In council elections, we have one advantage we do not in state and federal elections. In the council elections, the electoral commission gives the candidates a candidate information form, which is published on the electoral commission's web site, to tell us a little bit about the candidate - who they are, what they believe in, and why we should vote for them.
Unfortunately, only one of the candidates in Hornsby Shire's C ward could be bothered filling that in, beyond the absolute basics. To the other candidates, I have to ask - if you cannot be bothered spending 15 minutes filling in information that will help us know who you are, why should we think you could be bothered doing the relatively dull work of local government for 4 years?
The one candidate who did go to the effort is an ungrouped independent, so it will take some extra effort to vote for her. Given that she is the only one to fill in the form, I will extract her relevant comments here (apologies for any spelling mistakes, which are most likely mine):
As a sustainability educator and resident of North Epping for almost 50 years, I am passionate about conserving what we have for the Bushland Shire in a time of climate uncertainty so we need to value our trees. I have an excellent understanding of environmental and local development issues through my professional work as an environmental planner. I have worked in local councils, Hornsby and Ryde, in environmental and community engagement roles. I enjoy meeting residents, organising sustainability events for Transition Epping (a local organisation I established in 2010) and working hard for my local community.
So Sandra Nichols gets my number 1 recommendation on that basis alone. However she would have been very competitive even without that, holding a master's degree in environmental planning, which is very relevant to the role of a councillor. Additionally, further research shows she has been very active in relevant areas and could have used a lot more space telling us about her aptitude for this job, if she had been allowed to (seriously, google her).
The Hornsby Advocate (which is not delivered in my part of C ward) has a brief summary from some candidates. Unfortunately it is too brief to be of much use.
Additionally, no candidates seem to have a meaningful campaign web site.
There are 3 party tickets running - Liberal, Liberal Democrats, and Greens. No Labor, who unfortunately seem to have given up on Hornsby's C ward, having fielded high quality candidates in the past who failed to get up.
We know what Liberal and the Greens stand for. For those who are not familiar with the Liberal Democrats, they are actually a libertarian party, so forget any European notion of what a liberal democrat is (for that matter, if you are thinking Liberal, forget any European notion of what a liberal is).
Libertarians believe in minimal government interference, minimum taxes, and minimum services. Their philosophy is a very pure one. So the "Liberal Democrats" would maintain the weekly garbage collection, maintenance of roads, and maintenance of council land, but would axe things like the aquatic centre and the equestrian centre, on the grounds that if those things are worth building the market will take care of them, but nobody should be forced (through their taxes or rates) to pay for them. As I have said before, if you vote libertarian, you know exactly what you will get. You might not like what you get, but you will get a very certain outcome.
Looking at the candidates nominated by the parties is not an inspiring exercise.
So my recommendation is to put Sandra Nichols as number 1, and then it does not matter much where the later preferences go - all other options are equally unhelpful. But the electoral commission requires you to number at least 2 boxes in C ward (although I do not see, at this late time of the night, where that requirement comes from, in the law).
In the race for mayor, we have a nominated Liberal, Nick Berman, the former Liberal who left the party because he felt it was too left wing for him (really!), perennial candidate Mick Gallagher, and the Liberal Democrats' Peter Whelan.
Unlike the councillor candidates, all of the mayoral nominees have completed their nomination forms. Unfortunately, they are not particularly informative. We have a choice between the right, the far right, the lunatic right, and the extreme far right.
However, the role of mayor is predominantly an administrative one, so I am inclined to go with the current experience, which is to say Nick Berman (even though I usually disagree with his politics).