The Multicultural Council Mayoral Forum

(As posted on Facebook) Last Saturday night, the final mayoral forum was held, and was hosted by the Multicultural Council. During one of my responses, I talked about the key things I want to achieve over the next three years if elected. These include making progress on getting the council to be more responsive, and more effective with ratepayer money, and I want to push for more jobs by making it easier for businesses to expand and take on new staff as well as being more proactive in attracting more businesses to the district. So far so good...

When Jim Hopkins spoke, he aimed his comments at what I had said, and talked about how the Mayor cannot do anything on his own and that no-one can promise anything as Mayor as they would be acting as a dictator. I was a bit surprised by this as I expected a better understanding of the role from him...

The Mayor can actually do a lot on their own initiative and I will be making the most of that. There are many things where I will definitely work with others (as I have previously), but I will not be constantly seeking council approval to do what I can to attract businesses or work with management to improve the council's ability to serve its ratepayers better. If there is no budget requirement, or if it a budget is already approved, I'll be getting on with it! I expect that Councillors should be fully supportive of these moves anyway, or they shouldn't be there. The majority of candidates have campaigned on improving service & job opportunities, so I'm not expecting too much argument from most.

There are a very small minority who have campaigned that all is well and we don't need to change things. Actually, I believe it is only Mr Hopkins who has campaigned on maintaining the status quo with few changes. The rest who have publicly stated their views, want to see improvements in council services, value for money and greater job opportunities. I won't be settling for less and make no apologies to Mr Hopkins for my intention to get on with these things, with or without him.