EIGHT years as a Ballarat councillor have taught Amy Johnson many things about how to shape a city, but she says the most important is to always remember the community you represent.
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Cr Johnson has declared her hand in running for a third term on council at this year's elections with a goal first and foremost to support Ballarat businesses in getting through the pandemic.
"It's a great privilege to serve my city and I feel like I've got a lot more to give," Cr Johnson said.
"Importantly, I know Ballarat is facing a really challenging time over the next few years as a result of the pandemic. I think it's important to have some degree of stability within council."
Cr Johnson is a Liberal party member, but the party itself does not endorse candidates.
There are a host of issues Cr Johnson would like to achieve in the next four years.
"I'll be advocating for a twice yearly hard-rubbish collection service," she said. "In 2016, I was heavily involved with the green waste service, so I'd like to see council deliver a hard rubbish in addition to this.
"At the moment, we're in an ever-changing environment and we need to do whatever we can to support businesses within our city.
"The most important thing is to listen to business, the last thing any business needs is a level of government dictating what they need to be doing, l listen to what they are asking for.
"I'd like to see council adopt more of a can-do attitude, cut red tape, support business as much as possible."
Cr Johnson said one example of this was her request to see the City of Ballarat adopt a similar support model to that of Golden Plains which is providing rate relief to businesses who can show a loss of turnover and also provide rate relief for those on JobKeeper or JobSeeker brought on by the pandemic.
"As a councillor I've voted against every residential and commercial rate rise," she said.
"Our rates are extremely high compared to other municipalities. The council seems to get bigger and bigger and adds more services which imposes burdens on our ratepayers.
"We need to increase efficiencies, bring down the costs of running the council business overall, especially given the significant financial challenges in the future."
On the topic of a loss of respect for council given scandals of the past year, Cr Johnson is blunt. "As soon as I received a copy of the Ombudsman report, I advocated to dismiss the chief executive officer," she said. "I think council has made great strides to address the issues that were uncovered in the report, I support the action that has happened.
"Within every group of councillors there are differences of opinions, I've been on two councils now, sometimes you'll find yourself agreeing with one group, and on others you need to vote with others. For me, I've always voted on the issues rather than the personalities.
"I'd like to see the next councillor group strongly focused on what's best for Ballarat rather than the silly game-playing that has occurred in the last 12 months."
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