Jenny Mountford takes over as Shire president of Bridgetown-Greenbushes following John Bookless’ resignation

Cr Jenny Mountford has been voted in as the new Bridgetown-Greenbushes Shire president after the shock resignation of John Bookless. Mr Bookless resigned from his position on April 26, which took immediate effect and left the council without a leader for two days. Cr Mountford defeated Cr Amanda Rose in a 6-1 vote before an ordinary meeting on Thursday. She said in her speech to the council that the Shire was at a pivotal time and a combined force between herself and deputy Shire president Sean Mahoney would put the council in good stead going forward. “We need a leadership team that is connected to the pulse of current trends in our community, is unafraid to make hard decisions and prepared to do the work,” she said. “I believe deputy president Sean Mahoney and I together have those attributes.” Mr Bookless’ resignation from the council came one week after Cr Barbara Johnson resigned from her position. The two vacancies have now seen the Shire dip below the minimum number of 80 per cent of councillors in office needed under the Local Government Act. The advice from the WA Electoral Commission notified the Shire there needed to be at least 80 per cent of the council seats filled in a local government area with no wards and the vacancies left the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Shire with 77 per cent of its seats filled. As the 2021-22 Shire budget does not provide for the cost of an extraordinary election, preliminary discussions with the WAEC had the rough cost of the election between $17,000 and $18,000 for a postal vote. The cost of an in-person vote would be less than half but runs the risk of a much lower voter turnout. There will be a special council meeting on May 12 where CEO Tim Clynch will present the relevant information regarding potential cost, date and type of extraordinary election for the council to vote on.