Peter Feasey elected as new City of Kwinana mayor

Former City of Kwinana Deputy Mayor Peter Feasey has been elected as the City’s new Mayor after a landslide victory last weekend. The electorate officer and local government veteran was formally announced the winner on Sunday after blowing away his three rival candidates in Saturday night’s count. Mr Feasey was the first choice for more than half of the voters in the City’s first popular election for Mayor. He received 4522 votes, more than double of his nearest rival, fellow councillor Barry Winmar. The overwhelming count meant the new preferential voting system was not required. Mr Feasey is taking the reins from long-standing mayor Carol Adams, who announced she was retiring earlier this year, and said it would be “business as usual” in his new role. “I don’t think it’s really all sunk in just yet .... I’ve been on council for a long time, so I guess it’s somewhat of a reward for my commitment to the community,” he told the Sound Telegraph. “I went into the election thinking that it was a 50/50 between me and Barry Winmar, and I’m actually quite surprised at how well Ivy Penny polled.” Ms Penny collected 1649, or roughly 18 per cent, of the first preference votes and another candidate, Jim Bryson, had 581 votes. Mr Feasey has been a councillor for the City of Kwinana since 2007 and spent 10 years as Deputy Mayor working alongside Ms Adams. “I’ve been one step behind Carol for the past 10 years and I have certainly learned a lot and I’ll look to build on the commitment and the dedication to the community that she’s put in over the years,” he said. “I’ll obviously find my own style of how I’ll lead, but it’ll be a collaborative approach with all councillor views taken on board.” Mr Feasey said he remained committed to his election promises, in particular to increase community safety, sustainable development and future development for the city. “We’ve obviously got a lot of new communities coming on board,” he said of Kwinana’s future. “We need to make sure that all those facilities — community centres, sporting ovals or local parks — at the right level, so people in those communities aren’t isolated. “I’m certainly super grateful for the support that I’ve received from the community and like I said, quite overwhelmed by just the sheer volume of support when it came to the number of votes I received.” While unsuccessful in the mayoral ballot, Ms Penny scored one of the five councillor vacancies. Votes were finalised on Monday morning, with newcomers David Acker and Erin Sergeant also claiming a seat alongside re-elected duo Sherilyn Wood and Michael James Brown. The new Mayor and councillors will be officially sworn in on Monday, October 30.