Lord Mayor contender Sandy Anghie reveals donations to council poll allies in race against Basil Zempilas

Lord mayor wannabe Sandy Anghie is helping to bankroll the campaigns of four council candidates, revealing the potential for a friendly voting bloc in the City of Perth.

Ms Anghie — who was elected a councillor in 2020 and is challenging popular incumbent Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas — has declared in-kind donations of $4038 to four council candidates for a total cost of $16,152.

The recipients are Labor member David Goncalves, who is the party’s health policy convenor according to his Linkedin, Jason Bo, Dave Lee and Bronte Macmillan. They are among the 12 candidates running for four vacancies on council.

The donations — for printing, delivery and postage of flyers — suggest Ms Anghie will have the votes on council to push through her agenda should she and the others succeed at the October 21 election. The co-ordinated campaign comes three years after the 2020 City of Perth inquiry exposed the dysfunction under former lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi — who was dismissed when the State dissolved the entire council in 2018 — with factionalism in the council a key driver of division.

The $8 million report into the council found “entrenched” divisions affected proper governance.

Mr Zempilas — an employee of Seven West Media, publisher of The West — has secured the backing of all four councillors not facing electors at the 2023 ballot.

Those councillors are Liam Gobbert, Clyde Bevan, Brent Fleeton and Viktor Ko.

Ms Anghie is not running for re-election on to council, meaning if she does not win the mayoral chains she will leave the City of Perth altogether.She told The West that in 2020 she was asked for her recommendations for council candidates and this time around had printed a list “in the interests of transparency”. “David Goncalves, Bronte Macmillan, Dave Lee and Jason Bo bring a diverse range of skills and experience to council and, importantly, share a passion for our city,” Ms Anghie said.

“The disclosure relates to the allocation of the total cost of a mail out, again in the interests of transparency. We each have a flyer in the same envelope.”

Cr Anghie said this was “not unusual” and pointed to a combined mail-out containing leaflets endorsing Catherine Lezer, who is running for reelection, and candidates Bruce Reynolds and Crawford Yorke.

Ms Lezer has disclosed two $1368 in-kind contributions, one from Loughton Yorke Lawyers, where Mr Yorke is a director, and one from Mr Reynolds.

Mr Zempilas has not disclosed receiving or making a donation in this election cycle.

The gift registry also reveals the favoured candidate of the Greens, who donated $2400 across five payments to Isabella Tripp, who ran for the party in the Federal division of Cowan last year. Despite council elections normally being non-partisan, Ms Tripp is openly running as “your local Greens candidate”.

No other political party has declared donations but former Labor government media adviser Mark Reed is running Ms Anghie’s campaign. Mr Reed was a very senior spin doctor for Mark McGowan during the height of his popularity.

The October council elections are the first to be held after electoral reforms were enacted which include optional preferential voting.

While the contest for Lord Mayor is essentially a two-horse race between Ms Anghie and Mr Zempilas, long-shot candidate Will Leyland has also received a gift from Business News — $495 for three tickets to an aged-care breakfast.