In a close vote, I made it through my Mayoral election last week which gives me the opportunity to lead this city for one more year. Thank you to the incredibly strong show of support I received from throughout the community and thank you to my fellow Councillors for allowing me another year to throw myself into Dubbo.
I have said publicly that this will be my last year as Mayor. I am still loving the role and performing my duties with 110 per cent passion and commitment and I will do that for the next year. September next year though will mark five years in the role and I believe that is a good length of time to hand over to someone else with passion and enthusiasm for the city. I never want to be one of those Mayors that goes through the motions – I want to always perform the role with passion and distinction.
I have already met with the General Manager of Council to put in place targets for the next 12 months and in my regular meetings with Councillors I will ask them their plans for the year ahead. With a new Council to be elected next September, I am sure all of the Councillors are keen to finish off their plans in this term of Council.
My list – although long – is quite achievable and if I can finalise all of the items on this list then I will feel Dubbo will be in a very good place.
The list includes such items as achieving additional funding for Evocities to help promote Dubbo and regional living; ensure we work through our airport master plan and take full advantage of having 11.6 million people within an hour of Dubbo; ensure we take full advantage of being only the second Evocity to have the NBN switched on and the last city to have FTTP NBN; create a framework to make the CEO Series an ongoing function of the Chamber’s calendar; create further opportunities for major events in Dubbo including the potential for high-class sporting events to be played in our city; ensure Council helps Playmates with their State-Government funded relocation; host a successful National Indoor Cricket Championships in July next year; deliver a successful upgrade to the Dubbo Regional Livestock Markets; keep working with the State Government on the LH Ford duplication; deliver water to Eumungerie as part of the Eumungerie water supply scheme and capitalise fully on the 1,000 people who will be in Dubbo for Artlands 2016. This is only a snapshot of some of the items on the agenda for Council but you can be guaranteed of two things – it will be busy and it will be productive. I look forward to serving you for one more year.
Councillor Mathew Dickerson
Mayor of the City of Dubbo