Michael Regan

Early life and career

Regan grew up in Greystanes, New South Wales in Western Sydney, attending Holroyd High School which he left in year 11 in 1991 with his leaving certificate. He worked as a public servant for the City of Sydney from 1990 as a Clerk in the Engineer’s Department and was appointed Chief Revenue Officer of the council in 1996. In 1999 Regan gained his Certificate IV in Management and Team Leadership from Meadowbank TAFE College. In 2000 he was made Operations Manager of Street Cleansing and Waste and left the council in 2001. In 2002 Regan took up a position as the Venue Cleaning Manager for Telstra Stadium before taking up a customer service position with Lane Cove Council and then as the Manager of Lodgement and Quality Control and Manager of Specialist Services for Manly Council from 2005 to 2009.

Mayor of Warringah

When Warringah Council was to be elected once more after five years under the state-appointed Administrator, Dick Persson, following its 2003 dismissal, Regan, who now lived in the Warringah suburb of Forestville with his family, on 22 February 2008 set up his own party ticket, "Wake Up Warringah", for the position of C Ward Councillor and for the now directly-elected mayoral position. Regan's main platform for election was to run "Council as a ‘Board of Directors’" to expunge the council's previous reputation for infighting and to encourage the better management of council. Regan was elected as mayor at the election on 13 September 2008 with 19.6% of the vote which meant that his ticket votes in C Ward flowed on to elect a councillor, while Wake Up Warringah candidates won a seat on A Ward and B Ward.

In August 2012, Regan and his wife Bronwen, who works as political advisor for NSW Greens MLC Jan Barham, gained attention over a council code-of-conduct matter where a fellow Warringah councillor (and former Wake Up Warringah candidate) had launched into a tirade at the mayoress in the councillors lounge in the Civic Centre following a council meeting. At the 2012 local government elections, Regan stood again for mayor and C Ward Councillor under the newly renamed "Your Warringah" ticket. Regan was re-elected as mayor with 56.3% of the vote and his ticket in C Ward took 60% of the vote, enough to elect two councillors on his personal ticket. Your Warringah candidates also took two seats in A Ward and one seat in B Ward to make six seats for his party on the council.

In January 2014, Regan moved to have council purchase a surviving R-Class Tram (R1753, built in 1933, had been sitting in the former Rozelle Tram Depot until 2014 when it was acquired by the Sydney Tramway Museum) for restoration and display at the Narrabeen Tramshed Community Centre as another historical reminder of the former Manly to Narrabeen Tram line, which closed in 1939. In March 2014, Regan's administration of council came under fire for maintaining a $1.7 million council car budget which included a Jaguar XF as the mayoral car while requesting a 24 per-cent rate rise over four years. October 2014, Regan replaced this car with an eco-friendly Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV.

In December 2014 Regan led a push within council to pass a motion to support, in line with the policy of council amalgamations of the Liberal state government Mike Baird, a merger proposal of Warringah with Pittwater and Manly Councils to form a Northern Beaches council: "It would mean better value for rate payers and better ability to plan for the entire region. Concerns about loss of local representation are a red herring – as this can be maintained, and even increased, depending on the governance model that is adopted. I call upon our neighbours to support the recommendation for the creation of a new northern beaches council for our community."

In March 2015 Regan passed through a proposal in the council to lease council land at Dee Why for affordable housing despite a staff report that noted that it would not provide the best financial return noting that it was intended to be provided for nurses, teachers and police who often had large commuting times to the region as they could not afford to live in the area and that the social benefits could not be underestimated. In October 2015, Warringah Council was awarded by Local Government NSW the A. R. Bluett Memorial Award, which recognises the best-performing council in the state, an acknowledgment of the work of the council under Regan and council staff: "Warringah Council’s submission highlights included excellent infrastructure renewal programs, high resident satisfaction, a sound financial position, a range of organisational improvements, staff engagement and professional development, collaboration with community groups and other organisations, an active youth program, art and cultural projects, environmental and planning initiatives, and specific community infrastructure such as the Narrabeen Lagoon Trail, Collaroy All Abilities Playground and Forestville Sporting Facilities."

Northern Beaches Council

On 12 May 2016, with the release of the Local Government (Council Amalgamations) Proclamation 2016, the Northern Beaches Council was formed as per Warringah's submission, from Manly, Pittwater and Warringah councils. At the first meeting of the new council at Manly Town Hall on 19 May, Regan was appointed, with Manly mayor Jean Hay and Pittwater Deputy Mayor Kylie Ferguson, by Administrator Dick Persson as a member of the Implementation Advisory Group, one of several advisory committees composed of former councillors and mayors of the three councils, and as Chair of the Economic Committee.

In early 2017, Regan announced that he had registered a successor to his "Your Warringah" team in anticipation of running for the council elections scheduled for September 2017. The "Your Northern Beaches Independent Team" would field 15 candidates, with Regan expressing interest in serving as mayor. Regan has supported changing the mayoral position to a directly-elected one, following the system when he was Warringah mayor.