There were no late surprises in Town Hall on Monday night, with Ballarat councillors again electing Cr Samantha McIntosh as mayor.
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But the municipality does have a new deputy mayor in Cr Jim Rinaldi for the year ahead, who highlighted fixing Ballarat’s bus network as his highest priority.
This will be Cr McIntosh’s third year in Ballarat’s highest office, receiving a five-vote majority our of a possible nine from her colleagues in the council chamber.
Crs Rinaldi, Ben Taylor, Amy Johnson and Grant Tillett assured Cr McIntosh’s continued reign, with her own vote getting her across the line. Votes for the mayor’s challengers, Cr Mark Harris and Cr Daniel Moloney, were not counted due to there already being a clear majority.
South Ward’s Cr Rinaldi received five votes to take the role of deputy mayor for the first time. He will replace Cr Moloney in the role, who did not renominate due to his mayoral bid. Cr Rinaldi received five votes, standing against Cr Belinda Coates for the job.
A Warrenheip native, Cr Rinaldi has been a councillor since February 2015, after a Victorian Electoral Commission count back was sparked by former mayor Joshua Morris stepping down pursue state politics.
Cr Rinaldi said the Ballarat CBD was now the municipality’s “major project” for the next two years, with planning for the Bakery Hill area the next step for council.
“We have an issue with the bus network,” he said. “It’s a minor issue but it’s major, it’s causing major problems
I think we really need to work with Public Transport Victoria, they just need to understand this can not be operated from a computer in the city of Melbourne. Go back to the basics, and get the first steps right.
- Deputy mayor Jim Rinaldi
“Without the proper bus network, our city is going to clog up and we don’t want that, we need a really good public transport system.”
He said while the role of deputy mayor was “far away from any thoughts” he had at the start of this year, Cr Rinaldi said he believed he could add “a lot of strength” to the leadership team.
“I’ve lived in this city for all my life. I have a passion for this city, I know the heartbeat of this city, and I think that it’s important for a councillor to make sure that’s maintained,” he said.
The election was swift by design, with Cr McIntosh rushing to catch an evening flight to Suzhou, China to attend the Third Regional Conference of the Organisation of World Heritage Cities Asia-Pacific. The three-day conference will be the grounds for discussion on the Central Victorian Goldfields’ world heritage bid.
Cr McIntosh said seeing many of Ballarat’s long-stalled projects come to fruition this year – including Civic Hall, the saleyards move and the Showgrounds relocation – was gratifying, with council’s current desire for consistency returning her to the top job.
“We’ve achieved some enormous outcomes over the last two years, there’s significant work that still needs to be done. To have that consistency coming from council is a very important way of a steady path forward,” she said.
“As our city grows, this significant population growth – another 2000 people each year – means a lot of planning and a lot of change to our community. At the same time, front and foremost to our community is protecting our past.
“It’s so important we have great connections to our regions, connectivity is number one for us to be a successful city. We must have the appropriate rail, road and air connections.”
