SOME councils in the east acknowledge Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley’s call to overhaul the election cycle for local governments while others decline to comment.

Concerned about voter turnout at the October elections, Ms Beazley said she wanted to overhaul council polling to once every four years.

“The issues of voter fatigue and the mounting costs of conducting local government elections are regularly raised with me by the sector and wider community,” Ms Beazley said.

According to the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety’s (DLGIRS) website, local government elections are held every two years.

The department said councillors, and mayors or presidents are elected for four-year terms with one half of the councillors retiring from the council at each election.

Shire of York acting chief executive officer Alina Behan said there were benefits and disadvantages to Ms Beazley’s proposal.

“This could result in a reduction in election costs but only if elected members see out their full four-year term,” she said.

“Engaging all councillors at the same time allows for a robust induction process and allows council to mature and grow together as a team for the full four-year term.

“This could produce greater stability in council and reduce the pressure on the administration inducting new members every two years.

“As many projects and issues need several years to complete, having the same council members for four years could assist in the retention of relevant knowledge.”

However, Ms Behan said mentoring amongst councillors should not be restricted by term.

With smaller local governments, Ms Behan said the pool of candidates could be small which meant electors were choosing from a limited field.

“In our last local government election, there was a significant disparity in votes received across the 10 candidates in the voting pool.

“Selecting the full seven councillors at the same time could result in an elected member with less than 2 per cent of the vote achieving a seat who then cannot truly claim to be representing the breadth of the community.”

Ms Behan said the non-compulsory nature of council elections after the federal and state elections could easily result in a downturn of voters.

“York has opted for postal voting in the past which relieves the pressure on electors.

“This has resulted in reasonable turnouts with approximately 40 per cent of returns received.”

Shire of Mundaring President Paige McNeil said the shire acknowledged Ms Beazley’s comments and welcomed ongoing conversations about strengthening democratic participation in local government.

“Our focus remains on serving our community and supporting robust and effective local governance,” Ms McNeil said.

“Regardless of the election cycle in place, we continue to promote community engagement and encourage a diverse range of community members to stand for council and to vote.”

Echo News asked the shire what it thought the benefits and challenges were of a four-year election cycle but the shire did not provide a response.

Kalamunda Mayor Margaret Thomas said because discussions about the election cycle were in the early stages, the city acknowledged further consideration was needed to understand the potential benefits and drawbacks of any proposed changes.

“At the 2023 local government ordinary election, voter turnout in the City of Kalamunda was 30.2 per cent, slightly below the state average of 31.6 per cent,” she said.

Ms Thomas said the city was committed to supporting the WA Electoral Commission (WAEC) and the WA Local Government Association (WALGA) in their efforts to encourage voter participation at the upcoming election.

WALGA president Karen Chappel said WALGA supported four-year terms for councils with elections held every two years.

“The sector’s position was based on the results of a sector-wide survey where 98 per cent of respondent local governments supported four-year terms with a spill of half the council every two years,” she said.

The Town of Bassendean, Shire of Northam and the City of Swan were contacted for comment.

The WA electoral commission (WAEC) said this year’s local government elections will be held on Saturday, October 18.