Neil Reilly.
Despite describing his Kiama council election result as ‘‘a convincing and devastating loss’’ preferences have been kind to councillor Neil Reilly.
When the Kiama Council election results were declared this morning following the distribution of preferences Cr Reilly was elected to the council in eighth place.
Kiama’s new council in order of election is Brian Petschler, Andrew Sloan (Greens), Warren Steel, Dennis Seage, Mark Honey, Kathy Rice (Greens), Mark Way, Neil Reilly and Gavin McClure.
The unlucky candidate was the Petschler/Honey ticket’s third candidate Bob Behl.
The Petschler/Honey team recorded 28.9 per cent of the first preference vote - almost four times as many as Cr Reilly’s Community Voice ticket - and were hoping to have three candidates elected, but ended up with just two.
Cr Reilly said he was ‘‘feeling very good’’ about the result.
‘‘The people of Kiama have been very generous to me with their preferences,’’ he said.
Ungrouped candidate Mark Way, who was threatening legal action over the high number of informal votes that were meant for him, was elected in seventh place.
Mr Way immediately dropped his threat of court action and said he would work within the council to change the voting system in time for the next Kiama election.