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General News

20 April, 2020

TRC announces new Deputy Mayor

TRC announces Councillor Kevin Cardew as Deputy Mayor

By Phil Brandel

TRC announces new Deputy Mayor - feature photo

The Tableland Regional Council’s (TRC) new Mayor and Councillors made their declaration of office and held their statutory post-election meeting yesterday.

New Mayor Rod Marti said he is pleased with the mix of new and experienced Councillors.

‘The team of Kevin Cardew, Annette Haydon, Dave Bilney, David Clifton, Peter Hodge and Bernie Wilce met at our post-election meeting to discuss our first items of business,” the Mayor said.

‘I’m pleased to announce Councillor Kevin Cardew as Deputy Mayor”

Councillor Kevin Cardew, defeated incumbent Kate Eden for Division 1 said he is pleased to be able to put his experience within the public service to good use.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge, I’ve had 35 years of local government experience as an employee. I hope with my experience I can work with the mayor. My experience is there to be called on and set platforms for the rest of the council to work from,” he said

“We have to listen to the people, the residents that I spoke to before the election said they wanted change,

“I think it is now time to start afresh and get the whole of the council to work as a team.”

Councillor Cardew said that council had several priorities to look at immediately,

“We need to look at the economics of how the council spends its money, we need to spend our money locally, we need to shop and buy local,

“We need to get back to basics, pull back and not do things that we can’t afford, and not do things that aren’t important. We need to get the basics right first.”

At the meeting, it was also announced that Councillor Bernie Wilce would chair the Local Disaster Management Group.

Mayor Rod Marti said Council intends to be sober, fair, equitable, and reformist.

‘It will look at ways to reduce costs across the board when considering the upcoming budget,

‘Rates and charges, for many, have become out of reach and this is now exacerbated by COVID-19.

‘There is much work to do and difficult decisions will need to be made.

‘We’ve taken up our positions during unprecedented times and we want to do the best for our community.

‘At our first ordinary meeting, we’ll be discussing and adopting a series of COVID-19 relief measures for the community and local businesses, targeting our support to areas of the community where it will do the most good.

‘The proposed measures include the waiving or deferral of some fees and charges and relaxation of due dates.

‘Today’s and future meetings will be live-streamed, and the recording made available afterwards. Live streaming and recording make meetings accessible to members of the community who are unable to attend in person but are still interested in proceedings and outcomes’ he said.

Council meetings will be held on the fourth Thursday of the month at 9am in the Community Education and Disaster Coordination Centre in Atherton.

 

 

 

 

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