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Tuesday 23 November 2021
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FOLLOWING a year that saw Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors split into two defined camps on many issues, incoming mayor Cr Anthony Marsh wants to “ensure we work as a team and not 11 individuals”. Picture: Yanni
New mayor wants council unity Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au THE new Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Cr Anthony Marsh is almost certainly the first with an aerospace engineering degree and a master’s in business administration. He has been a commissioned officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and founder of several businesses – and he is only 34. The first term councillor won the mayoral vote 7:2 against the long-
serving Cr Antonella Celi with another first-term councillor, Lisa Dixon, elected as his deputy at the council meeting in the shire’s Mornington chamber, Tuesday 16 November. Such was the new broom that swept through the council in November 2020, that they are replacing two other first-time representatives in former mayor Cr Despi O’Connor and her deputy Cr Sarah Race. Cr Marsh said he would try to “unify the council team” perhaps more than it had been over the past 12 months. “That’s what I see as the key
role of the mayor,” he said. “We’ve got a [council] plan and a budget to see the year through and I want to ensure we work as a team and not 11 individuals. “I don’t see the mayor’s role as pushing my own views but as leading the team.” Crs Steve Holland and David Gill did not attend the annual mayoral meeting. Cr David Gill said he had attended an online meeting of Red Hill Consolidated School, which was held at the same time as the mayoral election.
“It was a really important meeting discussing traffic issues and child safety and it went longer than I had anticipated,” he said. Cr Gill said his vote for the mayor “would not have made any difference”. Just two councillors had nominated for mayor and “in my view the public was probably looking for a wider selection [of candidates]”. “Anyone who follows council would know what’s happened. The News ran the in-house betting, and the numbers were set, split among the gang of six [councillors]”.
Cr Gill was critical of the way council meetings had been run over the past year and hoped the new mayor, Cr Marsh, “will be fair and not biased”. Cr Steve Holland, also an apology for not attending the mayoral election, said he had had “prior commitments”. There had been a council meeting the previous night (Monday) and Tuesday’s meeting had just one item - electing a new mayor. “It’s not an outcome that would have changed had I been there,” he said. Continued Page 11
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