Moloney on his first three months

CLOCKING in over one hundred days in office, City of Ballarat mayor Daniel Moloney remembers his first few as unexpected.

After four years as a councilor, Cr Moloney said the jump to a mayoral position was unlike he had anticipated due to the extraneous circumstances of the time.

“Over the first few weeks being at Town Hall, I was pretty much by myself navigating the closure periods and not being able to have staff in office,” he said.

“The reality was for the first couple of months were just steadying the ship and making sure we had the right people in the right places, particularly the CEO, which I’m happy we found the right person.

“Now, it really needs to shift a gear because I don’t think the public will have a high tolerance for us being to inwards looking for too long.”

After months of email chains and Zoom meetings, Cr Moloney said he looks forward to the catching up with the other councilors face-to-face for the first time in his term to discuss the council plan.

“For me, I’m pretty keen to see as part of the council plan in relation to the abnormal growth year we are about to experience,” he said.

“Managing that growth is pretty important, making sure that the benefits of a larger population are spread evenly is the challenge and the benefits can be better shared.

“I wince when I see areas left behind as well, so I’m keen to see some of the benefits of population growth shared around.”

When comparing to his role as a councilor to his current position, Cr Moloney said one of the more surprising challenges he has faced has been the high-profile nature of the job.

“I’m a person who typically would like to work behind the scenes and try to be a bit strategic, so to be the one who fronts it is a bit different for me,” he said.

“My day job is working in communications, but usually working with other people to get their image out there so it’s been an adjustment.”

Often borrowing advice from his predecessors and fellow councilors, Cr Moloney said over his short time as mayor, he also has learnt a thing or two about the job.

“My advice to the next mayor would be that it goes quickly,” he said.

“Also, to try and not get too distracted about the day-to-day issues and to understand the difference between noise and real issues.

“It’s all about putting people in touch with the right officer to deal with their issue so that you can be a bit more strategic and have more of a citywide impact.”

Although his decision to run for the position of mayor again is still up in the air, Cr Moloney said he is treating his time in office as precious to force himself to get as much done as possible.

“I’d love to walk away from it at the end of it having got us through a hard period of the COVID recovery to see that businesses and the community have faith in the council again,” he said.

“That means us being honest about past mistakes, but they’re not insurmountable, they’re things we can fix.

“Even if it is just a bunch of footpaths and trees planted that get done, I hope to finish knowing we did things that are important to certain suburbs to help them catch up and not be left behind.”