Goya Dmytryshchak
Hobsons Bay council has three incumbents re-elected and four new councillors, in Victorian Electoral Commission results released today.
Cherry Lake councillor Tony Briffa was able to announce re-election early as the only candidate elected on primary votes without going to preferences.
The Independent will serve alongside Independent Daria Kellander.
“I’m obviously very pleased and honoured to have been elected for a fourth time,” Cr Briffa said.
“It has been such a difficult election, not just for candidates but a difficult time for the community.
“I’m just grateful that I have been elected because I wanted to be part of the council that supports the community moving out of COVID and lockdown, and that supports residents, community groups and business.
“That’s my focus.
“I’m really glad that there is a bunch of new councillors as well and I’m looking forward to working with all of them and working collaboratively as a team.”
In Strand ward, the three councillors elected were incumbents Greens’ Jonathon Marsden and Independent Peter Hemphill, along with newcomer, Independent Pamela Sutton-Legaud.
Cr Hemphill set a record as the first Hobsons Bay councillor elected for a seventh term.
“I’m pretty chuffed,” he said.
“If I see the term right out, which I have no reason not to, it will be more than 25 years serving the people of Hobsons Bay.
“There’s a lot of unfinished work. We’ve got a very very good administration and they’re all beavering away hard to do a lot of the capital works.
“We’ve got record capital works going on so I want to make sure that that program continues … it’s nice to have Jonathon and Tony and myself re-elected for hopefully some stability there and to continue on with the work in a pretty seamless fashion.”
Wetlands ward has two new councillors: Labor’s Matt Tyler and Independent Diana Grima.
Four former councillors did not run for re-election: Angela Altair, Colleen Gates, Sandra Wilson and Michael Grech.
