City of Albany told it must hold $24,000 extraordinary election despite reforms set to reduce council size

The City of Albany will hold a $24,000 extraordinary election to fill the council seat left vacant by the late Alison Goode after it was told there was no way to avoid it despite upcoming local government reforms. Under the reforms, the City of Albany council will be reduced from 13 members, including the mayor, to a maximum of nine. Local governments have been given until the end of the month to determine a plan to implement a raft of changes as part of the ordinary council election election cycle, with the next ordinary election scheduled for October next year. The death of Alison Goode — a former Shire of Albany deputy-president and the inaugural City of Albany mayor — triggered an outpouring of tributes in Albany on August 31. Ms Goode had been re-elected to the west ward for a four-year term last year. City chief executive Andrew Sharpe said the City had consulted the office of Local Government Minister John Carey and the WA Electoral Commission about the possibility of holding over the vacant seat until next year’s election. He said the City was told the minister would not consider a request to hold the vacancy “as there is no mechanism under the current legislation to do so”. “In accordance with current legislation, in order for a vacancy to be held over until the next ordinary local government election, the vacancy must occur after the third Saturday in January in an election year,” Mr Sharpe said. “The City’s next election is in October 2023, so in this instance, the vacancy is not eligible to be held over.” Last year, a vacancy on the council was held over after the election of Rebecca Stephens to State Parliament in March. Mr Carey said under the Local Government Act there were “very limited circumstances” in which a vacancy did not need to be immediately filled. He said that the need for extraordinary elections would be reduced as part of the local government reforms. “By amending the Act to allow extraordinary vacancies to be filled by the next highest polling candidate from the most recent election, if the vacancy occurs within a 12-month period after that election,” he said. “I encourage the City of Albany to engage with its local community to promote the extraordinary election to ensure the best possible voter turnout.” The WA Electoral Commission will run the west ward extraordinary election and have told the City it will cost an estimated $24,000. According to a timeline supplied to the City by the WAEC, an eight-day nomination period for the position will open on November 2 ahead of a December 16 election Mr Sharpe said he anticipated the successful candidate in the west ward election would serve the remaining term of the vacant position “even with the proposed local government reforms”. “It may be that the proposed reduction in elected member representation will take place over the next two elections in 2023 and 2025,” he said. “However, at this time no firm decision has been made on this matter, as a number of options need to be considered.”