Hobsons Bay councillors at their swearing-in ceremony last week: Sandra Wilson, Paul Morgan, Luba Grigorovitch, Peter Hemphill, Angela Altair and Colleen Gates. 89613 Picture: CONTRIBUTED
By ALESHA CAPONE
THE next mayor of Hobsons Bay will be decided on Tuesday 13 November at a meeting of the area’s newly-elected seven councillors.
Recent council elections saw incumbents Cr Angela Altair, Cr Luba Grigorovitch, Cr Peter Hemphill and Cr Tony Briffa returned to their seats.
They were joined by new representatives Councillors Colleen Gates, Paul Morgan and Sandra Wilson.
Last Monday, six of the new councillors turned out to hear the official declaration of the Hobsons Bay City Council elections at the council chambers in Altona.
Then on Tuesday night, six of the new councillors were sworn into their new roles.
Cr Briffa put in an apology and was absent from both events.
After the official swearing-in ceremony, councillors said they could not speculate on who the next Hobsons Bay mayor could be.
Cr Morgan said he would like to gain more experience in being a councillor before possibly becoming a mayor, but would potentially back Cr Grigorovitch.
“If the opportunity did present itself and Luba was nominated, I would certainly consider it – but without knowing Luba’s intentions or what her future goals could be, I really could not say yet as the council has not discussed it,” he said.
Cr Grigorovitch said residents needed to wait for 13 November to find out who the next mayor would be.
“In relation to the mayoralty, firstly I would like the seven of us to sit down and talk about what is best for the city and I want it to be a joint decision,” Cr Grigorovitch said.
Cr Wilson and Cr Gates said council had not yet discussed the mayoralty.
After the election results were announced, founder of the Crikey.com news service, Stephen Mayne, took to Twitter to announce his views.
The former journalist now runs The Mayne Report, a website devoted to business activism and corporate governance.
“Very pleased to hear Briffa’s crew has been flattened in Hobsons Bay with John Hogg, Bill Tehan and Raffool all turfed. 3 sensibles are back,” he tweeted.
“This Hobsons Bay result is my favourite across the whole of Victoria. An unpleasant ruling faction blown away.”
