Perth Voice Interactive

LORD mayor Lisa Scaffidi reckons her breaches of the local government act haven’t damaged public confidence in Perth council, but its Facebook page is being hammered with calls for her to resign.

Even innocuous posts such as an article about the Perth Swing Dance Society are attracting sledges.

“SACK THE LORD MAYOR” Mark New commented with all-caps fury, while Wendy Watson volunteered; “If the City of Perth mayor Lisa Scaffidi truly thinks the West Australian public hasn’t lost confidence in her she truly has her head in the sand, and has lost touch with her constituency.”

Likewise a post about volunteers at the city’s visitor information booth got a couple of “Lisa needs to resign” comments, while older posts have had comments attached to them deleted.

When a Corruption and Crime Commission report came out last year finding Ms Scaffidi had engaged in serious misconduct, she still attracted a fair chunk of support in online discussions.

With a new report finding 45 instances where she failed to declare travel-related gifts or contributions, that support’s hard to find in today’s chatter.

So far online reviews of the City of Perth page (which affect its star rating) haven’t been too affected: We found two one-star reviews calling on her to resign. One roped in her husband, developer Joe Scaffidi.

Other one-star reviews complained about the number of homeless people living in the city, weeing in the streets and the eternal bugbear — parking (although many wrongly finger the city when it’s private operators gouging them).

Meanwhile in other online backlash, a troll (an anonymous troublemaker) has been tweeting as @Lisa_Scaffidi, quickly filling the Twitter account with satirical posts about the lord mayor.

One tweet included a picture of her at the hair dressers with the line “Cheers to the people of Perth for paying for all of my haircuts over the years!” and other, far cruder jibes.

The account has now been suspended and the tweeter’s identity is unknown, but the depth of information being drawn on suggests either an insider or a well-informed council watcher.

by DAVID BELL