Ku-ring-gai was first incorporated on 6 March 1906 as the "Shire of Ku-ring-gai" and the first Shire Council was elected on 24 November 1906. The first leader of the council was elected at the first meeting on 8 December 1906, when Councillor William Cowan was elected as Shire President. There would not be a Deputy President until the council election on 1 March 1920. On 22 September 1928, the Shire of Ku-ring-gai was proclaimed as the "Municipality of Ku-ring-gai" and the titles of 'Shire President' and 'Councillor' were retitled to be 'Mayor' and 'Alderman' respectively. In 1993, with the passing of a new Local Government Act, council was retitled as simply "Ku-ring-gai Council" and aldermen were retitled as councillors. A
2015 review of local government boundaries by the
NSW Government Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended that Ku-ring-gai Council and parts of the
Hornsby Shire north of the M2 merge to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 270,000. The Ku-ring-gai Council took the NSW Government to court and, on
appeal, the
NSW Court of Appeal found that the council had been denied procedural fairness. The proposed merger was stood aside indefinitely. In July 2017, the
Berejiklian government decided to abandon the forced merger of the Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai local government areas, along with several other proposed forced mergers.
Planning and development During the term of former
Planning Minister,
Frank Sartor, planning law reforms were passed that gave development approval to a panel and away from local government. These new laws were controversially implemented in Ku-ring-gai, with immense opposition from the local population who claim that their suburbs, with nationally recognised heritage values in both housing and original native forest, are being trashed by slab-sided apartment developments with no effective protection provided by either the Ku-ring-gai Council or the state government. This has been termed "The Rape of Ku-ring-gai". The laws are intended to take development approval power away from local councils and to the
Planning NSW, via the development panels. Planning panels are about to be introduced across New South Wales under recently passed planning reforms. In 2005–06, Ku-ring-gai had the second highest reported total development value in the state – A$1.7 billion, more than
Parramatta, second only to the
City of Sydney. ==Shire Clerks, Town Clerks and General Managers==