The results of the 2024 local government elections have been finalised this week, with some interesting results and a flood of new faces in councils across the entire South West Slopes region of NSW.
Hilltops Council
The people of the Hilltops region have spoken, voting five new faces onto the local 11-person council following the 2024 NSW local government elections.
The NSW Electoral Commission has this week confirmed the results of the 14 September poll, which returned former councillors in Matt Stadtmiller (Cunningar), Mary Dodd (Young), Joanne Mackay (Boorowa), Tony Flanery (Barwang), Brian Ingram (Young) and Alison Foreman (Burrangong) for the 2024-2028 term.
They will be joined by newcomers in Boorowa’s James Blackwell and Kingsvale’s Michelle Gallo, as well as Young’s Neil Langford, Fiona Douglas and Jake Davis.
The margin between the last elected candidate, Ms Gallo, and last unelected candidate, former councillor Patrick Fitzgerald, was 77 votes.
Mr Stadtmiller’s concurrent bid to join Yass Council was not successful.
This will be the last term the Hilltops Council will have 11 seats positioned at the crescent-shaped table, following a referendum asking Hilltops voters whether they want a reduction in the number of councillors from 11 to nine.
The response was an overwhelming 63.85 per cent in favour of a smaller, nine-person council, with just 36.15 per cent of formal votes supporting an 11-person council.
Hilltops Council general manager Anthony O’Reilly has confirmed the first meeting of the new council will take the form of an extraordinary meeting to be held at 4:30 pm on Wednesday, 9 October, at the council chambers in Young.
At this meeting, the mayor and deputy mayor will be elected by the councillors ahead of the first ordinary meeting of the new council on 24 October.
Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council
Just 41 votes separated Rosalind Wight and Allan Young for the final seat on Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council following the 14 September local government elections.
But the former Cootamundra Shire councillor prevailed, joining eight other successful candidates for the next four-year term of the council.
Among them will be some faces familiar to the council chambers in former councillors Logan Collins (Cootamundra), Ab McAlister (Gundagai), Penny Nicholson (Gundagai), David Graham (Adjungbilly) and Gil Kelly (Cootamundra), and several first-timers: Ethan Ryan (Cootamundra), Les Cooper (Cootamundra) and Danyal Syed (Cootamundra).
The council has not yet set a date for the extraordinary meeting of the new line-up, which would see the election of mayor and deputy mayor by the councillors, but it is anticipated to take place mid-October, before the council’s first ordinary meeting on 22 October.
Snowy Valleys Council
There were a few surprises in the mix of councillors elected to take Snowy Valleys Regional Council through the next four-year term, not the least of which was the loss of Johanna “Hansie” Armour and Sam Hughes.
As Batlow businessman Mr Hughes failed to attract the required number of votes and new candidate Barney Hyams was knocked out of contention by Little River’s David Sheldon by a margin of 17 votes, the result leaves Batlow residents shocked they have no representation on the council.
Their skerrick of hope now sits with council newbie Michael Inglis, who gained a seat at the table after campaigning on a grouped platform of being pro-Batlow despite the fact he too lives at Little River, west of Tumut.
Electors are hopeful the across-the-board representation is more evenly weighted throughout the LGA, which centres on the towns of Tumut, Adelong, Batlow and Tumbarumba and includes localities such as Brindabella, Brungle, Cabramurra, Gilmore, Grahamstown, Greg Greg, Gocup, Jingellic, Khancoban, Killimicat, Maragle, Rosewood, Talbingo, Tooma, Wondalga and Yarrangobilly.
Joining Messrs Inglis and Sheldon are three other newcomers to the nine-person council in Hugh Packard (Tumut), Andrew Wortes (Tumut) and Grant Hardwick (Tumut).
The 2024 election has also seen a return of some old-guard former councillors, Julia Ham (Oberne Creek), James Hayes (Adelong), John Larter (Mondongo) and Trina Thomson (Tumut).
The Snowy Valleys mayor and deputy mayor are expected to be elected by the new council at an extraordinary meeting at 2 pm on 10 October in the council chambers at Tumut.
Ordinary meetings of the council will then resume on 17 October.
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