Perth Voice Interactive

LEEDERVILLE cafe owner and council critic Debbie Saunders is running for Vincent mayor.

She says John Carey doesn’t deserve to be re-elected unopposed. She’s previously clashed with him over the rollout of the bike plan (“a disconnected unused waste of money”) and not renewing former CEO John Giorgi’s contract.

Ms Saunders has run the Oxford Street cafe 50ml for four years and is a frequent fixture at council meetings. She’s championing a “back to basics” approach: “Stop all this ‘we need to be innovative, we need to reform, we need to do this and that’. When you’re dealing with ratepayer money you need to do what they say.

“You put it out to consult, and whether you like the response or not, you go with the majority.” She says people don’t bother with consultation because they don’t feel heard.

Mr Carey says “Debbie has a very different agenda” to him: “She has been consistently negative about the issues, even about reform which I find extraordinary.

“I offer reform, I offer a positive vision saying we should always do better and always seek to be innovative.”

He reminded us Ms Saunders is on the public record swearing at staff in emails and in the public chamber when she’s dissatisfied with answers to her questions. Ms Saunders says if she’s mayor at least meetings will be interesting. This week Ms Saunders recanted her erroneous claim that Mr Carey and CEO Len Kosova were friends in high school.

by DAVID BELL