Our council
Every 4 years, Merri-bek residents and ratepayers elect our councillors. Together these councillors make decisions in the interests of the whole municipality.
Councillors
On 22 October 2016, our community elected 11 councillors to represent them. These are the councillors who governed Merri-bek during the 2019-20 year.
These councillors are elected in 3 wards across our municipality:
- North-East Ward
- North-West Ward
- South Ward.
Our councillors for the 2019-20 year were:
North–East Ward
Councillor Natalie Abboud
Councillor Sue Bolton
Councillor Annalivia Carli Hannan
Councillor Ali Irfanli
North–West Ward
Councillor Helen Davidson
Councillor John Kavanagh
Councillor Dale Martin
Councillor Oscar Yildiz JP
South Ward
Councillor Jess Dorney
Councillor Mark Riley
Councillor Lambros Tapinos
There were local government elections on 24 October 2020 for the next 4-year term. You can find your new councillors on our website.
Our councillors receive expenses and allowances for their work. And we have a code of conduct setting out their expected behaviour.
You can read about how council meetings are run. We also record councillor attendance at these meetings.
Mayor
Council elects a Mayor and a Deputy Mayor each year.
In October 2019, Council elected Cr Tapinos as Mayor and Cr Yildiz as Deputy Mayor. They held these offices until October 2020.
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 2019-20. Download the section of our full report about Merri-bek’s councillors.