveren nominated as a Liberal candidate for the Federal seat of Corio for the 2016 Federal Elections but was defeated after The Geelong Advertiser reported that he owned a sex toy business, not that we obsess about such trivia at The Mayne Report. Geoff Lovett was mayor this year and did narrowly top the primaries in the biggest ward (Maryborough) but why not go with the returning Chris Meddows-Taylor or a female for something different? In the end they went with Geoff Lovett who has been a councillor since 1997.

2020 update: finished with a 4-3 male majority and terrific to see former Manningham councillor Grace La Vella was one of the females. Chris Meadows-Taylor (a male) landed the mayoralty first up.

* Colac Otway Shire Council 7 spots, no wards and 21 candidates. 1 retirement, 3 defeats. See results.
The sole female councillor - veteran Lynn Russell - is also the sole retiree which is not good. Therefore, fingers crossed that at least two of the female challengers - Janine, Melinda, Glynis, Kate and Yvonne - get over the line. Sadly, only Kate Hanson got there. With 50% of female voters in an undivided electorate, surely we can lift female representation here. Mayor Frank Buchanan is a former Liberal Party member who did a great job with the fires last year. Alas, he bombed with a primary of less than 6%. Last term he worked constructively with 4 other councillors - Lynn Russell, popular policeman Terry Woodcroft, former Labor candidate Brian Crook and Green Stephen Hart. The two malcontents on council have been former Colac Chamber of Commerce President Chris Smith and Michael Delahunty. Smith topped the vote but Delahunty was defeated. Work that one out. The State Liberal member for Polworth Richard Riordan has been working with these two to sling mud at the council but is now thought to be supporting 28yo teacher and Liberal Party member Joe McCracken, along with Kate Hanson. They were both successful, but Green Stephen Hart also got back. The Colac Herald newspaper has been supporting the malcontents, which is a surprising move by local proprietor Mary Gannon. All up, the Libs have increased influence along with the "shake up the council" brigade as the ruling cross-party constructive group of 4 has been reduced to just 2. This will be one to watch. With mayor Buchanan defeated there will be a change and Chris Smith will no doubt be pointing out he topped the primaries with 13% and was the only candidate in double figures. The new mayor is Chris Potter.

2020 update: a 5-2 male majority but good to see a female mayor first up in Kate Hannon.

* Corangamite Shire Council
7 spots, 4 wards of 1 and 1 ward of 3. Only 9 candidates. 2 retirements, 2 defeats. See results from Friday.
Compared to some of the neighbouring councils, this has been a well-oiled constructive machine in recent years. Geoff Smith is a big loss after more than 30 years. There is no contest for incumbents Jo Beard (mayor) and Neil Trotter, along with newcomer Lesley Brown in 3 of the 4 single member wards. Highly respected police whistleblower Simon Illingworth caused a contest in the other single member ward based around Port Campbell as he seeks to give a voice for surfers and fishers, plus resist the strong development push. He got there comfortably in the end with 66% of the primary. There are only 4 candidates for 3 spots in the main ward based around Camperdown. Two of the 7 incumbents, both blokes, are retiring, so good to see both female incumbents stepping up again, including the well regarded Ruth Gstrein who helped deliver a first ever majority female MAV board in 2012. Bev McArthur, who is married to former Federal Liberal MP Stuart McArthur is running hard in the main ward based around Camperdown but the three incumbents have teamed up and are all preferencing against her. In the end she prevailed with a 23.32% primary vote and a 138 vote margin over the only bloke in the field, despite Ruth Gstrein's surplus going against her. We've now got a 5-2 female council (only Maribyrnong mirrors that outcome) which will no doubt continue doing good work. Would not surprise to see Jo Beard go again as mayor, which is exactly what happened.

2020 update: a 4-3 female majority with the well-regarded Ruth Gstrein back as mayor.

Darebin City Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 60 candidates. 4 retirements, 1 defeat. See results.
Greens almost certain to lift their numbers from 1 to 3 or 4. Big issue around the Labor-backed CEO and on-going controversies about campaign funding, including the involvement of Federal member David Feeney, who assisted with sourcing the 10 signatories required for some of the Labor candidates. Sole Liberal Oliver Walsh and current ALP mayor Vince Fontana both departed. The Labor Right is running a candidate, Riad Elasmar, who manages a pokies venue in Darebin. Not a good look when anti pokies campaigner Susan Rennie is running and a good chance to win. Some in the Labor left are being marshalled by warrior incumbent councillor Tim Laurence, a long time sparring partner of David Feeney, although there are also some quality female Labor candidates running community campaigns independently of the factional blokes. Labor Left candidates across the 3 wards include veteran David Redfearn, Liz Landray and Amy Stubberfield. Incumbent Green Trent McCarthy is hoping to bring a runnning mate, Kim Le Cerf, into Rucker ward. They succeeded. And what are the chances of two candidates in the same Darebin ward making the same mistake? Yes folks, it has happened - click here to see for yourself. Given David Feeney, remains actively involved in the Darebin elections supporting ALP Right candidates, his forthcoming Darebin planning application will need to be delicately managed if his candidates get up. Big gender changes with 7-2 male majority reversing to a 6-3 female majority, including the only 2 female LGBTI councillors in Victoria. Final numbers are 4 Green (Steph Amir, Trent McCarthy, Kim Le Cerf and Susanne Newton), 2 ALP (Tim Laurence and Julie Williams), independent Lina Messina, ex Labor man Gaetano Greco and independent anti-pokies campaigner Susan Rennie, who has experience working for the VLGA. The long serving Green Trent McCarthy would be the obvious choice for mayor but don't be surprised if the female majority decide cultural change is coming with a female mayor. Kim Le Cerf understands local government through her work in sustainability at City of Melbourne and would do an excellent job and that is what the councillors did at the meeting on November 14.

2020 update: a 5-4 female majority with all 7 incumbents who contested returned. See results.

* Greater Dandenong City Council
11 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 1 ward of 2. 43 candidates. See results at 8pm Saturday.
The sole Liberal supporter John Kelly is the only retiree. His ward colleague Maria Sampey, who was expelled from the ALP for voting for a non-ALP mayor a few years back, is facing a big field of 13 chasing the two vacancies and will almost certainly be returned, despite being way too negative and conspiratorial. The council has a good mix of experience and diversity and is well lead by CEO John Bennie. Labor has 8 councillors including some very capable operators such as businessman Jim Mementi, school teacher Peter Brown (who appears to have been defeated) and Roz Blades. Labor will probably retain a majority but its control will weaken. The sole Green Matthew Kirwan has done a great job and was comfortably re-elected with the best primary vote in his ward. Independent Linda Pompeia ran hard against Sean O'Reilly in Lightwood ward who was under pressure for supporting paid parking in Springvale. In the end, she fell well short. The Cambodian and Vietnamese communities are likely to retain representation and there is also some debate about the enrolment of Rhonda Tannous. Comeback candidates Sue Walton, Sam Afra (ex Casey) and Geraldine Gonsalvez are all running in Maria Sampey's ward and providing preference support. It worked, but none were elected. Heang Tak was mayor last year so may be time for a female and the balance is 8-3 in favour of the men and with Maria Sampey never likely to be supported it comes back to the veterans Angela Long and Roz Blades. The two most prospective mayors are Jim Memeti and Loi Truong, the only incumbent Labor councillor who has never been mayor. Jim Memeti got the nod.

2020 update: moved to a model of 11 single member wards which delivered a 6-5 male majority with veteran Angela Long as the mayor. Good to see Jim Memeti get back.

East Gippsland Shire Council 9 spots and no wards. 41 candidates. 1 retirement, 4 defeats. See results.
Has attracted the largest field outside metropolitan Melbourne. Cr Michael Freshwater is running again, the former One Nation candidate whose preferences got Craig Ingram over the line and Steve Bracks into Government back in 1999. Cr Trudy Anderson is the only retiree of the 9 incumbents. The field of 41 slipped back to 40 when Paul Slattery, who caused grief at Manningham for decades, nominated and then "retired". Candidate Linette Treasure is presumably related to David Treasure, the Nationals candidate who Ingram defeated. Came back with a 6-3 male majority and mayor Marianne Pelz only snuck home in 9th spot with a primary vote of just 4.5%. Doubt she will be mayor again. Labor's Jane Rowe was turfed with a primary of 2.75%. John White topped the primaries with 8% courtesy of the donkey vote followed by Linette Treasure on 7%. The informal vote was a whopping 16.7% as voters couldn't be stuffed numbering 41 boxes. Joe Rettino was elected mayor.

2020 update: delivered a 5-4 female majority with a female mayor first up in Mendy Urie.

* Frankston City Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 36 candidates. 0 retirements, 4 defeats. See results at 4.30pm Sunday.
Another one of those councils with no retirements. The 27 challengers will no doubt dislodge 2 or 3. Current numbers favour the men 6-3. State Liberal MP Inga Peulich is backing a number of candidates and, like with Monash, this is quite an intense Labor vs Liberal battle, although the Greens are standing one candidate. Mayor Brian Dooley and policeman Brian Cunial have performed well and deserve support, as does former mayor Sandra Mayer. Liberal Darrell Taylor and former Liberal Suzette Tayler (she of the moccasins affair many years back) have caused plenty of conflict and both are under pressure. Former mayor Kris Bolam is attempting a comeback. He got on council at 22, was a young gun mayor, bailed at 26, completed a couple of degrees and is now looking to return. Definitely worthy of support. Political power is concentrated around Frankston with very few councillors actually living in the ward they represent. The Liberal Taylors ended up getting defeated so Michael O'Reilly (brother of Labor's Sean O'Reilly at Dandenong) is the sole surviving Liberal although Quinn McCormack has history with Geoff Shaw. There are 2 Labor councillors in veteran Colin Hampton and LGBTI community member Steve Toms. The independents clearly have the numbers which is why the mayoral contest was between Brian Cunial and Glenn Aitken, with Cunial prevailing.

2020 update: stayed with a 3x3 structure which delivered a 6-3 male majority with the impressive Kris Bolam sensibly installed as mayor.

Gannawarra Shire Council
7 spots, 2 wards of 1, 1 ward of 2 and 1 ward of 3. Only 13 candidates. 2 retirements, 2 defeats. See results.
A 6-1 male oriented council and two blokes - Neil Gannon and Keith den Houting - are the only retirees leaving. The 8 new challengers include 3 females, two of whom won to join a re-elected Lorraine Learmonth and leave the council nicely balanced with a 4-3 male majority that delivered the mayoralty first up to Brian Gibson.

2020 update: delivered another 6-1 male majority.

Glen Eira City Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 34 candidates. 1 retirement, 4 defeats. See results at 8.30pm Saturday.
A strong campaign being run by some progressive Labor left women including Mary Delahunty (yes, related to that family), Jane Karslake and Nina Taylor. Only Karslake fell short. Tony Athanasopoulos, president of the Carnegie Traders Association and brother of unsuccessful Monash candidate Arthur Athanasopoulos but no relation to former Stonnington councillor Tas Athanasopoulos, got elected for the first time, giving Labor three spots. The Libs will have two with Jamie Hyams and Joel Silver but are expected to draw support from independent Margaret Esakoff. There is a sole Green Clare Davey and then former Labor member Jim Magee and independent Dan Sztrait. Remarkably, the incumbent mayor, former Green Neil Pilling, and the incumbent deputy mayor, Green councillor Thomas Sounness, were both ousted. It's a 5-4 male majority but surely a chance for a female mayor first up. And so it was with 24 year old Jami Klisaris getting the nod as a first time councillor.

2020 update: a 5-4 male majority with the well-regarded Margaret Esakoff back as mayor. A majority of the incumbents were returned.

Glenelg Shire Council
7 spots, no wards and 19 candidates. 0 retirements, 2 defeats. See results at 10pm Saturday.
All seven incumbents are contesting and it would be good if a 5-2 male oriented council finished 4-3. Mike Noske is a good challenger who lost Liberal Party preselection against Denis Napthine many years back and then polled the highest primary vote in the state for start-up party People Power in the 2006 state election. He'd make an excellent councillor, but ended up falling well short. The highest primary vote in a 19-strong field was the first elected Geoff White with 10.02%. At 81 and after 7 elections this was a hell of an effort. The community delivered a 4-3 male majority and the two newcomers are Alistair McDonald and Chrissy Hawker. The two ousted blokes were John Northcott and Max Oberlander. After 4 solid years on council, Liberal Anita Rank would be a good option for mayor and got the nod at the the meeting on November 11.

2020 update: the same undivided council delivered a 4-3 male majority which was an improvement on last time.

Golden Plains Shire Council
7 spots, no wards and 12 candidates. 2 retirements, 2 defeats. See results at 4pm Saturday.
It seems that 8 years as MAV President is not enough for Bill McArthur who has nominated again in Golden Plains and plans to try and notch up 10 years in the peak job, backed by the rural gerrymander which doesn't seem to mind that the Victorian Auditor General released a scathing assessment of MAV governance and practices two years ago. Remarkably, he was defeated despite finishing 4th on the primary vote. Also came 4th on the primaries in 2012 but was within 1% of the most popular candidate. Returned a 5-2 male majority in 2016, although Joanne Gilbert topped the ticket, topped the vote and was first elected. Why not make her mayor. The last mayor was Des Phelan who scraped home 6th elected with a primary vote just under 10%. None of the 7 councillors are political party members and the mayoral contest is a shoot-out between two blokes. Seems unlikely that anyone will repeat Helene Cameron's trick in Queenscliffe and resign so Bill McArthur can get back. Helene's move gave 81yo Bob Merriman another 4 years on council. The mayoralty went to Des Phelan.

2020 update:

Greater Geelong City Council
no election as council sacked until late 2017 but at least they have a female chief administrator in former City of Melbourne CEO Kathy Alexander.

2020 update: a 7-4 male majority but at least we got a female mayor first up in Stephanie Asher.

Hepburn Shire Council
7 spots, 2 wards of 2 and 3 wards of 1. 18 candidates. 1 retirement, 1 defeat. See results from Friday.
Kate Redwood is the only incumbent female and was comfortably re-elected. Fiona Robson was the other winner in her ward, doubling female representation as it became a 5-2 male majority. The only retirees were mayor Neil Newitt and deputy mayor Pierre Niclas. Youthful VLGA President Sebastian Klein is a progressive in a conservative area, which might explain the 4 challengers in his single member ward. He polled a solid 40% primary vote and was comfortably returned. By way of contrast, veterans Greg May and Don Henderson have been re-elected unopposed in their two councillor ward. With 7 females in the field, here's hoping at least two of them get up. The Courier, a local paper, had promptly produced this coverage by Sunday morning. A 5-2 male majority which delivered the mayoralty to VLGA President Sebastian Klein.

2020 update: delivered an historic 4-3 female majority.

Hindmarsh Shire Council
6 spots, 3 wards of 2 and 10 candidates. 0 retirements, 1 defeat. See results from Friday.
A 3x2 ward structure is unusual and currently have the only two females - Debra Nelson and Wendy Robins - serving as mayor and deputy mayor respectively. Ron Ismay switched wards and powered home, leaving David Colbert to emerge as a new councillor without a contest. Rob Gersch is the other candidate already home and hosed. 2 of the five challenging candidates are females but they are taking on the two female incumbents and Wendy Robins was defeated in the end so we've regressed from 4-2 to 5-1, unfortunately although the blokes gave the mayoralty to the sole female Deb Nelson. Well done boys!

2020 update: very thin fields with one of the wards failing to complete given just 1 nomination and 2 vacancies. For now, it is a 3-2 male majority with a by-election to come. See results.

Hobsons Bay City Council
7 spots, 2 wards of 2 and 1 ward of 3. 37 candidates. 2 retirements, 2 defeats. See results 2pm Saturday.
Went from dysfunction and conflict in the previous term to a model council for the past 4 years, so not sure the return of Tony Briffa would be a good move, although it has happened. He resigned mid-way through this term, automatically terminating a code of conduct panel which was on foot at the time. Does that get re-heated on a return to council? An interesting legal question. Remarkably, Briffa has distributed a flyer throughout the ward claiming that "I have been able to achieve much in the last four years on the council by working with local residents". Hang on a minute, he resigned in early 2014. If a candidate can't be straight with their tenure on council, vote for someone else. Weekly Times journalist Peter Hemphill was first over the line in Strand Ward with a 21% primary, followed by Angela Altair on just under 20%. The quota was 25% but it still took 5 candidates to be eliminated before Hemphill got up and one more for Altair. The last spot went to the wire with 23-year-old Olivia Ross just pipped by the Greens Jonathon Marsden, who did not put out a how to vote card. In Cherry Lake Ward, immediate past Deputy Mayor Sandra Wilson had a tough battle against former councillors Tony Briffa and Michael Raffoul. Briffa led all day with the counting of primaries. Sandra was second, just in front of Raffoul, who was the candidate to miss in this 2 person ward. In Wetlands Ward, Colleen Gates easily got up first, but Labor's Carl Marsich was beaten by Raffoul candidate, Michael Grech. This means that for the first time ever, there is no Labor councillor at Hobsons Bay. Six Independents and one Green is not something local legends like Joan Kirner, Steve Bracks and Nicola Roxon could ever have expected would have occurred in their patch around Williamstown and Altona. Obviously, the mayor is likely to be one of the independents and certainly won't be Briffa. A female is a reasonable chance here and it ended up going to Sandra Wilson.

2020 update: incumbents such as journalist Peter Hemphill and well regarded Green Jonathan Marsden were returned along with several new faces and an overall gender balance evenly split.

Horsham Rural City Council
7 spots, no wards and 14 candidates. 3 retirements, 1 defeat. See results at 11am Sunday.
A 4-3 male oriented council with a female mayor in Heather Phillips who is recontesting along with 4 of her colleagues. The two retirees are Sue Exell and Tony Phelan. A nice mixed field so diversity set to continue, although it actually regressed to deliver a 5-2 male majority. David Grimble topped the primaries with 22%, then Mark Radford on 15%. Mayor Heather Phillips was ousted with a primary of just 5%, but another female Pam Clarke was installed as mayor.

2020 update: remains undivided and delivered an historic 4-3 female majority. See results.

Hume City Council
11 spots, 4 wards of 2 and 1 ward of 3. 47 candidates. 4 retirements, 3 defeats. See results at 7.30pm Saturday.
Politics and voting north of Bell Street tends to be more influenced by ethnic considerations, although it is important not to type-cast candidates. Samat Izla has Turkish heritage and is an emerging figure in the Labor Party, competing in the Aitken ward against well regarded Assyrian Christian Joseph Haweil, a Labor independent. The two Jacks, Ogilvie and Medcraft, have long flown the conservative flag in Hume, much to chagrin of their more progressive and inclusive colleagues. Ogilvie has retired due to ill-health but Medcraft was comfortably returned and joined in the Sunbury ward by fellow independent Leigh Johnson, a policeman. There are some Labor veterans running again including former mayor and popular local primary school teacher Geoff Porter, Ann Potter, Adem Atmaca and Mohamad Abbouche, who is trying a comeback. Atmaca, who was one of the better mayors in his day, was defeated as only 4 incumbents were returned and Abbouche failed to get back. One emerging Labor talent to watch is Jana Taylor, the pride of Gladstone Park who learnt the ropes at Hawker Britton. Gun community advocate Casey Nunn is bowing out, but her sister Carly Moore, an impressive local CPA, is running with her endorsement. No wonder she polled a primary of close to 20%, double her nearest rival. She'll be one to watch. Finished with a well balanced 6-5 male majority and Labor has the numbers 8-3. The three independents (Jodi Jackson is the 3rd) are unlikely to have much influence over the next 4 years and the Labor crew have already selected Drew Jessop as mayor and Ann Potter as deputy. The last council included code of conduct actions against the two Jacks but with Ogilvie gone, it will hopefully be a bit less high-conflict this term. Ogilvie was the last non-Labor mayor of Hume back in 2008 when the 4 Labor Left and 4 Labor Right councillors were at loggerheads and he cut a deal with the Left to be mayor for a year and then let them have the top post for the final 3 years. These days Labor is more united against the conservative independents, which is a more logical way to play things. We rate Geoff Porter the highest of the Labor crew and hope he gets another shot at the mayorality, along with 2 women over the balance of the term after Drew Jessop completes his term in 2017.

2020 update: an 8-3 male majority but we're delighted to see Joseph Haweil secure the mayoralty in year one.

Indigo Shire Council
7 spots, no wards and 19 candidates. 1 retirement, 2 defeats. See results.
Mayor James Trenery and deputy mayor Peter Croucher are the only two retirees leaving 3 female and 2 male incumbents recontesting in a nicely balanced field of 10 men and 9 women. Delivered one of the 16 female majorities in the state coming in 4-3 and this delivered the mayoralty to Green Jenny O'Connor.

2020 update: a 4-3 female majority and great to see the terrific Green Jenny O'Connor back again as mayor.

Kingston City Council
9 spots, 3 ward of 3 and 30 candidates. 2 retirements, 0 defeats. See results.
Most of the 38 LBGTI candidates in these election are in the Greens or the Labor Left but Kingston's Steve Staikos, who co-chairs Rainbow Labor, is from the Right. He's a good guy and should get back comfortably.The 2012-16 term of Kingston Council has mostly been controlled by a conservative majority - split in two factions, (Paul Peulich vs the other four). Paul and his mum did their best to secure the mayoralty in year one; however, the post went to Old Guard Councillor Ron Brownlees. A year of Paul's petulant behaviour saw the rest of the conservative team relent and give Paul his year in the robes. He didn't exactly strike excellent relationships with councillors or staff. After that year, the able and capable Geoff Gledhill and Tamsin Bearsley (two Liberal party members) took on the role of Mayor in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The council avoided major scandal, and even got a few runs on the board despite Paul's best efforts to attack Tamsin Bearsley over the past 12 months. Many ordinary council meetings ended in acrimony, with Paul's behaviour front and centre. In the end, 18 candidates nominated for the North Ward, including 'independent' conservative candidate Scott Lowther who will be drawing on Paul's base of voters. Paul withdrew his candidacy on the Tuesday nominations closed (meanwhile his dad Savo nominated to replace his son). Some say it's because Paul didn't want to lose at the ballot box. Inga's preselection is apparently under pressure locally. Mostly because south Asian liberals in the party have had enough, especially after this incident. Rosemary West continues her role as 'thorn in the side' of her fellow Central Ward Councillors Gledhill and Brownlees who ran their campaign together. West is campaigning closely with ex-councillor Trevor Shewan both of whom together with Steve Staikos were smeared by South Ward Candidate Justin Scott at the 2012 poll. John Ronke retires after 19 uninterrupted years in the role. Tamsin Bearsley and David Eden are widely expected to be returned in the South Ward. Steve Staikos ran the largest campaign of any candidate in Kingston, many are tipping his return, however, no one knows who will be successful in the other two positions in the North Ward, incumbent Tamara Barth is a quiet achiever. In the end, the numbers finished with a 5-4 male majority comprising 3 Liberal Party members Tamsin Bearsley, Geoff Gledhill and George Hua, Ron Brownlees as the conservative independent, Labor members Steve Staikos, David Eden and Georgina Oxley and two progressive independents in Rosemary West and Tamara Barth. The progressives appear to have the numbers and the mayoralty in year one went to Labor councillor David Eden, whose wife is also a councillor.

2020 update: a 7-4 male majority with Steve Staikos as mayor again suggesting a progressive majority.

Knox City Council
9 spots, 9 wards of 1 and 28 candidates. 2 retirements, 0 defeats. See results.
John Mortimore and Liberal Darren Pearce have been re-elected unopposed which doesn't happen often in metropolitan Melbourne. 9 females in the field and former mayor Karen Orpen has resigned and will be a loss. Former Labor MP Peter Lockwood managed a primary of 38% and was comfortably returned. Labor councillor Adam Gill romped home with a primary of 68% in a 3 horse field and Lisa Cooper also impressed with 57% in a 3-horse field. The new council comprised 4 Labor (Lockwood, Gill, Jackson Taylor and Trevor Keogh) and 2 Liberals (Pearce and Tony Holland) and the mayoralty went to Liberal Darren Pearce in 2017.

2020 update: Peter Lockwood and John Mortimer were both defeated and we finished with a record 8-1 female majority, something which has never happened in Australia before. See results.

Latrobe City Council
9 spots, 1 ward of 4, 1 ward of 1 and 2 wards of 2. 24 candidates. 1 retirement, 3 defeats. See results at 7pm Saturday.
A 6-3 male majority in the old council and Peter Gibbons is the only retiree. Biggest field is in East Ward where 12 candidates are chasing 4 positions. Finished with a 7-2 male majority and the mayoralty went to Kellie O'Callaghan, who will have a tough few months managing the Hazelwood closure.

2020 update: a 5-4 male majority. See results.

Loddon Shire Council
5 spots, 5 wards of 1 and just 7 candidates. 0 retirements, 0 defeats. See results.
A 3-2 male majority and a pretty minimalist campaign with all 5 incumbents recontesting and 3 getting an uncontested term. Two blokes are challenging Gavan Holt and Geoff Curnow. All the incumbents got back and Neil Beattie secured the mayoralty.

2020 update: a 3-2 male majority.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council
9 spots, 3 ward of 3 and 27 candidates. 3 retirements, 4 defeats. See results at 11am Sunday.
Currently a 7-2 male majority with Sally Piper, deputy mayor John Connor and Henry McLaughlin retiring. A further 4 incumbents were defeated so quite a clean out with just 2 getting back. The field featured 10 females so hopefully the numbers can rise in the next council. And so it did with a 5-4 female majority. Bill West, Mandi Mees and Jennifer Anderson topped the primaries in each of the 3 wards. Jennifer Anderson, a local medical doctor from Kyneton who did well in her first term, was elected mayor at the meeting on November 16, one of the latest decisions in the state.

2020 update: retained the 3x3 ward structure which delivered a 5-4 male majority.

Manningham City Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 31 candidates. 0 retirements, 3 defeats. See results at 2pm Saturday.
Started with 9 until Jennifer Yang retired to run for the ALP in the Senate and the remaining 8 Councillors are all recontesting their existing wards. Former mayor of Fitzroy, Mike Zafiropoulos, has a sparkling CV and also looks a good chance in Koonung. Incumbents Geoff Gough and Dot Haynes are the only two councillors with a chance of being returned with a quota. Former Family First candidate Andrew Conlon looks good in Mullum Mullum, aided by being top of the ticket, and was first elected. Paula Piccinini finished 4th on the primaries in Heide but came in second after preferences, with Cr Grivas missing out to fellow incumbent Michelle Kleinert for the last spot. Incumbent Meg Downie was defeated in Mullum Mullum after two terms with mayor Paul McLeish joining fellow incumbent Sophy Galbally on the winners list. Koonung ward saw incumbent Dot Haynes top the overall council-wide vote, with former Fitzroy mayor Mike Zafiropoulos joining the comeback list and Anna Chen also winning ahead of incumbent Steve O'Brien. A 5-4 female majority for the second straight term. Michelle Kleinert was elected mayor on Tuesday, November 8.

2020 update: the third straight 5-4 female majority with Paula Piccinini and Sophy Galbally retiring, Mike Zafiropoulos, Paul McLeish and Dot Haynes defeated and Michelle Kleinert, Geoff Gough, Anna Chen and Andrew Conlon being returned. See results. Andrew Conlon was elected mayor.

Mansfield Shire Council
No election as 5 spots and just 5 candidates This comprised 4 men and 1 woman and 3 new Crs. Paul Volkering elected as mayor on October 26, just 2 days after the declaration of the poll on Monday, October 24. He was principal of Mansfield Primary School for the past 5 year. The deputy mayor is Peter Olver and the new leadership duo are both first time councillors.

2020 update: delivered a 5-0 all male council, the only one in Victoria.

Maribyrnong City Council 7 spots, 2 wards of 2 and 1 ward of 3. 26 candidates. 3 retirements, 1 defeats. See results 2.30pm Saturday.
Long a Labor council until independents won a narrow 4-3 majority in 2012, but then had the major paid parking controversy in Yarraville which has finished off most of those who supported it. Labor has formally endorsed 7 candidates this time, the most of any council in Victoria. Can they win back control? Early sampling of votes has insiders predicting anything between 2 and 5 ALP councillors with the Greens set for 1 or 2. Catherine Cumming will be the only independent on the next council. Yarraville ward will be the most dynamic with ALP Crs Clark and Zakarov both trying to get re-elected. The Greens are expecting Simon Crawford will get up after they polled very well in the ward at the recent Federal election. He did. ALP rising star Sarah Carter will win River ward easily and would make a good mayor. This would also assist with a potential run at the state seat of Footscray in 2018 which is under serious threat from the Greens. The ambition, a good thing in politics and always to be encouraged with rising female talent, was evident when she nominated for Stephen Conroy's Senate vacancy. Maribyrnong finished with a 5-2 female majority, independent Catherine Cumming got the highest primary vote with 35% and her brother John only just missed out. The defeat of Labor veteran Michael Clarke was the biggest surprise in a 3 person ward where he finished second on the primaries. Labor again fell short of a majority with 3 out of 7, as the Star Weekly reported in a timely fashion. Catherine Cumming was voted in mayor for the first year, presumably in an arrangement with the Labor councillors who will take the robes in at least 2 of the final 3 years, leaving the Green marginalised.

2020 update: returned a 4-3 male majority with the first Socialist Jorge Jorquera getting elected. Labor's Michael Clarke was returned after a 4 year break and was installed as mayor.

Maroondah City Council 9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 32 candidates. 1 retirement, 4 defeats. See results.
The former Federal member for Deakin, ETU man Mike Symon, has popped up as candidate. There aren't too many former Federal MPs who try their hand at local government afterwards. Joanna Gash, the Member for Gilmore in NSW, jumped across to become Mayor of Shoalhaven City Council whilst still in Federal Parliament in 2012, raising Constitutional questions which were never resolved before she retired in August 2013. Les Willmott, a former hard left Plumbers Union man in the 1970s who then joined the employers, is going again, despite already being one of the 5 longest serving councillors in Victoria. He's good value. There are plenty of comeback candidates including Anne Patch (Croydon pre-merger) and Joe Cossari, who is attempting a switch from neighbouring Knox. Paul McDonald and his son Michael were a father-son team from 2008-2012 and are both attempting a return, along with Neil Rose, a former policeman and mayor in the pre-merger days. The Federal member for Deakin, Michael Sukhar, having been over-looked for Cabinet, has turned his attention to expanding his influence over this council. Liberal Rob Steane is running again in Wyreena ward, along with Liberal staffer Paola Damante's wife Tasa Damante. This is interesting considering he was/is a staffer of Michael Sukkar. Mary-Anne Lowe is running again in Mullum and is a strong Liberal name pushing for new Liberal candidates to be elected. Nora Lamont is another Liberal Councillor running but has kept out of party politics. A team of three have been put forth in Arrabri, consisting of Kylie Spears, Jenny Newman (Century 21 real estate owner), and Ray Tonnison. They have been invited to events by Michael Sukkar, although this partly just reflects that he is a hard-working local member who engages deeply in his electorate. In Arrabri, independent Natalie Thomas has not recontested and current Councillor Christina Gleeson, cousin to Paul McDonald and aunt to Michael McDonald, is running a low key campaign. Mike Symon got elected and the Liberals fell short in the end given that Labor veteran Tony Dib was elected mayor, but it turned out to be an excellent and cohesive council will very little political infighting.

2020 update: a majority of the incumbents were returned which didn't surprise given they were cohesive and performed well. A 5-4 female majority with Kylie Spears elected mayor.

Melbourne City Council
9 spots for council undivided and separate 2 spots for Leadership election. 7 duos for Leadership election, 15 Groups for council election and 3 ungrouped below the line. 0 retirements, 5 defeats. See results at 5pm Saturday.
After 8 years of ruling from a minority position, Team Doyle will again be operating without a majority, although it was only a narrow loss for the No 4 on the ticket, Susan Riley. Robert Doyle has also been comfortably re-elected as Lord Mayor. The preferences show solid leakage from all tickets such that Phil Cleary wasn't able to pass the Greens and the Lord Mayor won on the 3PP vote. The two Greens, Rohan Leppert and Cathy Oke, are also back and Phil Cleary's candidate Michael Caiafa was the other certainty to be elected. Stephen Mayne is out and the big surprise was the election of Indigenous candidate, Brooke Wandin, a direct descendant of William Barak as this ABC TV news story explains. Am super proud to have preferenced her first. Former deputy lord mayor Susan Riley ended up being left stranded with a surplus of 8.97%. I was a big fan of Susan but was nervous about a Doyle majority and ended up preferencing to ensure that didn't happen. A complaint to the Municipal Inspector about Brooke Wandin's enrolment has seen her opt not to be sworn in and then resign so we won't know the final outcome until the end of November but at the moment it is 5 Doyle, 2 Green, Labor veteran Jackie Watts, new Liberal Phillip Liu and QVM trader Michael Caiafa who was elected on Phil Cleary's ticket. A subsequent VCAT decision saw Caiafa ejected and then when Team Doyle number two Tessa Sullivan resigned we ended up seeing the return of both Team Doyle incumbents Bev Pinder and Susan Riley who were originally at 4 and 5 on the ticket. Labor powerbroker Nicholas Reece debuted as a Cr at number 2 on the Doyle ticket and later teamed up with Sally Capp in 2020. Mayne Report publisher Stephen Mayne has explained his 2016 defeat here.

2020 update: Sally Capp was returned as Lord Mayor with Nick Reece as her deputy and Kevin Louey and Roshina Campbell rounding out the 4 person Team Capp. The Greens scored 2, Labor 1, Liberal Phil Le Liu got back, along with one from Team Arron Wood and one other micro. A 7-4 male majority.

Melton City Council
9 spots, 1 ward of 4, 1 ward of 3 and 1 ward of 2. 40 candidates. 1 retirement, 2 defeats. See results.
Cr Lara Carli has done well and deserves another term, which she comfortably achieved. Numbers are down from the 70 which ran in 2012, suggesting the incumbents have performed reasonably. Kathy Majdlik topped the primaries with 35.84% and voters also returned a 5-4 female majority which is a good thing. This delivered the mayoralty to Sophie Ramsey.

2020 update: shifted to a 6-3 female majority. See results.

* Mildura Rural City Council
9 spots, no wards and 28 candidates. 0 retirements, 4 defeats. See results at 10am Monday.
Liam Wood, younger brother of Robert Doyle's proposed new City of Melbourne deputy Arron Wood, is running for the first time and should do well. Have stripped all the incumbents off the website so hard to assess. Veteran Glenn Milne topped the vote with a quota and is being reported by the local press as one of 2 contenders for mayor along with Mark Eckel. It was a tough election for women with 3 incumbents defeated along with veteran John Arnold. It was quite a conservative vote with little love for the Green and only 3 progressives getting over the line, lead by Ali Cupper. Colourful local publisher Max Thorburn, Karl Stefanovic's former father in law, got re-elected and with a 7-2 male majority, we're looking at 4 straight years without a woman in charge. Milne has done the mayoral job well in 6 of the past 11 years and having topped the vote again, is looking strong. He draws strong support from constituencies such as football and motorsport and was elected mayor for the 5th year out of the past 6, a record across Victoria.

2020 update: a 6-3 male majority with Jason Modica as mayor and two interesting newcomers in celebrity chef Stefano De Pieri and Liam Wood, brother of former City of Melbourne deputy mayor Arron Wood.

** Mitchell Shire Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 17 candidates. 3 retirements, 2 defeats. See results at 6.30pm Saturday.
A 7-2 male majority but all 3 retirees - Bill Melbourne, Rodney Parker and Kevin Mulroney - are men. Six females in the field so a good chance to reduce the male dominance going forward. Finished with a 6-3 male majority, but they elected returned incumbent Rhonda Sanderson as mayor with newcomer David Lowe as deputy. Perhaps the most interesting new arrival is Annie Goble who triggered the "bananagate" scandal when she walked into a council meeting wearing a banana suit to protest the mayoral car being driven to Coffs Harbour for a holiday. Cheeky move from the local Ratepayers Association president but after a fractious few years, she's hopefully going to be a positive contributor and backed old rival Rhonda Sanderson into the mayoral gig which was a sensible decision.

2020 update: a 5-4 female majority with Rhonda Sanderson elected mayor.

Moira Shire Council
9 spots, no wards and 17 candidates. 1 retirement, 2 defeats. See results.
A 7-2 male majority at present and just one retirement with Brian Keenan. The 9 challengers only include one female so the best diversity outcome in a 17 horse field is 6-3, which is not great. Kevin Bourke, Peter Lawless and Libro Mustica were the only 3 candidates in double figures on primaries and we finished with a 7-2 male majority again with Wendy Buck and Marie Martin flying the flag. Libro is a bricklayer made good who has enjoyed VCAT victories over council and is no fan of the present CEO but will have to carefully manage his conflicts of interests. He was the first candidate in the history of Moira to run TV ads but the rest of his "syndicate" didn't get up. As a newbie mayoral candidate with big plans to turn council upside down, perhaps his colleagues might look elsewhere for a leader in year one. There's much to learn and "shake 'em up" candidates sometimes need to hasten slowly and work on building good relations with colleagues and officers. Gary Cleveland was elected major.

2020 update: another 7-2 male majority.

** Monash City Council
11 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 1 ward of 2. 69 candidates. 3 retirements, 3 defeats. See results at 11am Sunday.
The Liberals are putting their biggest effort (more than $100,000) into Monash as they attempt to end the long term control of Labor mayor Geoff Lake. This was one of the few genuine Liberal vs Labor contest in the state and the numbers ended up finishing with 2-4 Libs and 4 ALP councillors. The Liberal dirt sheet on Geoff Lake was pretty low, re-heating that old Kevin Rudd stuff from 2013 which got slated by the Press Council. For the record, Lake's disendorsement was reviewed by Brumby era Victorian Treasurer John Lenders (a former Victorian ALP state secretary), who concluded that he was harshly treated. Oakleigh ward Liberal Councillor Theo Zographos' wife Vanessa Weaver, is running up against Labor's Geoff Lake in Glen Waverley ward. This is the second time a sitting Councillor's wife has run against Cr Lake, with Tom Morrissey's wife Lorraine running in Glen Waverley in 2012. There has been 4 vacancies this term in Monash created by the death of Tom Morrissey, the election of Stephen Dimopolous as Oakleigh MP and the resignation of Stefanie Perri and Paul Klisaris as federal candidates for Labor. Paul Klisaris is back after his defeat in Aston running for his usual Mulgrave ward. Monash has 69 candidates but only 27% are female, and there is a strong chance that there will be only one woman on council, current independent Mt Waverley ward councillor and Deputy Mayor Rebecca Paterson. We finished with a 9-2 male majority, something both Liberal and Labor should address next time. 2016 has seen a strong contingent of candidates from a Chinese background, reflecting the changing demographic of Monash. Previous Kingston Mayor Arthur Athanasopolous is running in the Oakleigh ward of Monash, but appears to have fallen short, losing the last spot to Green Josh Fergeus. Current Liberal councillor Theo Zographos responded with large signs, letting residents know he is trusted and experienced. He's back. Geoff Lake saw his primary vote drop from almost 50% to 36% but it remained the highest primary across Monash and he was the only candidate to reach a quota in his own right. However, Labor's numbers have dropped from a majority to 4, although it has retained a "progressive majority". The first-time Councillors are: Lynnette Saloumi (Glen Waverley ward), Mt Pang Tsoi (Mount Waverley ward), Shane McCluskey (Mulgrave ward), Stuart James (Oakleigh ward), and Josh Fergeus (Oakleigh ward) and independent progressive Rebecca Paterson was elected mayor on November 3 in the earliest metropolitan leadership decision taken by a group of councillors. The only other non-Labor Monash mayor over the past 15 years has been Tom Morrisey so the times are a changing.

2020 update: most of big names are back although there are now 2 Greens and a 7-4 male majority. See results.

Moonee Valley City Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 29 candidates. 0 retirements, 3 defeats. See results at 5.30pm Saturday.
All the incumbents councillors stood again, with the addition of two former Councillors, Miriam Gillis and Rose Iser. Iser left during her last term to work for Adam Bandt, but returns to run as an independent having left the Greens. Gillis was defeated in 2012 after her Deputy Mayoral year, and was actually the Councillor who replaced Iser by countback mid-term. There are some noteworthy additional runners. Ted Hatzakortzian (Rosehill Ward) was the Liberal Candidate for Bill Shorten's seat of Maribyrnong in 2013 and 2016. Rebecca Gauci Maurici (Buckley Ward) was the Liberal Candidate for Niddrie in the 2014 State Election and Essendon in the 2010 state election. Andrew Gunter (Rosehill ward) stood as an Independent Candidate for Niddrie in 2014 and Richard Lawrence (Buckley ward) did likewise in Essendon in 2014. One of the more interesting runners is current Councillor Nicole Marshall, seeking re-election in Myrnong Ward. She is married to Labor's state member for Essendon, Danny Pearson, although her councillor election pre-dated Pearson's Parliamentary victory. We are not aware of any other spouses of incumbent MPs contesting these council elections. Myrnong ward predominantly overlaps the seat of Essendon and if Nicole was a staffer for Pearson, it would be illegal for her to hold down both positions under Victorian law. However, there is a no legal issue with spouses and as a professional lawyer, Nicole manages the issue appropriately. Perceptions and potential conflicts aside, Nicole is also said to be an excellent councillor. She topped the primary vote and was returned, although potentially as one of only two Labor members given that Jan Chantry, who is married to a Bill Shorten staffer, was defeated and Miriam Gillis also fell short. Jim Cusack managed to climb from 4th on the primaries to be the second Labor member. There are other political affiliations of note making Moonee Valley a hotly contested election. Nicole's rival, Cr Cam Nation, has been in and out of the Liberal Party and participated in preselection processes. He also looked to establish his own anti East-West link political party at one point. He appears to have been re-elected in one of the few inner city councils where the Greens are struggling to break through, although his primary vote is down. Green Jack Giles finished second on primaries but suffered from poor preferences and narrowly missed, partly because Cam Nation had a dread-locked running mate Benjamin Smits who drained votes from the Greens and delivered preferences back to him. The incumbents struggled in Buckley ward where independent challenger and ratepayers' association member Richard Lawrence got up. Jan Chantry was the only Labor member standing in the ward and the votes were extremely tight between her and Crs Giuliano and Sharpe, who was expected to poll better given she was mayor for 2 out of the 4 years. In the Rosehill ward, former MAV director John Sipek rose again. He has resigned from the ALP ahead of potentially being expelled for not preferencing fellow party members. In the end, the wash up was no Greens, 2 Labor and 5 regarded as being sympathetic to the Liberals, albeit not all members, giving Moonee Valley its most right wing council in history, as this Facebook post notes. There is also a 5-4 female majority so a fair chance of continuing with a female mayor, which is what they did when Andrea Surace was sworn into the top job again.

2020 update: a 5-4 female majority with Rose Iser a notable return as an independent.

* Moorabool Shire Council
7 spots, 1 ward of 4 and 3 wards of 1. 15 candidates. 1 retirement, 1 defeat. See results.
A blokey 6-1 council with only John Spain retiring. Tom Sullivan is back unopposed and only 3 females in the field so statistically impossible to achieve a female majority which is never a good sign. On Wednesday 28 October, 2015 Cr Allan Comrie was elected as Mayor and Cr Paul Tatchell as Deputy Mayor. The term of office for these appointments is 12 months.

2020 update: a 4-3 male majority with David Edwards elected mayor first up.

** Moreland City Council
11 spots, 2 wards of 4 and 1 ward of 3. 47 candidates. 4 retirements, 1 defeat. See results.
Had 5 comeback councillors, plenty of supporting candidates and a major battle between the Greens and Labor with attendance voting leaving most of the action until October 22. Lead Green Sam Ratnam absolutely smashed them in South ward with 55% of the primary vote in a 13-strong field. Finished with 4 Greens, 3 Labor and 4 others, including Socialist Sue Bolton and former DLP veteran John Kavanagh. Tough Turk and former school teacher Oscar Yildiz, founder of the Bully Zero foundation, did best of all the Labor candidates and will fly the ALP flag strongly over the next 4 years against the all conquering Green insurgency. Expect Sam Ratnam to try and take down Jane Garrett to become the state member for Brunswick in 2018 after going close in the Federal seat of Wills in 2016. Ironically, the former Labor member for Brunswick is Carlo Carli and his daughter Annalivia Carli is one of the 4 Labor councillors taking on the Greens. Some of the Labor exits at this election should see an improvement overall. Green Sam Ratnam was hot favourite to continue on as mayor but instead it went to independent Helen Davidson.

2020 update: a 6-5 male majority with Oscar Yilditz easily polling the biggest primary on 36%. See results.

Mornington Peninsula Shire Council
11 spots, 1 ward of 2, 2 wards of 3 and 2 wards of 1. 52 candidates. 6 retirements, 1 defeat. See results.
Former Whittlesea mayor Rex Griffin is attempting to make the switch, which is a rare thing in local government. 7 of the 11 Crs are retiring, which is a record. From 20 year Cr David Gibb and others nearly as long - much loss of corporate memory. Serial foes Fraser and Celi are recontesting, both with issues. Finished with a 6-5 male majority and the mayoralty went to Bev Columb.

2020 update: a 6-5 female majority. See results.

Mount Alexander Shire Council
7 spots, 1 ward of 4 and 3 wards of 1. 15 candidates. 1 retirement, 1 defeat. See results at 4pm Saturday.
The most progressive non-metropolitan citizenry in Victoria based around Castlemaine. A 4-3 male majority and only one retiree in Michael Redden who is being replaced by John Nieman in Loddon River ward without a contest. Tony Cordy is also back without but the females did well in the contest so we finished with a 4-3 male majority. Mayoral selection meeting is November 8 and Sharon Telford emerged victorious.

2020 update: a 5-2 male majority.

Moyne Shire Council
7 spots, no wards and 17 candidates. 0 retirements, 2 defeats. See results 3pm Saturday.
A 6-1 male majority and all 7 incumbents are recontesting. 3 of the 10 challengers are female so here's hoping we get at least 2 but preferably 3 females elected to preside over the next Port Fairy Folk Festival. Finished with a 6-1 male majority again and Jim Doukas dominated on the primaries so should be a fair chance for mayor again. He has formally put his hat into the ring and we'll know the outcome on Tuesday, November 8. The 3 newcomers are Jordan Lockett, Ian Smith and Daniel Meade. Jim Doukas is the mayor.

2020 update: a 6-1 male majority, same as last time.

** Murrindindi Shire Council
7 spots, and 7 wards of 1. 11 candidates. 2 retirements, 2 defeats. See results.
Only 6 incumbents with King Lake ward currently vacant but attracted the biggest field of 3. A 4-2 male majority at present and two male retirements, John Walsh and Chris Healy. Mayor Margaret Rae, Eric Lording and two new female councillors - Charlotte Bisset and Jackie Ashe - elected unopposed, so not a surprise to finish with a 5-2 female majority which delivered a female mayor in Charlotte Bisset.

2020 update: a 4-3 female majority.

Nillumbik Shire Council
7 spots, 7 wards of 1 and 69 candidates. 2 retirements, 4 defeats. See results.
It's on again between the land owner and conservation forces. Liberal Party power broker and property veteran Peter Clarke has nominated against Labor deputy mayor Helen Coleman in her single member ward of Wingrove. This means he isn't running again for Melbourne where he previously served as chair of the planning committee. Four members of the one family (the Kleins) are running, something Jon Faine picked up on ABC radio. The hot issue has been planning scheme amendments C81 and C101 in the north of the Shire which arguably further locks down the Green wedge, impacting on property values, fire mitigation and the like. Peter Clarke and other opponents of the planning scheme amendments are also running hard on Nillumbik's very high rates. A fascinating battle. The “abandon C101 environmental overlay" group or PALS fared well. In Sugarloaf Ward (open following the retirement of sitting councillor Ken King), Jane Ashton in a 14 person field polled almost 30% of the vote and easily beat off other challengers. PALs campaign literature had her as no. 1 on their ticket. In Bungil ward sitting councillor & Green oriented Anika Van Hulsen was defeated by PALS leader Karen Egan who polled around 40% in a 10 person field. In Blue Lake ward there was an upset where lead PALS candidate and sitting Councillor Meralyn Klein lost to local Grant Brooker who actually lives in the ward. In Ellis ward, sitting councillor and fire fighter Peter Perkins had his strongest ever result and by far the strongest across Nillumbik with 61% of the vote in a 5 candidate field. In Swipers Gully, Mayor Bronnie Hatton appears to have learnt her lesson from 2008 where she lost on preferences after leading the primary vote and has enough lower polling candidates to prevail. In Wingrove, Peter Clarke booked a return to local government after a highly visible campaign around Eltham township. Long term councillor and former Labor Mayor Helen Coleman was ousted, also losing her spot on the MAV board. Adding insult to injury, he secured the mayoralty first up, so it looks like the land owners group managed to prevail as Nillumbik once again swings from pro Green wedge to pro landowner.

2020 update: finished with a 4-3 male majority with the biggest surprise being actor Geoff Paine defeating former mayor Helen Coleman and David Mulholland, a former Federal Liberal candidate. See results.

Northern Grampians Shire Council
7 spots, 2 wards of 1, 1 ward of 2 and 1 ward of 3. 10 candidates. 2 retirements, 2 defeats. See results.
A 5-2 male council with only the well regarded Wayne Rice retiring. Tony Driscoll, Kevin Erwin, Merrilee Reid and Jason Hosemans are all back unopposed, just leaving the competition for the main Stawell ward where 5 blokes and Karyn Hislop are competing for 3 positions. Karyn topped the vote so a 5-2 male majority if retained. Tony Driscoll was elected mayor.

2020 update: a 4-2 male majority thus far but one of the 4 wards received no nominations so a by-election will be held.

Port Phillip City Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 30 candidates. 3 retirements, 2 defeats. See results from Friday.
The Greens ran a full ticket of three in each ward, with a lead candidate and two supports. There are currently none out of 7 but the Greens won 3 spot out of 9 after a voting boundaries restructure away from single member wards to 3 wards of 3. This Green insurgency will be important for the state seats of Prahran and Albert Park, plus the Federal seat of Melbourne Ports. Former Labor mayor Amanda Stevens retired after just one term and will be a big loss. She should have replaced Michael Danby in the Federal seat of Melbourne Ports but got stitched up by cynical blokes and factional moves. Incumbent independent mayor Bernadene Voss did well to get back but Frenchman Serge Thomann was defeated as was fellow incumbent Jane Touzeau. The Liberals have doubled their numbers with incumbent Andrew Bond joined by Marcus Pearl. Former mayor and MAV President Dick Gross pulled off an impressive comeback, nosing ahead of Jane Touzeau courtesy of Liz Johnstone's preferences. This was a high quality field but the story of the day is the marching Green army, which will be well balanced by the 2 Liberal and 2 ALP councillors. Melbourne is the only other council in Victoria with multiple Green, Liberal and Labor councillors. Bernadene Voss has gone back to back as mayor.

2020 update:

Pyrenees Shire Council
5 spots, 5 wards of 1 and 7 candidates. 0 retirements, 0 defeats. See results.
Minimal competition on this 4-1 male council with only the sole female (Tanya Kehoe) facing a single male challenger in Alec Carson so there is a risk of an all-male council. MAV deputy president David Clark is back unopposed along with Robert Vance and Ron Eason. Tanya Kehoe is back as the sole female. First up mayor was Michael O'Connor.

2020 update: 3 of the 5 wards were uncontested and finished with a 4-1 male majority. See results.

Queenscliffe Council
5 spots, no wards. 11 candidates. 1 retirement, 2 defeats. See results from Friday.
Former Cricket Australia chairman and manager of the test team Bob Merriman is looking to go again despite being 81. Perhaps retirement would have been a better option. Only Sue Wasterval is retiring leaving a 2-2 gender split with the incumbents and 7 male challengers meaning a rare majority female council will have a maximum of two next time around, which is what happened. For a candidate who has been a long term mayor and had a high profile life, Bob Merriman's fall from grace must hurt. There are only 4000 voters in Queenscliffe and quota is pretty low. Merriman has worked closely with Helene Cameron for eight years, so it will be interesting to see how she performs after his departure. In the end, she opted not to take her seat, creating a vacancy that will be filled by her old mate Merriman, hence the delay in selecting a mayor. The big mover is newcomer Tony Francis, political independent and police officer who does some work in the domestic violence space. Boyce Pizzey and Ross Ebbels are also new, with relatively low profile Labor Councillor, Susan Salter, continuing as well. Queenscliffe should have been amalgamated in the 1990s, another mark against former Premier, Jeff Kennett, in what was otherwise a tough but right reform program.

2020 update:

Greater Shepparton City Council
9 spots, no wards and 29 candidates. See results at 5pm Sunday.
Good to see some ethnic diversity in the field which is unusual outside Melbourne. A 5-2 male majority at present with two retirees - Les Oroszvary and Kevin Ryan. One of the larger fields in an undivided contest so expect a high informal vote with 29 boxes to fill in. Mayor is Dinny Adem.

2020 update:

South Gippsland Shire Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 29 candidates. 1 retirement, 5 defeats. See results at 5pm Saturday.
Only 13 stood last time, an indication of how fractious this council term has been. 8 of the 9 incumbents are restanding, the only exit being one of a minority group of 3 councillors. There have been numerous Code of conduct hearings and complaints and the two residual minority councillors, Don Hill and Andrew McEwan, are running against council's long term plan to invest in a $32 million municipal facility. Cr McEwan is a former senior staffer not enamoured with the CEO who moved against him. Cr Don Hill has teamed up with 5 other supporting candidates in his ward to produce a joint how to vote card against the incumbent ruling group and their supporters. The other candidates are Di Tod, Kim White, Rosemary Cousin, Philip Murphy and Bec Corcoran. The QC who defended Cr Don Hill in a conduct panel is running in another ward. This is a good example of a factionalised council where two distinct groups are battling for control. In the end, McEwen and Hill were strongly supported so the new municipal office will struggle for support. Five of the six incumbent councillors opposing Hill and McEwan were defeated, including the last 3 mayors. Some lost a staggering number of votes. Mohya davies went from 2100 to 918. The Council is now full of 9 independents which include Cr McEwen and Cr Hill. Now that the majority block on Council has been broken, it will be a very different experience over the next 4 years. The new council has a 5-4 male majority and elected Ray Argento as mayor.

2020 update:

Southern Grampians Shire Council
7 spots, no wards and 13 candidates. 2 retirements, 2 defeats. See results.
Mayor Peter Dark and Bruach Colliton are retiring and a group of pro-business challengers have taken out full page ads in the Hamilton Spectator newspaper, so some change could be coming. Incumbent Albert Calvano has his wife Yvonne running alongside him. The mayor is Mary Brown.

2020 update:

* Stonnington City Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 26 candidates. 1 retirement, 4 defeat. See results.
All current councillors are recontesting, with the exception of Claude Ullin, who served the people well over many years. Of the 26 candidates, three are former councillors: Sally Davis, Judy Hindle and Steve Stefanopoulos. Greens have 5 candidates standing. Interesting candidates include Marcia Griffin, author and inaugural Telstra Businesswoman of the Year (1995) when she was CEO of Pola cosmetics. Marcia is contesting North ward as she did in 2012 and came pretty close. Well regarded veteran John Chandler is her main opponent. Cr Jami Klisaris has changed wards in Stonnington and moved to East Ward, meaning that four current councillors are vying for three spots. With Claude retiring, there are only two sitting councillors standing in the other two three-person wards. IBM executive Melina Sehr has spent over $20,000 and will get back comfortably. Judy Hindle retired in 2012 after topping the vote in 2008 and is a good chance to win another term. There are plenty of good female candidates to choose from, including Sally Davis, and we could yet see a female majority. As events transpired, in East ward the leaders in primaries were: Sally Davis, Betty Zervas, Glen Atwell, John McMorrow (incumbent) and Erin Davie (incumbent), closely followed by Jami Klisaris (Incumbent from North Ward). Overall, Greens vote appears to be down in this ward. Other preference deals that may influence the outcome are Jami Klisaris and Betty Zervas, local Malvern East solicitor. Klisaris mailed how to votes to everyone in the ward, so flow may be strong enough to get either of them in! East Ward incumbent Jim Athanasoploulos is out of the game. So too are Richard Uglow and Andrew Ranger. In South ward, incumbent Melina Sehr blitzed it again with around 40% of the primaries. Her preferences went to Steve Stefanopoulos who together with fellow comeback councillors Judy Hindle managed to edge out the Greens Mike Scott. Greens second stringer, Nicole Gunn, was number 1 on the ballot paper but also fell short. In North ward, incumbent Matthew Koce was strong in primaries and, once again, the Greens missed out by the narrowest of margins, meaning both John Chandler and second time candidate Marcia Griffin were elected. Also commendable to see a 5-4 female majority and Stonnington won the prize for electing 3 of the state's 26 comeback councillors, the most of anyone. Mayor is elected on Wednesday, November 9 and it went to 24 year old first time councillor Jami Klisaris.

2020 update: a 6-3 female majority. See results.

Strathbogie Shire Council
7 spots, 3 wards of 1 and 2 wards of 2. 19 candidates. 3 retirements, 1 defeat. See results at 6pm Saturday.
Three retirements with Colleen Furlanetto, Pat Storer and Alister Purbrick departing. A big field of 8 in the 2 person Seven Creeks ward. The mayor is Amanda McClaren.


2020 update:

* Surf Coast Shire Council
11 spots, 2 wards of 4, 1 ward of 2 and 1 ward of 1. 15 candidates. 1 retirement, 0 defeats. See results from Friday.
Has been an excellent and diverse council in recent years with the likes of Heather Wellington, Carol McGregor, Rose Hodge, Clive Goldsworthy and Brian McKiterick all good contributors. The sole Green, Fairfax journalist Eve Fisher, is retiring and her likely replacement, Marian Smedley, has impressed at candidates forums but was unlucky to miss. Some locals are worried that Adrian Schonfelder will be elected. He has been in and out of all sorts of political contests over the years, but eventually fell short. The 5-4 majority femlae majority was an excellent result, so let's hope the next mayor is a female. Heather Wellington, Rose Hodge and Libby Coker topped the primaries in the three different contested wards and all of them are worthy of the job. Alas, local policeman Brian McKiterick got the job again.

2020 update: a 5-4 female majority. See results.

* Swan Hill Rural City Council
7 spots, 1 ward of 4 and 3 wards of 1. 16 candidates. 4 retirements, 0 defeats. See results at 6.30pm Saturday.
Gary Norton has been a stalwart supporter of Bill McArthur on the MAV board and faces two opponents in his single member ward. He prevailed. Robinvale is the only uncontested ward and there is a big field of 10 chasing the 4 spots in the main Swan Hill ward called Central after all 4 incumbents quit, including two former aspiring National Party Federal MPs, Michael Adamson and Greg Cruikshank. The 4 winners ran as a team, all polled similar votes and won, which is most unusual. They are expected to work together as the key bloc on council. Les McPhee is an early favourite to continue on as mayor with the support of the Swan Hill councillors, and so it came to pass. A 6-1 male majority has become 5-2, equalling the previous best and we can only hope for 4-3 next time.

2020 update:


* Towong Shire Council
no election as 5 spots undivided and only 5 candidates. Finished with a 4-1 male majority and the spread of experience is 3 newbies, one one termer and one onto their 3rd term. 3 of the 5 are farmers. Mayoral selection was formalised on November 8 and it once again went to David Wortmann.

2020 update:

Wangaratta Rural City Council
7 spots, 1 ward of 4 and 3 wards of 1. 20 candidates. See results.
Sacked a couple of years back and now Sophie Mirabella's husband Greg is running, along with Julian Fidge, who was a player in some of the controversies, although no action was ever taken by authorities and the general criticisms never went beyond "not providing good governance". Will Fidge get back and are we going to see the Mirabella name back in politics? The story of Fidge was essentially one of officers complaining incessantly about him and eventually getting the sack, sparking the Minister's intervention. However, a bullying complaint before Fair Work was defeated and the Municipal Inspector didn't progress anything, despite the hundreds of hours of voice recordings. A shake up of Wangaratta's contracting by the Fidge council is said to have motivated some of the backlash against him. Fidge is clearly aligned with fellow ex military man Greg Mirabella if you look at his main flyer. There's plenty of poisonous history as this 2013 Fairfax piece captures. And the best singer in the field is Luke Davies who deserves a vote just for producing this lovely song. The mayoralty went to veteran Ken Clarke.

2020 update:

Warrnambool City Council
7 spots, no wards and 24 candidates. 1 retirement, 3 defeats. See results at 10am Sunday.
Mayor Kylie Gaston and Jacinta Ermacora were the only females on the current council and Jacinta is the only retiree. There are 7 females in the large field, including comeback candidate Jennifer Lowe, so hopefully at least of two will prevail to keep some balance going forward. Kylie Baston has gone back to back as mayor.

2020 update:

Wellington Shire Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 20 candidates. 2 retirements, 3 defeats. See results at 5pm Saturday.
A 7-2 male majority with Emilie Davine and John Duncan the two incumbents departing. Central Ward has a disappointing solitary female candidate in a field of 9 but there are 2 female candidates in each of the other 3 member wards. Returned a 7-2 male majority but delighted to see Carolyn Crossley get up as mayor on November 3 in Sale.

2020 update:

* West Wimmera Shire Council
5 spots, no wards and 9 candidates. 4 retirements, 0 defeats. See results from Friday.
Bruce Meyer is the only incumbent standing. Father and son team Warren and Richard Wait couldn't wait to get out, along with the sole female Annette Jones. The 4 departures can be explained by two veterans who are retiring after many years of service and two young parents (Richard Wait and Annette Jones) who would like to spend more time with the kids. Local don't see any problems with the challenging candidates who are all regarded as good community contributors. Particular credit should be paid to Ron Hawkins who has notched up more than 30 years of service as an elected councillor and remained as a sharp as ever even into his 80s.West Wimmera was meant to be the first council to press the calculate button at 5 pm on Friday to distribute preferences and get the results. Guess what it didn't work! There were connection issues, so at 6pm they tried rebooting and doing it again. Still didn't work. At 6:30 pm candidates were told that they calculation would be attempted again at 8pm. Luckily the pub is across the road and 4 of the 9 candidates decided to head there for a meal. Because of the issue West Wimmera had it meant that several other councils had their times put back also. At 8pm it worked with the results within a minute. The delay certainly settled the nerves and the candidates had a good laugh, dinner and a drink whilst they waited. The only recontesting incumbent Bruce Meyer secured the mayoralty.

2020 update:

Whitehorse City Council
10 spots, 5 wards of 2 and 37 candidates. 2 retirements, 1 defeat. See results from 11am Saturday.
Local Liberal state MP Robert Clark's electorate chair, Blair Barker, campaigned hard to make his debut in Elgar Ward which was wide open given the two well regarded incumbents, Robert Chong and Helen Harris, both retired. He came second on the primaries but fell short before later getting up on a countback after a retirement. Former mayor Mark Lane also missed out in his attempted comeback and incumbent Philip Daw, a former mayor, was defeated. Bill Bennett has progressed from the biggest external critic to a reasonable councillor over 4 years and now the first re-elected in his ward. Stay positive, Bill! All up, 7 incumbents got back, suggesting the council has performed well. The strong female majority of 6 out of 10 is also welcome, meaning a good chance for a female major and so it was when Denise Massoud got up.

2020 update: shifted to 11 single member wards which delivered a 6-5 female majority with Andrew Munro as mayor after only narrowly getting back. A majority of the incumbents were returned including at least 4 Liberals such as Denise Massoud, Blair Barker, Andrew Davenport and Andrew Murno.

* Whittlesea City Council
11 spots, 2 wards of 4 and 1 ward of 3. 36 candidates. 2 retirements, 3 defeats. See results.
The Labor Party are endorsing candidates for all the wards. Former mayor John Fry was endorsed in the South East Ward but fell short in his comeback attempt, perhaps because he was arrested for allegedly defacing the posters of rival candidates Norm Kelly and Mary Lallios. The photos were taken by Norm Kelly and posted on facebook by Ricky Kirkham, a military man and the sole conservative on the current council, albeit in a different ward. Deputy mayor and union heavy Norm Kelly, no longer an ALP member, controversially claimed Bill Shorten's support in a pamphlet, when he has to support rival John Fry. Interestingly, former mayor and MAV vice president Mary Lalios sought and got ALP endorsement but now runs the risk of expulsion for giving her preferences to non-Labor people, including Norm Kelly. However, the arrest and subsequent defeat of John Fry may complicate how this plays out. Independent Rex Griffin has been mayor on multiple occasion as the neutral amidst warring Labor factions but he's moved house and ran unsuccessfully in Mornington Peninsula. Mayor Steve Kozmevski is regarded by neutral non-Labor observers as the best of the incumbents and was re-elected, along with Kelly, Lallios and Kirkham, but Fry missed out. Fry's old ally Sam Alessi managed to get back but Labor doesn't have the number as Ricky Kirkham scored the mayoralty.

2020 update: no election as they were sacked but the great Lydia Wilson is the chief administrator.

Wodonga City Council
7 spots, no wards and 24 candidates. 2 retirements, 1 defeat. See results.
Down to only 5 councillors after Mark Byatt resigned on June 3 to take up a position with the Victorian public service and Eric Kerr resigned to contest Indi for the Labor Party. The remaining 5 have a 3-2 male majority but a female mayor in Anna Speedie. Veteran Labor figure Lisa Mahood and Rod Wangman are both retiring so a majority of positions are vacant. Only 6 females in the 24 person field so likely to produce a male majority. Anna Speedie is the new mayor.

2020 update: a 4-3 male majority. See results.

Wyndham City Council
11 spots, 2 wards of 4 and 1 ward of 3. A record 95 candidates. 3 retirements, 4 defeats. See results.
The Sunday Age did a big piece on September 18 on wealthy entrepreneur and local councillor Intaj Kahn which will generate extra attention on that council during these elections. He's clearly a polarising figure or someone running multiple support candidates as his ward of Harrison is the most heavily contested in Victorian history with 41 of the record 95 candidates running in Wyndham. Intaj Khan was re-elected but doesn't look to have the numbers. Labor secured two comebacks, including Henry Barlow who almost secured an upper house seat in Western Metropolitan in 2006 and got up as mayor in his first year back.

2020 update: A 7-4 female majority with quite a bit of turnover although Josh Gilligan, Mia Shaw and Peter Maynard were all returned.

* Yarra City Council
9 spots, 3 wards of 3 and 33 candidates. 3 retirements, 2 defeats. See results.
We predicted before polling day that it was likely to return 3 Greens, 3 ALP and 3 others, but the Green vote was stronger than expected and they took a 4-2 lead over Labor with 3 others. Independent Jackie Fristacky and socialist Stephen Jolly were returned but 2015 independent mayor Phillip Vlahogiannis was defeated. Daniel Nguyen got up as a surprise independent in Melba ward. Labor has been well lead by incumbent mayor Roberto Colanzi but he was defeated by Green Misha Coleman who switched wards to run as number two on the ticket in Nicholls ward. Labor ran a clean and united team which included Lindy Mills, Aman Gaur, Mi-Lin Chen Yi Mei, Danae Bosler and Luke Creasey, but only 2 female councillors prevailed with Mi-Lin Chen Yi Mei and Danae Bosler getting up on preferences. Amanda Stone returned for the Greens meaning we will have a 5-4 female majority which delivered the mayoralty to Green Amanda Stone.

2020 update: Veterans such as Green Amanda Stone and socialist Stephen Jolly were returned but history was made with 5 of the 9 councillor being Greens, plus an impressive 6-3 female majority. See results.

Yarra Ranges Shire Council
9 spots, 9 wards of 1 and 25 candidates. 1 retirements, 2 defeats. See results.
A 7-2 male majority and mayor Jason Callanan is the only retiree. Single member wards but Terry Avery is the only incumbent who gets back without a contest. 8 females in the field and incumbent Maria McCarthy has been challenged by 3 men. Very disappointing to have Fiona McAllister returned as the only female councillor. Former Green Mike Clarke got one of the biggest votes and veteran Noel Cliff was elected mayor.

2020 update: a 5-4 male majority and former State Greens MP Samantha Dunn fell short in her attempt to return to the council. See results.

Yarriambiack Shire Council
7 spots, 1 ward of 3 and 2 wards of 2. 15 candidates. 2 retirements, 2 defeats. See results..
A nicely balanced 4-3 male majority council at the moment but three are retiring (including two of the incumbent 3 females), so change is coming. At least the female mayor Helen Ballentine is running again, along with deputy mayor Terry Grange. Men topped the primaries in all 3 wards but the voters still delivered a 4-3 female majority. Nice work. Graeme Massey was easily the most popular candidate with almost 50% of the primaries in his ward and this no doubt assisted in the decision to make him mayor in 2017.

2020 update: 1 of the 3 wards was uncontested and returned a 4-3 male majority, like in 2016. See results.

MET

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