PREVIOUS COUNCILLORS NOT IDEAL CANDIDATES

I AM relatively new to Geelong in so far as this is my first council election since moving from Melbourne.

Therefore I don’t know much about the history of the candidates who are putting themselves forward in my ward, so I went to the VEC website to look at their nomination statements.

That took some time but I persevered and settled down to read.

There are 18 candidates and three need to be elected, so to sort the wheat from the chaff was time-consuming.

My main criteria was no previous councillors should be considered as they knew what was happening to the previous council and did little if anything about it.

It was interesting to read that only one candidate in my ward admitted that he was a member of the previous council and another has said she is running on his ticket.

I have also read in your paper that some feel that previous experience is good, which to me is self-defeating as previous entrenched behaviour will be unlikely to change.

New councillors should have already done some independent train- ing on how to be a councillor and they will have access to advice from their CEO and senior management. And fresh ideas, if achievable, may actually benefit Geelong.

I do hope that this election will actually formulate a council comprised of people who will put the needs of Geelong before all else (politically speaking) but would have liked your paper to simply list the members of the previous council as they were an example of people who didn’t. Russ Elwin, Newcomb