Councillor motivated by conscience

By Shaun Inguanzo
A COUNCILLOR who gave up the chance to be mayor to allow John Kelly to take the honour says it was her conscience, not political pressure that was behind her decision.
Noble Park North Ward councillor Maria Sampey said that in late 2004 it was Dandenong North Ward councillor John Kelly and former councillor David Kelly’s votes that enabled her to become mayor.
She said that having had a go at being mayor, and seeing Cr Kelly’s face last week, she felt compelled to “to do the right thing” and repay his support by withdrawing her nomination and giving him her vote.
Cr Kelly, a Liberal supporter, has long blamed party politics for denying him the mayoralposition in his previous 13 years as a councillor.
Cr Sampey is a member of the Australian Labor Party, which non-Labor councillors this week criticised for pressuring their ALP colleagues into banding together to toe the party line on council voting.
She was on the cusp of becoming mayor for 2008 after winning a straw vote between councillors on Monday 3 December.
On the Tuesday, fellow Labor Party member Jim Memeti emerged as a candidate – a move that threw the vote into disarray and forced Cr Sampey to reconsider her candidacy.
She spoke to councillors Alan Gordon and Sue Walton, who had shown their support for her nomination.
Both said they would also support Cr Kelly at Thursday night’s vote.
Cr Sampey admitted she would face retaliation from the party, particularly when she runs for Ward re-election at next year’s Greater Dandenong council election.
“They’ll target me and put three or four (party members) against me and they will all preference to one another,” she said.
But Cr Sampey said she did not care about the repercussions and stood by her decision to support Cr Kelly.
“Honestly I am still emotional and just so happy for John,” she said.
“I am not concerned about the future because I just feel that at the end of my life I will have been accountable to God and feel I need to say that at least I tried to do the right thing.
“That’s where I’m coming from.”