There she was three years after being elected to Liverpool Council, quietly working in the background, when a story about a house alarm put Sabrina Mamone in the limelight.
Not that she added any fuel to the fire since the story broke and when I ask her about it, all Ms Mamone will say is: “I’m sorry, I am not allowed to talk about it.
“Once the investigation into it is complete, I would be happy to talk to you about it then,’’ she adds.
Long story short, as a party campaign volunteer in 2011 Ms Mamone successfully bid for an auction item at a fundraiser, but she still hasn’t seen it even though she coughed up more than $1,000 for it.
A Sydney Morning Herald story complicated the issue even more when it claimed the mayor had a house alarm and intercom installed by the very company which put it up for auction at the fundraiser.
Ned Mannoun has denied he has done anything wrong.
For her part, Sabrina Mamone has maintained a dignified silence, by and large.
“I am not really sure who is conducting the enquiry but I will be happy to talk to you once it’s completed,’’ she tells the South West Voice.
Funnily enough, Sabrina Mamone was recruited to the Liberal Party by Ned Mannoun, while he was campaigning for the 2008 local government elections in Liverpool.
The way she tells it, Ned Mannoun was signing up another family and “I happened to be there at the time.
[social_quote duplicate=”nos” align=”default”]“I started talking with him and discovered I was passionate about things that were happening in Liverpool,’’ Ms Mamone recalls of that first meeting with Ned Mannoun.[/social_quote]
“He said, ‘do you want to run’, I said, ‘you can put me on the ticket’ and they put me in at number 5.’’
Three Liberal Party candidates were elected in 2008 with Liverpool voting for a Labor mayor, Wendy Waller.
The young Sabrina Mamone, as expected, missed out altogether.
But four years later the result was different.
“They said I had done a good job and asked me again for 2012,’’ she says.
Ms Mamone, who grew up in Rossmore and went to local schools, came in to council as a member of the Liberal Party, which had swept all before it at the 2012 elections.
In a historic result, Ned Mannoun was elected mayor, and alongside him were five other Liberal Party councillors, including two who got in four years earlier: Tony Hadchiti and Mazhar Hadid.
The three new Liberal Party faces were Gus Balloot, Peter Ristevski and Sabrina Mamone.
Four Labor councillors and one independent, Peter Harle, made up the numbers of the 2012 Liverpool Council.
On the floor of the council chamber during the monthly meetings fresh councillors rarely outshine the experienced ones and this has been the case with Sabrina Mamone and the other new faces.
“As a first term councillor I’ve found it’s important to take a back seat approach because there were a lot of things we [new councillors] needed to know, such as the code of conduct,’’Mamone says.
“Plus our three experienced councillors do most of the talking for us, they cover all the points, and so there’s not much use repeating it all.
“But it doesn’t mean I don’t debate issues, in committees and other forums.’’
Ms Mamone says she has now seen enough to like what council does for the community and so will run for another term when elections are held next year.
“It’s not what you expect when you first come into it, that’s not a bad thing though – there are challenges but there are also rewards,’’ she says.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“The really rewarding thing is connecting with the community and making decisions that benefit the community.[/social_quote]
“Sometimes the decisions affect the community in a bad way and that’s one of the challenges you face in that you can’t always please everybody.
“It’s definitely a learning curve; you have got to make a decision either way,’’ Ms Mamone said.
When she was first elected, Sabrina Mamone was determined to make a difference the next four years.
And she has but a lot of people in Liverpool may not realise that the $3 million makeover of the Macquarie Mall was her initiative.
“Yes, revamping the mall was my idea, but it wasn’t just about the mall – it was about looking at the whole Liverpool CBD and how we can make it more attractive,’’ Ms Mamone says.
“To my mind we need to connect places like the Mall and Bigge Park to the Georges River, which to me seemed seriously underutilised.
“I am excited that it’s the mall that’s one of the projects that’s taken off this term and I will actually see it come to fruition.’’
In the next term of council Ms Mamone would particularly like to see two issues tackled: the future of the Casula Powerhouse arts centre and a new civic centre for Liverpool Council.
“In the next four years one of the things I’d like to see is a strategy for our arts centre, which may be in jeopardy because of the Moorebank intermodal plans,’’ she says.
“At the moment we’re not sure how it will be affected by the proposed road from the intermodal, if that project gets the green light.
“It’s a shame this may happen, but in the meantime we need to prepare and have a strategy in response.’’
While pointing out Casula Powerhouse is doing a great job promoting the arts, Ms Mamone agrees that being “out of sight and out of mind is not helping its cause.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“An art gallery up here in the CBD, a new civic centre, maybe in the southern end of the CBD, there are things we will need to address next term.’’[/social_quote]
