Central Coast Council: Election date announced for September 14 2024

An election date has been announced for Central Coast residents to vote in fresh councillors, while the Local Government Minister says locals have been “accosted” by the budget blowout crisis.

Coasties will go to the polls to elect new councillors on September 14 2024.

NSW Local Government Minister Wendy Tuckerman visited Wyong on Wednesday to announce the date which will be four years on from the financial crisis which saw the council plunge itself $565m into debt.

Ms Tuckerman said the move was is in light of the Public Inquiry into the crisis and recommendations handed down by Commissioner Roslyn McCulloch. It also brings the council in line with the schedule of other local government elections.

“I have also consulted with the Administrator in regards to where the organisation stands at this current time and I feel that we are best placed to ensure the election will take place in two years time,” Ms Tuckerman said.

NSW Local Government Minister Wendy Tuckerman visited the Central Coast to announce the next local government election.

“The community need certainty around their council and it’s important we ensure that we have a council that is fit for purpose … and can deliver.

“I know this maybe disappointing for some people but it is important that we make sure we are not going back to the same situation we were in in the past. At the end of the day it’s the ratepayers that have been accosted in this whole environment and they’re the ones that have been paying for the mistakes of the previous council.”

She said she didn’t think it would be a “democracy” racing back into a situation like the past few years.

“It’s important to make sure that what we are handing back to council in two years time is fit for purpose,” she said.

Ms Tuckerman confirmed that at this stage any of the sacked councillors will be able to run in the 2024 election, however she said a “misconduct review” was currently underway.

“What the result of that review will be, I don’t know,” she said.

Coasties last took to the polls in a local government election in 2017. Picture: Troy Snook

Councillors were suspended in October 2020 before being officially sacked in March 2022 following the findings of the Public Inquiry into the council’s downfall.

The Inquiry made a number of findings including councillors repeatedly voting for budgets with growing deficits, lack of professional development training by councillors and “reckless” financial decisions made by some councillors.

The Inquiry recommended that an Administrator be in place until elections are held.

Current Administrator Rik Hart said while the council crisis was essentially over, the announcement of a 2024 election allowed the council to move forward.

“We do have a lot of work still to do inside the organisation to make sure the services provided to the community are delivered in a more effective and more productive manner,” he said.

“It is going to take time. We will ensure that we are consulting and working with the community.”

Mr Hart’s term as Administrator expires on October 31 2022 and when asked if he would stay on he said the decision was “at the whim of the Minister”.

Central Coast Parliamentary Secretary Adam Crouch said the move saved ratepayers from paying for two elections within a short period.

Former Interim Administrator Dick Persson AM called for sacked councillors not to be able to run in the election following their sacking. Picture: Fiona Killman

Public Inquiry Commissioner Roslyn McCulloch.

Central Coast Parliamentary Secretary Adam Crouch said what we had seen in the past was a “mismanaged council”.

“What this does is very clearly sets out the framework that Central Coast Council can be in the best possible financial and economic situation moving forward into the future. What we can’t afford is to go back to the dark old days of what we have seen.”

He said having a $1.5m-$2m election earlier would be a financial burden to ratepayers.

The council’s referendum question will also be held at the September 14 2024 election on whether to eliminate the ward system and number of councillors.

The questions will be – “Do you favour a reduction in the number of Central Coast Councillors, from fifteen to nine, and the removal of wards? This will result in nine Councillors with all electors voting for all nine Councillors, and all nine Councillors representing the whole Central Coast.”