{"id":72371,"date":"2020-11-01T04:57:31","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T18:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/?p=72371"},"modified":"2020-11-01T09:19:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-31T23:19:15","slug":"long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-time Golden Plains councillor Des Phelan steps down"},"content":{"rendered":"

DES Phelan has dedicated most of his life to public service.<\/p>\n

The long-serving councillor has been in office with first the Shire of Grenville and then Golden Plains Shire for 30 of the past 40 years, including eight terms as mayor, but decided not to contest his seat at this year\u2019s local government elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be 71 next month so I thought \u2018well, bugger it, I\u2019ll let the young ones have a go\u2019, but the people who are nominating are nearly as old as me,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mr Phelan (standing centre left) at a Shire of Grenville event in 1985.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr Phelan – who has lived in what is now the Golden Plains Shire his entire life – has also served for more than 35 years as Grenville Group Officer with the CFA, and received the CFA’s Outstanding Service Medal in 2016.<\/p>\n

His entry into the Shire of Grenville council in 1979 was an unconventional one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn those days you had ridings, you see, and the guy who was in the riding here retired,\u201d Mr Phelan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou had to have 10 signatures in those days to nominate – you couldn\u2019t just nominate yourself – and I think it was 50 bucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd my next-door neighbour arrived with 12 signatures and 50 bucks and said \u2018you\u2019re running for council\u2019, so that\u2019s how it started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elected unopposed, Mr Phelan said he knew little about the roles and responsibilities of a councillor when he first took office as a 30-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they graded roads and built footpaths \u2013 that\u2019s all they did in those days, they didn\u2019t even pick up the garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Phelan\u2019s first term as mayor (or president, as it was known in the Shire of Grenville at the time) coincided with the Cain Labor Government\u2019s attempts in the mid-1980s to amalgamate Victoria\u2019s many councils \u201cfrom 210 to not many at all\u201d, and the long and protracted battle was a formative experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council wanted to fight it because we had no debt, we had the lowest rates in Victoria, and all our superannuation and long-service leave was paid up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we fought it. I led the group, with help from Melbourne, and we fought for 18 months \u2018til we beat them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, in that 18 months I learnt so much about local government, and met so many people right across the board, so it was good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe employed international public relations to run our campaign, I worked with some really smart operators, worked with the press, politicians\u2026 I learnt a lot about how the world works.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Shire of Grenville Council was unable to repeat their success when the Kennett Liberal Government again tried amalgamation in 1994, as the Liberal Party had the numbers to force through changes to the Local Government Act<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked on a stalling process, and we won, but when Kennett came along, he had power in both houses, so they changed the act so we couldn\u2019t fight them the same way; we had no hope,\u201d Mr Phelan said.<\/p>\n

Mr Phelan was one of four Shire of Grenville councillors elected to the council of the new Golden Plains Shire (which also took in the shires of Bannockburn, Leigh and part of the Shire of Buninyong) in 1996 and was chosen by his peers as the municipality\u2019s first mayor.<\/p>\n

\"\"He said the early years of the new Shire were tough, not the least because of the territorial attitudes of some of the councillors towards their former shires.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to build it into one municipality, and that was a bit difficult, but it worked out,\u201d Mr Phelan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we became really successful right up until now and we\u2019ve done a really good job because of the dynamics of the municipality, with the heavily populated area around Bannockburn and the heavily populated area in the north, and the farmers in the middle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear some people say \u2018we\u2019ve got to get industry\u2019 \u2013 we\u2019ve got one of the best farming industries in Victoria, and we supply all goods. Some grain, lamb, wool, beef, eggs, chickens, goats; we do it all, and they need to be supported, as it\u2019s an industry that\u2019s really thriving right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Phelan was unsuccessful in holding his seat in 2002 \u2013 \u201cI was probably disappointed I wasn\u2019t on it (the council) for a month, but then you forget about it and move on with your life\u201d, but Kevin Knight\u2019s retirement in 2012 provided an opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cKevin said to me \u2018you\u2019ll have to stand again\u2019 and I said \u2018no, I don\u2019t really want to, I\u2019m out of it now\u2019. He said \u2018no, we need a representative up this end\u2019 because I\u2019m the only councillor in Rokewood, or I was, so I stood and got up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He lists building Delacombe without going into debt while with the Shire of Grenville as one of his proudest achievements, as well as the Golden Plains Shire building \u201creally good infrastructure\u201d, such as the multi-purpose room in Bannockburn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to achieve most things,\u201d Mr Phelan said.<\/p>\n

He also prided himself on his ability to be decisive as a councillor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always believed that you have community consultation, and I think you should have it and it\u2019s a great thing, but at the end of the day, you\u2019ve got to walk away and make a decision that\u2019s going to benefit the whole municipality, not just one set of the people, and in a 2700-square-mile municipality, that\u2019s really hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DES Phelan has dedicated most of his life to public service. The long-serving councillor has been in office with first the Shire of Grenville and then Golden Plains Shire for 30 of the past 40 years, including eight terms as mayor, but decided not to contest his seat at this year\u2019s local government elections. \u201cI\u2019ll […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":72372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-72371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLong-time Golden Plains councillor Des Phelan steps down - Golden Plains Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Long-time Golden Plains councillor Des Phelan steps down - Golden Plains Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"DES Phelan has dedicated most of his life to public service. The long-serving councillor has been in office with first the Shire of Grenville and then Golden Plains Shire for 30 of the past 40 years, including eight terms as mayor, but decided not to contest his seat at this year\u2019s local government elections. \u201cI\u2019ll [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Golden Plains Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"jamespetertaylor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-31T18:57:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-31T23:19:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/IMG_0780-scaled-e1603844774142.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@notthatjt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"James Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2655215c02475fb33ffa43a1c8fe2677\"},\"headline\":\"Long-time Golden Plains councillor Des Phelan steps down\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-31T18:57:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-31T23:19:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":944,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/23\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/IMG_0780-scaled-e1603844774142.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\\\/\",\"name\":\"Long-time Golden Plains councillor Des Phelan steps down - Golden Plains Times\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/23\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/IMG_0780-scaled-e1603844774142.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-31T18:57:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-31T23:19:15+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/long-time-golden-plains-councillor-des-phelan-steps-down\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/23\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/IMG_0780-scaled-e1603844774142.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/23\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/IMG_0780-scaled-e1603844774142.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667,\"caption\":\"Retired: Des Phelan and his dog Rocket with an old Shire of Grenville grader. 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