‘I’m not obsessed’: Jess dismisses plans to become Blacktown mayor

Liberal councillor Jess Diaz has hit back at his critics, saying he has no ambition of becoming mayor and just wants to focus on his community work.

Blacktown Councillor Jess Diaz has defended his motives to run again in the local government elections.

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Liberal councillor Jess Diaz has hit back at his critics, saying he has no ambition of becoming mayor and just wants to focus on his community work.

Cr Diaz, 76, has come under fire since the Liberal Party preselection contest last month. His son, Jaymes, was preselected for Ward 2, along with Liberals Frederick Brillo, for Ward 3, and Linda Santos, for Ward 4.

Cr Diaz said he did not ask his son to contest the election, contrary to publicspeculation.

“It’s up to him,” he said.

Mr Brillo and Ms Santos are believed to be connected to Cr Diaz, who controls four of the seven Liberal Party branches in the Blacktown area.

Councillors on both sides of politics claimed Cr Diaz was attempting to bolster his bid for mayor by placing family members and friends on the council.

Labor Mayor Stephen Bali accused the Liberal patriarch of attempting to create a “Diaz town” made up of nodding heads, while departing Liberal councillor Len Robinson said Cr Diaz had become “obsessed” with becoming mayor.

Cr Diaz said these claims were not true.

“I have no obsession,” he said. “My thing at my age is nothing but community work. I didn’t go there (council) to be the mayor. I have the community’s interest at heart.”

Cr Diaz failed in two recent mayoral bids after narrowly losing secret ballots. He lost by one vote last year after former colleague Jacqueline Donaldson resigned from the Liberal Party before the vote.

He said while he had no ambition to become mayor, he would not shy away from the responsibility if the post was offered to him. The council is due to elect its mayor on September 28, following elections on September 10. Cr Diaz would need to win a majority of votes on the 15-person council. He said he would make a good mayor because he had a plan to make Blacktown “a modern metropolis”.

But his colleague, departing Liberal councillor Karlo Siljeg, did not rate his chances. “I think he’s done what he thinks he needs to do but you never how people are going to vote at the ballot box,” he said.