By Mitchell Clarke
Port Ward councillor Graeme Moore’s time as mayor of Cardinia Shire Council has officially drawn to a close.
With a new mayor set to be elected on Monday 11 November, Cr Moore reflected on his year at the helm of one of the state’s fastest growing municipalities.
“I believe this is the best council in the state but I’m a little bit biased in that way,” he laughed.
“It’s been a great honour and I’m extremely proud. It’s been a privilege to serve as mayor.
Since 12 October last year, the popular Nar Nar Goon North father of three has balanced his family life with council duties, leading his fellow councillors and consulting everyday with the community.
While he won’t run again for mayor, he’s calling on the community to support his successor the same way they supported him.
“I won’t be running again, I think it’s a bit arrogant to run again,” he explained.
“We have five former mayors out of the nine so I’d like to see one of the four who haven’t yet run.
“It’s great experience. Being mayor turns a good councillor into a better councillor.”
His picks for the top job are fellow Port Ward councillor Ray Brown, Jeff Springfield or Michael Schilling, who is extremely popular among the youth in the shire.
“It’s always based on merit with me. It’s got nothing to do with gender or personality.
“It’s simply about who the best person for the job is at the current time,” he said.
Looking back on a particularly difficult year, Cr Moore said the Bunyip bushfires were a devastating time, both personally and professionally.
“The fires were a difficult time, living in the area, it emotionally affected me as I tried to keep my wife and family calm but also had to put the community first,” he said.
Making a point of the community effort surrounding the fire response, he said it was made even more difficult with a newly appointed CEO, but said under the extremely tough circumstances, Carol Jeffs should be commended.
“I must say Carol Jeffs did an absolutely fantastic job.
“The community was absolutely devastated by the fire, they’re still hurting, there’s still a lot of work to do.”
But with low lights come highlights and Cr Moore said being able serve the diverse community was one of the great parts of his job.
“I think the highlight would be trying to keep everyone together,” he explained.
“I call the staff at council my ‘Cardinia family’ because they’ve become my family, they make me look good.
“It’s the same with the greater community. I like to be connected with everyone.”
Cr Moore will stay on as a Port Ward councillor until the next elections in November next year, stating he’d re-evaluate his future when it comes to that.
“There are some days I feel like I could do this for another four years and there are days I question what I’m doing here,” he admitted.
“As an organisation, we have achieved tremendous outcomes for the community I believe, and I’m confident the new mayor will see these results that continue through into 2020.”
The opening of the Deep Creek Reserve remains a fond memory for Cr Moore who dubbed it his “proudest” moment.
But his biggest regret is that he won’t open the Lang Lang Recreation Reserve and Bunyip Soccer Club as mayor, two projects he’d been actively involved in. Those projects are near completion and should open early next year.
In the meantime, Cr Moore has vowed to continue addressing the needs of the community, from senior citizens to youth and everyone in between.
He’s also addressed the road infrastructure issue and said once funding from both levels of government is received, it’ll “fix a few holes in the system”.
“We’re borrowing 26 million to do a sealed roads program which will be a great result,” he said.
“Relief is on the way on the road front.”
But as for who will wear the mayoral robes next, Cr Moore said his guess was as good as anyone else’s.
“It’s time for someone new, a new face of the council and the Cardinia shire,” he said.
“We need to give them an opportunity to make change where they can but we’ve got to work together.”
