Power declares victory in Logan and looks ahead to tumultuous coronavirus decisions
Political whistleblower Darren Power is expected to be sworn in as Logan’s new mayor next week after his main opponent conceded defeat today.
Logan
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Whistleblower Darren Power will be Logan’s next mayor after his main opponent,
Brett Raguse, declared defeat on Monday.
Mr Power is expected to be sworn in at a ceremony at the end of next week after postal votes are counted.
However, because of the coronavirus, the ceremony will be on an individual by individual basis.
He is expected to be joined by former councillors Lisa Bradley (Division 1), Laurie Koranski (Division 4), and Jon Raven (Division 5) who backed him and supported former chief executive Sharon Kelsey during one of the most volatile periods in the city’s history.
The former Division 10 councillor will take up the post after defeating seven other candidates.
With 60 per cent of the vote counted, Mr Power had 36.7 per cent with Mr Raguse trailing on 18 per cent.
The only woman in the race, Sherry Heath, came third with a strong showing of 11 per cent of the vote.
“It just goes to show what can be achieved with a cost-effective, modern and environmentally friendly campaign,” she said.
Mr Raguse congratulated Mr Power and said the city must now move forward and urged all new councillors to work together under Mr Power’s leadership.
“We now all need to come together behind our new mayor and councillors to support them in creating our preferred future,” he said.
“I’m sure all the candidates who collectively professed some great ideas for our future, during the campaign, will stay involved.”
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Mr Power said his biggest challenge will be to guide the city through the coronavirus but was also aware of having to draft a budget within weeks and help the council select a new CEO.
“This is going to be a tough job, and in many ways it is a poisoned chalice but right now we need leadership to get us through this coronavirus crisis,” he said.
“I served as the chairman of council’s Environmental Health committee for seven years so I have a lot of experience in public health but I will be immediately briefed by council’s Environmental Health Officers.
“I will also call for briefings from experts at the state and federal levels.
“The campaign was tough especially after we paid for how-to-vote cards and then weren’t allowed to use them.
“The coronavirus also deterred some but on the whole, most people did the right thing.”
The known whistleblower decided to run for the position after the former mayor Luke Smith and seven councillors were charged by the Crime and Corruption Commission with fraud in April last year.
The charges were related to the sacking of the former chief executive Ms Kelsey and led to the entire council being dissolved before Mr Power and three other councillors were then selected to serve on a committee to guide an administrator installed by the state government.
On Friday, the seven former councillors and mayor were unsuccessful in their appeal to halt an unfair dismissal case brought by Ms Kelsey and were ordered to pay Ms Kelsey’s costs.
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Mr Power served as a councillor for 22 years in Division 10, which used to cover Shailer Park, Cornubia, Carbrook, Loganholme and Tanah Merah.
That seat was one of the last to be decided with the likely winner to be Miriam Stemp.
In Division 2, Teresa Lane had 46 per cent of the primary vote in a race with five others.
Dinosaur mascots may have got Mindy Russell across the line in Division 3, beating long-time campaigner Kerry Nielsen, who narrowly missed out winning at the 2016 election.
Seven candidates ran in Division 6, which was split down the middle after the boundaries were redrawn last year.
Tony Hall looks like he will win the seat and was leading the vote count in front of former Liberal State MP Mike Latter and the Greens Kirsty Petersen.
In Division 7, Tim Frazer had a quarter of the votes with less than a third of the votes counted.
The angst-ridden seat of Division 8, which covers Park Ridge, Regents Park, Logan Reserve and Chambers Flat, looks like it will be won by the city’s youngest candidate Jacob Heremaia.
He became the centre of complaints for using a fake registered address and claims he redirected traffic from his opponent’s website.
Mr Heremaia also lodged his own complaints about opponent Kylie Slater claiming she was working as part of a team and handing out how to vote cards for Division 5 candidate Jon Raven. Mr Raven said the claims were not true and he was not part of any team.
Division 9 councillor is likely to be Scott Bannan, a former One Nation member and Jimboomba concreter who won three world Muay Thai titles fighting under the nickname “The Cannon”.
Division 11 is expected to be won by high school teacher Natalie Willcocks, who has lived in Greenbank for 15 years and in New Beith.
The battle for Beenleigh was still being played out with five candidates all polling very closely.
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