Councillor John Dorahy says he will speed up development applications if he is elected. Image: Wollongong City Council.
The Liberals have endorsed long-serving councillor John Dorahy as their candidate for Wollongong Lord Mayor in the upcoming election.
Cr Dorahy said he had plenty of ideas about how to make Wollongong City Council more efficient, and following his retirement in February he now had plenty of time and energy to dedicate to the mayoral role.
“I can provide dynamic and effective leadership to Wollongong in the future,” he said.
“I have almost 13 years’ experience as a councillor and have served as Deputy Lord Mayor a few times. I’ve observed how council has operated and I think we can be more efficient, more effective and more engaged with the community.”
Cr Dorahy said he didn’t believe rates should rise above IPART recommendations given the economic challenges faced by residents and businesses at the moment.
He said to reduce spending he would push back on infrastructure development for West Dapto, weed out underperforming council employees, speed up development applications and increase maintenance on current infrastructure.
“We’re the third largest city in NSW and have the biggest development area in the state out at West Dapto, and we might need to push those infrastructure needs back a bit,” he said.
“We need to make sure anyone who comes into work is full-time, they’re effective and efficient in their daily duties and we’re getting development applications out as strongly as we can.
“If we maintain our existing infrastructure, like drainage, it will cut down on rates in future.”
Cr Dorahy said his years on the council were largely positive, and said while councillors didn’t always agree, they were able to remain respectful.
He said professionalism and respect were strengths of Wollongong City Council.
“We can tell plenty of good stories about the things we have achieved,” he said.
“The commercial reality of what’s happening in town is one of the good stories; our commercial manager Mark Gribson has done an outstanding job in that space to encourage more businesses to set up in Wollongong.
“It’s a pretty collegiate group of councillors – there’s no in-fighting, no factional stuff apart from some particular items; aside from that it’s been a very good council to work with over time.”
Cr Dorahy has seen plenty of changes during his time on council and hopes to see plenty more.
He has a vision for the city to grow to accommodate everyone who wants to call it home, and become better equipped to deal with increased flooding.
“Thirteen years in the future I’d like to see much more medium to high-rise density housing, especially around those railway station suburbs,” he said.
“More people are becoming homeless; it’s a vitally important issue and council has a duty to get into that space, look at ways we can help local organisations and utilise vacant land we have.
“We need forms of housing that will help people to get back onto their feet with a roof over their head and a warm bed.
“We have done our very best to manage flooding and to help residents who have been inundated, but I believe there is more we can do going forward.”
The Liberals have announced the first four of their 13 candidates. In addition to Cr Dorahy there are two additional incumbents in Councillor Cameron Walters and Councillor Elisha Aitken. Rhonda Christini will stand for Ward 2.
Cr Dorahy said all four were strong candidates.
“As a group of Liberals wanting to represent our community we have got a very strong, business-minded, strategic group,” he said.
“Everyone is very forthright in their approach to making Wollongong a better place to live, work and play.”
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