Geoff Howard considering council run

FORMER Labor member for the state seats of Buninyong and Ballarat East, Geoff Howard, has said he’s weighing up his options on a run in October’s municipal elections.

Despite retiring from politics before the 2018 state ballot Mr Howard said he’s kept an eye on local government.

“I suppose it’s fair to say I continue to be interested in what’s happening within the City of Ballarat on a number of issues,” he said.

“Although it’s also fair to say that I thought when I retired from state politics in 2018 that I was retiring from public life altogether, but I guess it’ll be a matter of waiting and seeing.

“The fact is I don’t miss it. I had a great year last year. I’ve been out of politics for only a year and four months and seriously never thought of standing for public office again.

“On the other side people have spoken to me, I have experience and I’m certainly interested in what happens in the City of Ballarat and want to see it well managed into the future.”

A 30-year political veteran, Mr Howard had two stints on Ballarat council last century, including time as mayor between 1993 and 1994, before heading to Spring Street on the back of Steve Bracks’ 1999 country crushing of Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett.

Mr Howard said that his experience across two levels of government was important and he had an idea about what issues were important should he run.

“Clearly I learnt a lot of things from my time in local government and State government,” he said.

“I believe in managing local government, good councillors while they take advice from the executive arm of the council, they also need to be in a position to challenge the chief executive officer. You certainly see councillors in the past who haven’t challenged their executive.

“There’s a number of issues within the City of Ballarat that are important that the city gets right in the years ahead to insure we continue to be a really liveable city, and that we get our planning right as well as our economic management.”

However, Mr Howards candidacy isn’t a sure thing, with a number of considerations before a final decision is made, not least if there’ll even be municipal elections in October

“It’s an issue that I wouldn’t be making a decision on until half-way through the year when we know what the lie of the land is going to be,” he said.

“Whether council elections are taking place, and who the other people who might be standing might be. I’m always happy to step back if I think there’s a good field of candidates that’s available.”