Steve Christou remains the Cumberland Mayor

Cumberland councillors have voted in a mayor to lead them to the next local government elections in December - where they will have to do it all over again.

Two years after he quit Labor to become the mayor of Cumberland, Steve Christou has held on to the top job.

Cr Christou defeated Kun Huang at a meeting on Thursday night when fellow Our Local Community councillors Eddy Sarkis and Paul Garrard, and Liberals Michael Zaiter, Tom Zreika, Ned Attie and Joseph Rahme threw their support behind Cr Christou.

Labor’s Ola Hamed, Lisa Lake, George Campbell, Suman Saha and Glenn Elmore voted for Cr Huang, and the mayorship was returned to Cr Christou. Cr Cummings abstained from voting for the top job and deputy mayor, which went to Cr Zaiter over Labor hopeful Cr Elmore.

Cr Christou, of Guildford, quit the Labor Party in September 2019 when he blamed its left-leaning politics for turning its back on the values he was drawn to almost two decades earlier.

“When I signed up to the party they represented the battlers — a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay,’’ he said at the time.

“Now they’ve gone too much to the Left, to the Greens.”

Steve Christou has returned as mayor. Picture: John Appleyard

Ahead of the vote, Cr Christou cited major achievements including the completion of the Granville Centre, Eric Tweedale Stadium, restoring Granville Town Hall and revamping Wentworthville Swimming Centre, and for council being one of the first organisations to have a NSW Health-run vaccination hub.

“The last two years have yielded some of the most unprecedented times this council has been through since it was formed,’’ Cr Christou said.

“As a council we have achieved so much in the past two years even while living through a harsh and dangerous pandemic which we have carefully navigated through.’’

Greg Cummings did not vote for the new mayor or deputy leader. Picture: Tim Pascoe

The council also “took hard and sometimes unpopular” financial decisions.

“Even with this tough financial position, this council has supported the community and business at length through the Covid-19 pandemic with various fee suspensions and rebates always putting our people first,’’ Cr Christou said.

His time as mayor has not come without controversy.

In November, he used his casting vote to begin the privatisation process for the council’s 17 childcare centres, but in August denied it was a political backflip when agreeing to retain the facilities that serve 660 children following public backlash.

In July, when Cumberland emerged one of the hardest-hit Covid red zones and public health orders called for people to work from home, Cr Christou blasted Labor councillors for attending meetings via Zoom.

His Twitter comments comparing the State Government’s Covid restrictions to the Nazi regime also prompted an outcry and Police Minister David Elliott called for his resignation.

Cr Christou apologised for the comments that insisted he was trying to highlight how vulnerable Cumberland has been during the pandemic, but Mr Elliott also blasted him for “telling porkies” after he told a television program the minister's office ignored calls.

However, Mr Elliott hit back when he said the inquiries were about vaccine centres and Service NSW inquiries, outside his portfolio.

The council must vote for a mayor again after the December 4 local government elections.

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