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Progress since the September 2008 elections

I am happy to report that I have already carried out several of the pledges I made in my acceptance speech when I became Mayor for the second time on 30th September, 2008.

As well, this year I have adopted a theme of "Put Something Back" and hope to encourage all of our residents to put something back into their community and the planet through becoming more sustainable, or through becoming a volunteer to help someone less well off.

Consultation

I have always supported public consultation, and felt that the opportunities for consultation have decreased immeasurably during the last term of council. One strong philosophy of mine was that council needed to consult its residents at the very start of a erm, while setting the standards and plans for the next four years.

Happily councillors supported my Mayoral Minute to hold Ward Summits, which were meetings held in each ward to discuss priorities with leaders from a range of community groups, such as Sporting groups, service organisations such as Rotary, schools and P and C organisations, action groups, church groups and the like.

These ward summits were very successful, with all but one ward councillor attending the summit for the ward. As Mayor I attended all of these summits and learned a great deal from the residents who came along to meet with us.

A report will be coming to a future council meeting on the summits and their outcomes.

Youth Summit

To hear from our young people council voted to support me in organising a Youth Summit for over 100 young people during Youth Week this year. We will have a guest speaker as well as the opportunity to consult students on a variety of topics. It is most important to learn what priorities our young people have for the future, in particular for facilities and for  our Town Centres.

Sustainability                                                                                                                       

I was disappointed that the new council set up a new committee structure last December but did not include a Sustainability Committee. I hope to address that through a Mayoral Minute at the first meeting of council on 3rd February 2009. The issue of Sustainability is paramount to me as Mayor and leader of this local government area. We cannot afford to ignore climate change and we cannot afford to assist our residents to live sustainably.

Mayoral Car

As part of my strategy to raise the profile of Sustainability at Ku-ring-gai during my term as Mayor, I have changed the Mayoral vehicle to a Prius which is a hybrid vehicle. The previous Mayoral car - a Caprice - was sold within weeks of my becoming Mayor.

The new Mayoral car cost less than half of the cost of the Caprice, and is very energy efficient. A trip to Melbourne return for a conference cost $105, with petrol averaging around 115 cents/litre. One tank of petrol was sufficient to reach Melbourne, and I would suggest that this vehicle will bring considerable cost savings to council.

Robes and Chains

To bring Ku-ring-gai into the 21st century I no longer wear the Mayoral robes, though I wear the chains for Citizenship Ceremonies.

The robes are old and very tatty, with worn animal fur and torn lining. They were purchased decades ago and are designed for a rather large male Mayor, making them unpleasant for a woman to wear. The time had well and truly come for a change.

New Committee Structure

I was disappointed that the council voted on 16th December to implement a Committee Structure that dated from the 1980s, with concurrent committes of five councillors on a Planning and Development and on a Finance and General Purposes Committee.

If this is what a majority of councillors want for their structure then it will happen but there are some legal issues that we are exploring on this resolution of council.