My Philosophy
IAs an elected member of council I alway made decisions based on the benefit to the whole of the Council community. This often means taking a long-term view of Council's activities so that outcomes and equity are measured over several years not just a single year. I feel it is important the community understand that some activities require a large amount of money and the scale of these investments mean we must concentrate our effort in different areas from year to year but ultimately the needs of all areas should be addressed.
I see the role of Mayor as one of guiding and facilitating the development of strategies for how the Council can adapt and change to meet the demands and expectations of residents in the future. Residents deserves a Council that is proactive in shaping the community and not one that waits until change is forced upon it by economic circumstances or other levels of Government. For me, pro-active means being in touch with current community sentiment and developing strategies for emerging issues relating to our society and environment. I will be encouraging Councillors to bring forward ideas from their communities both personally and through community consultation. Council needs to manage change to improve wellbeing in social, economic and environmental terms. This involves supporting and encouraging sporting and social groups as well as the business community. A vibrant community is a healthy community. We have a large number of small communities which include townships, villages and hamlets and needs vary. I will ask Council's Community Service group to develop profiles for all our communities and provide guidance about how Council should support each community.