Ku-ring-gai council election, 2017

Ku-ring-gai council covers the upper north shore of Sydney, including the suburbs of Roseville, Lindfield, Killara, Gordon, Pymble, Turramurra, St Ives, Warrawee and Wahroonga.

Wards
Ku-ring-gai council is divided into five wards, with each ward electing two councillors.

Comenarra ward covers north-western parts of the council, including West Pymble, South Turramurra, and parts of Turramurra, Warrawee and Wahroonga. The ward’s north-eastern boundary follows the railway line through Turraumurra, Warrawee and Wahroonga.

Gordon ward covers central parts of the council, including Killara, Gordon and East Killara.

Roseville ward covers the southern end of the council, including Lindfield, Roseville, East Lindfield and Roseville Chase.

St Ives ward covers north-eastern parts of the council, including St Ives, St Ives Chase and the centre of Pymble.

Wahroonga ward covers eastern parts of Wahroonga, Turramurra and Warrawee, as well as North Turramurra and North Wahroonga.

Incumbent councillors

Comenarra Elaine Malicki Jeff Pettett (Liberal Democrats)
Gordon David Citer Cheryl Szatow
Roseville Jennifer Anderson David Armstrong
St Ives Christiane Berlioz David Ossip
Wahroonga Chantelle Fornari-Orsmond Duncan McDonald

History
The Ku-ring-gai area is very strong for the Liberal Party in state and federal elections, but the council is dominated by independents, with no major parties contesting local elections.

Each ward of Ku-ring-gai council elects two councillors. Prior to the 2012 election, these councillors were elected with a non-proportional system, where each candidate required a majority of the vote, and the votes of the first candidate were recycled to elect the second candidate. This produced a result where the two seats in each ward usually went to candidates running on the same ticket.

At the 2004 election, all five wards electing both candidates from the same ticket.

Adrienne Ryan was elected mayor in 2004, with Maureen Shelley elected as deputy mayor.

Elaine Malicki and Nick Ebbeck took over the council’s leadership in 2005, followed by Nick Ebbeck and Anita Andrew in 2006 and 2007. Over the course of the council term, councillors from four ward teams served as mayor or deputy mayor, with no candidate from St Ives team serving in a leadership role.

In 2008, all five wards elected a unified team. Elaine Malicki and Tony Hall were re-elected with new running mates in Comenarra and St Ives wards, while Nick Ebbeck and Tony Cross were re-elected in Wahroonga ward.

The incumbent councillors in Roseville ward retired, while Adrienne Ryan and Michael Lane were defeated for re-election.

In the 2008-2012 council, the mayoralty and deputy mayoralty were held exclusively by the councillors from the Comenarra, Roseville and Wahroonga wards. Elaine Malicki served as mayor from 2008 until 2010, followed by Ian Cross in 2010 and Jennifer Anderson in 2011. The deputy mayoralty was held by Jennifer Anderson and Elaine Malicki.

Since 2012, the leadership has been shared amongst five councillors, each of whom represents a different ward. Elaine Malicki was elected mayor in 2012 and deputy mayor in 2013. Cheryl Szatow was deputy mayor in 2012 and mayor in 2015. Jennifer Anderson was mayor in 2013, 2014 and 2016. Chantelle Fomari-Orsmond was deputy mayor in 2014, and David Ossip was deputy mayor in 2015 and 2016.

Candidates
Six sitting councillors are running for re-election.

Jeff Pettett is running for re-election in Comenarra, and Cheryl Szatow is running for re-election in Gordon. Gordon councillor David Citer has shifted to the St Ives ward, while St Ives councillor Christiane Berlioz is running second on a ticket in her ward. Both Roseville councillors, Jennifer Anderson and David Armstrong, are running for re-election.

Assessment
Until the Liberal Party decides to formally intervene in Ku-ring-gai council politics, the council should be expected to remain independent-dominated.

Ku-ring-gai council elections are dominated by independents, and it isn’t obvious if there are broader cross-ward alliances, making it hard to publish results tables and maps. If you know more about which council tickets were allied and thus can be added together, please comment below.

Candidates – Comenarra ward

  • A
    1. Jeff Pettett
    2. Catherine Ward
  • B
    1. Callum Clarke
    2. Jayamala Gupte

Candidates – Gordon ward

  • A
    1. Peter Kelly
    2. Anne Matheson
  • B
    1. Rakesh Duncombe
    2. Vanessa Hicks
  • C
    1. Cheryl Szatow
    2. Jacqui Whymper-Williams
  • D
    1. Greg Cook
    2. Maria Cook

Candidates – Roseville ward

  • A
    1. Sam Ngai
    2. Tanya Smith
  • B
    1. David Armstrong
    2. Liesel Bertram
  • C
    1. Jennifer Anderson
    2. John Hepburn
  • D
    1. Chiming Shea
    2. Owen Houston
  • Ungrouped
    • Kym Bonnefin

Candidates – St Ives ward

  • A
    1. Christine Kay
    2. Donny Zhao
  • B
    1. David Citer
    2. Tony Mitchell
  • C
    1. Martin Smith
    2. Christiane Berlioz
  • Ungrouped
    • Richard Winderbaum

Candidates – Wahroonga ward

  • A
    1. Cedric Spencer
    2. Tony Pang
  • B
    1. John Cronly
    2. Geoff Turk
  • C
    1. Donna Greenfield
    2. Nick Bakker

8 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you for the information. The Liberal Party has not formally moved to intervene in Ku-ring-gai Council elections but certainly has intervened with so-called ‘independents’, now and in the past. It appears that, at least in the Roseville Ward and with the exception of Group B, the rest have Liberal Party links.

    What amuses me is the number of ‘independent’ candidates that have never taken any active roles in the local resident groups or ever been seen at council meetings but suddenly have a keen interest in council business.

    If the Liberal Party gets enough of its ‘independent’ candidates elected, are we going to see them supporting the Liberal Party position on council’s amalgamation?

  4. I would have thought that in a democracy with compulsory voting there should be a requirement by the candidates to provide even basic information about what they stand for and their background experience. If the electorate has little or no knowledge of this fundamental information how can the vote have any value?
    These candidates need to be held accountable if they expect to be supported. It would be equally important to advise the voting public what they have achieved in their role as a councillor.

  5. Reference to H. Ferris comments the Liberals have got some catching up to do by ‘stacking’ Independents even if it were the case. Labor and the Greens have been doing it for years. True Independents rarely exist. Of most concern to local constituents is the poor state of roads in the area and the continual population density build-up. Traffic jams becoming the norm. Does anyone really have a plan?

  6. >Traffic jams becoming the norm. Does anyone really have a plan?

    Stop investing money in roads and improve public transport. Building roads has never solved congestion, it just leads to more people choosing to drive until there is congestion again.

  7. I have a brochure for Comenarra Ward which shows Jeff Pettett and Trish Lynch as candidates. Trish Lynch is not on your list !

Comments are closed.