Cr Mary Lyons-Buckett has been elected Mayor of Hawkesbury City Council after defeating outgoing mayor Cr Les Sheather by eight votes to four in a secret ballot held on Tuesday night.
Cr Nathan Zamprogno was subsequently elected Deputy Mayor following a multi-round contest involving four candidates.
The result returns Cr Lyons-Buckett to the mayoral chair eight years after she completed her previous term as Mayor from 2016 to 2018. She also served as Deputy Mayor between 2018 and 2021.
All 12 councillors were present for the elections, which were conducted at the beginning of Council’s September 8 ordinary meeting.
Council chooses secrecy
The first significant decision of the night was not who would become mayor, but how councillors would vote.
With more than one candidate nominated, Council was required to choose between open voting, an ordinary ballot or a preferential ballot. Both ordinary and preferential ballots are conducted secretly.
Councillors voted eight to four to use an ordinary secret ballot for the mayoral election.
Crs Nathan Zamprogno, Mary Lyons-Buckett, Peter Ryan, Eddie Dogramaci, Les Sheather, Sarah McMahon, Amanda Kotlash and Shane Djuric supported the secret ballot.
Crs Danielle Wheeler, Paul Veigel, Jill Reardon and Mike Creed voted against it.
The decision followed public debate before the meeting about whether councillors should be able to choose the city’s leadership privately.
Cr Dogramaci had called for a secret ballot, arguing that councillors should be able to vote according to their judgement without fear of political or personal repercussions.
The secret ballot was helded against the back drop of the unresolved councillor-on-councillor bullying allegations being examined by SafeWork NSW.
No findings have been made against any individual councillor.
Lyons-Buckett defeats Sheather eight to four
After a nomination was withdrawn, the mayoral contest came down to Cr Lyons-Buckett and Cr Sheather.
Councillors were instructed to place an X beside their preferred candidate. The votes were then opened and counted in the chamber without identifying how individual councillors had voted.
Cr Lyons-Buckett received eight votes, while Cr Sheather received four.
General Manager Will Barton, acting as returning officer, declared Cr Lyons-Buckett elected Mayor for the September 2026 to September 2028 term.
The result was more decisive than many observers had expected.
Before the meeting, the strongest reported grouping appeared to be built around Cr Lyons-Buckett and then Deputy Mayor Cr Sarah McMahon, with the support of Crs Kotlash, Wheeler and Ryan.
That grouping was believed to begin with five votes. A separate grouping comprising Crs Creed, Dogramaci, Djuric and Zamprogno potentially held four, leaving Crs Sheather, Reardon and Veigel in pivotal positions.
The secret ballot means it is impossible to establish whether those anticipated groupings held together or which councillors ultimately crossed the apparent political divides.
However, Cr Lyons-Buckett’s eight votes show that she secured support well beyond the five-vote grouping previously associated with her prospective ticket.
New Mayor calls for councillors to work together
After taking the chair, Cr Lyons-Buckett thanked her colleagues for placing their faith in her.
She also acknowledged Cr Sheather’s work during his two years as Mayor and Cr McMahon’s service as Deputy Mayor.
Cr Lyons-Buckett said much had been achieved during their terms and expressed hope that all councillors would work together in the interests of the Hawkesbury.
“I hope that we can all work to achieve that,” she said before moving Council to the deputy mayoral election.
Four candidates contest Deputy Mayor
Four councillors were nominated for deputy mayor Cr Mike Creed, Nathan Zamprogno, Les Sheather and Amanda Kotlash.
Council again chose an ordinary secret ballot.
Nine councillors supported secrecy for the deputy mayoral contest, while Crs Wheeler, Veigel and Creed voted against it.
Cr Reardon, who had opposed a secret ballot for the mayoral election, supported secrecy for the deputy mayoral vote.
In the first round, Cr Zamprogno received six votes, Cr Creed four, Cr Kotlash one and Cr Sheather one.
Because Cr Kotlash and Cr Sheather were tied for the lowest number of votes, their names were placed into a draw to determine which candidate would be excluded.
Cr Sheather’s name was drawn, removing him from the contest. A second secret ballot was then conducted between Crs Zamprogno, Creed and Kotlash. Cr Zamprogno increased his support to eight votes. Cr Creed received three and Cr Kotlash one.
With Cr Kotlash holding the lowest number of votes, the contest was reduced to Cr Zamprogno and Cr Creed. Cr Creed then withdrew his nomination, saying the result was evident and congratulating Cr Zamprogno, avoiding the need for a final ballot.
Cr Zamprogno was declared deputy mayor for the September 2026 to September 2028 term.
Political lines crossed
The results demonstrate that the election was not decided simply along party lines.
Cr Lyons-Buckett leads the People Not Parties group, while Cr Zamprogno was elected to Council as an independent after failing to receive Liberal endorsement before the 2024 local government election.
Their election required support from councillors drawn from different political and independent groupings.
The use of secret ballots means the community cannot identify the individual votes that produced the final results. However, the margin in both contests indicates that the successful candidates attracted broader support than any single previously reported bloc could provide.
New leadership takes control
The Mayor chairs council meetings, represents the Hawkesbury at civic and government functions and plays a central leadership role during emergencies and periods of controversy.
The Deputy Mayor assumes those responsibilities when the Mayor is absent and can also play an important role in building cooperation and support across the chamber.
Crs Mary Lyons-Buckett and Nathan Zamprogno take control of Council’s political leadership following one of the most turbulent periods in its recent history.
In April, Council accepted the resignation of former general manager Elizabeth Richardson and approved a confidential separation payment understood to be approximately $340,000 during a late-night council meeting. Ms Richardson commenced new employment with the NSW Office of Sport about two weeks later.
That was followed by the decision of then Mayor Cr Les Sheather and Acting General Manager Will Barton to ban the Hawkesbury Gazette and Hawkesbury Radio from Council premises for media purposes. Council said the decision was made in response to workplace health and safety concerns. The Gazette has disputed Council’s stated basis for the ban, which remains in place against the newspaper.
Further controversy followed the May 12 council meeting, when Cr Mike Creed spoke publicly about councillor-on-councillor bullying and its effect on his mental health. Mr Barton did not refer Cr Creed’s disclosure to SafeWork NSW, maintaining that Cr Creed could make his own report. The Gazette subsequently referred the matter, and SafeWork NSW is now investigating. No findings have been made against any individual councillor.
Council then appointed Mr Barton as its permanent General Manager after a six-hour closed meeting. During the recruitment period, Mr Barton appeared in promotional material produced with the assistance of Council employees and resources while he was a candidate for the position. The circumstances surrounding the production of that material raised questions about the use of Council resources and the integrity of the recruitment process.
Against that background, the immediate challenge for Crs Lyons-Buckett and Zamprogno will be to bring together a chamber frequently divided by political alliances, personal conflict and sharply differing views about Council’s direction.
While Tuesday night’s secret ballots concealed how individual councillors voted, the results were clear: Cr Mary Lyons-Buckett will lead Hawkesbury Council, with Cr Nathan Zamprogno serving as her deputy, until the next local government election in September 2028.
