KATE Roper is set to make a triumphant return to Mornington Peninsula Shire Council after winning this month’s Watson Ward byelection.
Roper won the seat against five other candidates with 50.72 per cent of the vote after the distribution of preferences.
Stefan Borzecki received 23.15 per cent of first preference votes to Roper’s 21.48 per cent.
Roper was elected to represent Cerberus Ward in 2016 but lost to Lisa Dixon at the 2020 elections after a count of second preferences despite having more first preference votes.
The byelection this month was held to fill the vacancy created on the 11-member council by the resignation in December of Paul Mercurio, elected as Labor’s MP for Hastings at the November election. Mercurio was elected to council in November 2020.
In the lead-up to the Watson Ward byelection Roper said she had family and friends in the ward who has been “disappointed by no representation for eight months”.
“They know the work I have done in Hastings and the projects I initiated and finished there and would like me to apply my skills to getting results for Watson Ward. I’m also fed up with the lack of funding on the Western Port side of the peninsula.
Roper said the major issue facing the shire was “the poor culture and lack of community satisfaction with the shire’s performance, according to the 2022 customer satisfaction survey”.
“The competing demands on the budget should align with priorities of the rate paying population and council decisions should reflect this.”
Roper said she had a background in “professional finance” and had worked as a contract bookkeeper and owned a retail business for 10 years.
Her return to the council follows that of Cr Simon Brooks, who was elected to Seawinds Ward after a countback of votes following the December resignation of Kerri McCafferty, who won the seat from him at the 2020 council elections.
