On 24 October 2020, our community elected 11 councillors to represent them. These are the councillors who governed Merri-bek during the 2020-21 year. The next election is in 2024.

These councillors are elected in 3 wards across our municipality:

• North-East Ward
• North-West Ward
• South Ward.

Our councillors

Our councillors for the 2020-21 year were:

North–East Ward:
Councillor Sue Bolton
Councillor Annalivia Carli Hannan
Councillor Helen Pavlidis-Mihalakos
Councillor Adam Pulford

North–West Ward:
Councillor Helen Davidson
Councillor Milad El-Halabi JP
Councillor Angelica Panopoulos
Councillor Oscar Yildiz JP

South Ward:
Councillor James Conlan
Councillor Mark Riley
Councillor Lambros Tapinos

Five other councillors represented Merri-bek during part of the 2020-21 year. This was before local government elections on 24 October 2020. They were:

• Natalie Abboud
• Jess Dorney
• Ali Irfanli
• John Kavanagh
• Dale Martin

We thank them for their valued contributions during the previous term of Council.

Mayor

Council elects a mayor and a deputy mayor each year.

In November 2020, Council elected Cr Annalivia Carli Hannan as Mayor and Cr Mark Riley as Deputy Mayor. They held these offices until November 2021.

Committees

Councillors take part in a range of committees or groups. This is one of their important roles as representatives of the community.

You can read more about what committees and responsibilities each councillor had during 2020-21 in our Moreland's Councillors (PDF 140Kb).

Code of conduct

We have a code of conduct setting out the standards of behaviour expected of councillors. Councillors should behave fairly and respectfully. This is so they can work together in the best interests of the community.

Our Councillor Code of Conduct was reviewed and adopted on 23 February 2021. You can read more about this on our Councillor conduct page.

The Local Government Act 2020 required us to have a new code of conduct. You can read more about this in the Our governance section of this report.

Conflict of interest

Councillors are elected to act in the best interests of the community. Council staff also need to act in the public interest when undertaking their duties.

A conflict of interest occurs when a personal or private interest might compromise, or might be perceived to compromise, the ability to act in the public interest.

A conflict of interest exists even if no improper act results from it.

We have a procedure in place to accommodate the disclosure of a conflict of interest. The opportunity to declare a conflict of interest is a standard agenda item for all council meetings. This declaration also takes place before the start of procurement and recruitment processes.

We maintain a register to record all disclosed conflicts of interest.

During 2020-21, 26 conflict of interest disclosures were made at council meetings. In declaring a conflict of interest, the relevant councillor would leave the meeting. This removed them from the decision-making process on that matter.

In 1 instance, a declaration was made on behalf of a councillor who was not in attendance.

There were 4 conflict of interest declarations made for council officers.

We reviewed our Gifts, Benefits and Hospitality Policy for Councillors in April 2021. This policy sets out practices to avoid the potential for conflicts of interest through the offer/acceptance of:

• gifts
• benefits
• hospitality.

Our procedures vary depending on the role and circumstances of the offer. Our policy has robust thresholds and defined practices.