One fresh face and one ex-councillor have been elected to the City of Armadale council, while four sitting councillors were re-elected at last week’s Local Government Election.
Gary Smith was elected to the Minnawarra Ward comfortably ahead of his competition, receiving more than 40 per cent of the vote.
The Minnawarra Ward includes the CBD and Mount Richon.
Mr Smith is a long-term business owner in Armadale who ran on a platform of being open with and available to residents to hear concerns and ideas.
Speaking after the vote was called he thanked his supporters online.
“Thank you to all that helped me during the campaign,” he said.
“Thank you to all those that voted for me.
“Thank you to the other candidates for a great campaign.
“I look forward to working hard for the City of Armadale and the people in it.”
Former Armadale councillor Jeff Munn was elected to the Ranford Ward after defeating his closest rival by 186 votes.
The Ranford Ward, which consists of Harrisdale, Haynes, Brookdale and Wungong, was hotly contested – second and fifth places were separated by 51 votes.
Mr Munn will begin his fifth term as a councillor, after serving on the Armadale council from 1999 to 2015, thanking his supporters on Facebook.
Sitting councillors Donna Shaw, Caroline Wielinga, Carole Frost, Ruth Butterfield and Colin Campbell were re-elected.
Ms Shaw won nearly 70 per cent of the vote in the Heron Ward and Ms Wielinga picked up nearly 38 per cent of the vote for the Hills Ward, defeating rival Patricia Hart by 99 votes.
Carole Frost was comfortably re-elected to represent the Lake Ward.
Winning by the biggest percentage margin in the City of Armadale, Ruth Butterfield picked up more than 78 per cent of the vote for the River Ward in a two-candidate race.
Ms Butterfield received the fourth highest percentage of any candidate in the Western Australian Local Government Elections.
She was beaten only by Murray Ventris in Manjimup (79 per cent), Matt Whitfield in Rockingham (81 per cent) and Crol Williams in East Pilbara (92 per cent).
Colin Campbell was elected unopposed to the Palomino Ward after no other nominations were made.
The councillors were elected to serve until 2021.
Voter turnout was up on the 2015 election at more than 34 per cent.
