Shire of Broome election: councillors given strong mandate to continue at the helm

Shire of Broome voters chose to make no change to their leadership team at this year’s local government election, instead handing a mandate to the current team to progress a number of key projects. Harold Tracey (1363 votes), Desiree Male (1278 votes) and Peter Taylor (999 votes) were on Saturday night returned to the three Broome ward seats, while Philip Matsumoto won the Dampier ward seat with 109 votes. The four incumbents defeated Ellen Smith (967 votes), Tony Lee (871 votes), and James Carpenter (850 votes) in the Broome ward, and Johani Mamid (58 votes) in the Dampier ward. Speaking after the election victory, Cr Tracey said he was honoured to have had so much support behind him. “I think it’s pretty clear who the community want to lead,” he said. “We’ve proved over the last few years that we can keep rates down while attracting State Government funding for large infrastructure projects, and that’s exactly what we’ll continue to do. “The Cable Beach redevelopment, safe boat launching facility, resource recovery park and skate park redevelopment are some of the big projects to look out for over the next year — things we’ve been working towards for years. Cr Tracey said the election had at times turned ugly, but he hoped unsuccessful candidates would now get behind the current leadership team. “There’s been a fair bit of name calling and misinformation in this election which has caused a bit of a divide in the town,” he said. “I think in many ways it was unnecessary and I hope we can move forward as a united group. “In the lead up to the vote there were accusations of us not listening to the community — but the community has chosen us to continue, I think that says a lot.” At time of print the Broome Advertiser understood Harold Tracey was likely be to be re-elected president.