by Cam Lucadou-Wells
After more than a share of drama, a fresh-faced Greater Dandenong Council was elected late last year.
For the first time, a majority of female councillors were elected.
They included new representatives Isabella Do (Greens, Keysborough South), Alice Le (ALP, Springvale Central) and Melinda Yim (ALP, Keysborough).
In a bitter battle, former mayor and 25-year councillor Angela Long was defeated by Greens councillor Rhonda Garad, who had switched to Long’s ward weeks ahead of the election.
Garad said she was “delighted”, “thrilled” and “relieved” by the upset win against three Labor opponents.
However Long said she was “stabbed in the back” by her one-time friend.
Meanwhile, former councillor Maria Sampey locked horns with mayor Lana Formoso – who had defeated Sampey in the 2020 elections.
Sampey sent mailouts attacking Formoso in Noble Park North Ward as well as backing independent councillor Bob Milkovic against Formoso’s husband Daniel in Dandenong North Ward.
Formoso counter-claimed that she would seek an intervention order against Sampey as well as seek legal advice for a potential defamation case.
There was much comment about three members of the Formoso clan running as candidates.
The third being Formoso’s brother Sasha Jankovic, who unsuccessfully ran in Keysborough South Ward.
Ultimately after the skirmishes, Milkovic and Lana Formoso were comfortably returned to council.
Initially, the campaign was rocked when ex-deputy mayor Richard Lim was declared ineligible to run by the Victorian Electoral Commission.
Lim – who lives outside Greater Dandenong but owns several properties including a Springvale pharmacy in the council area – had purportedly failed to enrol on the election roll.
He later told Star Journal that he’d assumed he was automatically on the roll – as had been the case in previous elections.
Letters were allegedly sent advising ratepayers not living in Greater Dandenong about the enrolment process, but Lim says he didn’t receive one.
In Yarraman Ward, Phillip Danh won his second election less than a year after claiming the ward’s by-election.
In a two-way race, the ALP law student comfortably defeated independent Ian Cook – who is sueing the council for alleged malicious prosecution in the so-called ‘Slug-gate’ affair.
Surprisingly, Sophie Tan was re-elected uncontested in Noble Park Ward. She later was voted in as deputy mayor – also unopposed.
The longest-serving councillors are Jim Memeti (also re-elected as mayor in November), Sean O’Reilly and Loi Truong.
The new council features a strong majority of eight ALP members, two Greens and an independent.
