At a ceremony this week, Don Henderson, Brian Hood, Lesley Hewitt, Tony Clark, Tim Drylie, Pat Hockey and Shirley Cornish were sworn in as Councillors in front of the CEO, Bradley Thomas, family, friends and Council staff.
Over the next couple of months, Councillors will be taken through an induction program to familiarise Councillors with their roles, responsibilities and local government processes.
An early problem for the new Council to resolve will be to address the very uneven geographical distribution of Councillors across the Shire. Councillors from the Creswick and Clunes area will dominate with five councillors. Daylesford and Trentham will each have a single resident Councillor.
Although Councillors in the new Shire-wide electorate are expected to represent the whole of the Shire, the reality is that residents will tend to approach Councillors who live locally. Cr Lesley Hewitt will have potentially the heaviest burden as the only councillor in the whole of the Daylesford/Hepburn Springs area. Balancing the workload of Councillors will be challenging. Whether Councillors can put aside the parochialism that has troubled previous Councils and make decisions in the best interests of the whole of the Shire remains to be seen.
Another immediate challenge for the new Council will be to address the $4 million deficit in the 2024/25 budget which was adopted by the previous Council in June.
The first meeting for the newly elected Council will be held on November 26, 2024. At the meeting a Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be elected. The community are welcome to attend this open meeting at the Council Chamber, 24 Vincent Street Daylesford, from 5:30pm. The meeting will also be live streamed via Council’s Facebook page.
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This article is based on a media release from Hepburn Shire Council.
