UPDATED: Eurobodalla Mayor Mat Hatcher to dive straight into new role, council makeup decided

22 DECEMBER: The final makeup of the new Eurobodalla Shire Council has been decided, more than two weeks after the 4 December vote.

The council will comprise of Rob Pollock, Tubby Harrison, Anthony Mayne, Amber Schutz, David Grace, Alison Worthington, Peter Diskon, and Tanya Dannock.

Only Councillors Pollock and Mayne have been returned from the previous council.

The new council will be officially inducted in January, and the first council meeting will be held in February.

21 DECEMBER: Advance Eurobodalla’s Mat Hatcher is the new mayor of Eurobodalla Shire Council.

Councillor Hatcher was declared mayor on Monday 20 December with 53.83 per cent of the vote following the distribution of preferences.

Just days out from Christmas, Cr Hatcher says he’s ready to dive straight into the job and will not be taking a break over the holidays – in fact he’ll be raising money for charity.

“I plan to spend time with family and friends as well as hosting a free coffee event at Mossy Cafe on Boxing Day and we hope to raise $10,000 for charity,” he said.

Cr Hatcher says the Eurobodalla Shire has been “waiting a very long time to know who is steering the ship”, waiting more than two weeks for a decision.

The new mayor has clear plans about the direction he wants the new-look council to take.

“Communication between council and community is key so they feel they are being heard,” he said.

“I think my team has a clear mandate to open up the doors of council and bring about much better community engagement.”

He said the Advance Eurobodalla team had “resonated with people”, leading him to victory over nearest rival Karyn Starmer who attracted 46.18 per cent of the votes after preferences.

“To get the vote we did with never having been on council, we clearly struck a chord,” he said.

“Community wants doers not talkers.

“We have work to do and my team and our fellow councillors need to be held to account if they don’t get it done.”

He said the team was popular with young families and youth because “they had someone really try to engage them”.

“I am extremely proud of the campaign my team and I ran, and I’d like to thank all the supporters who worked behind the scenes to help us achieve this,” Cr Hatcher added.

“It is an honour and privilege to have been elected mayor of this uniquely beautiful shire.”

In the lead up to the election, the Advance Eurobodalla team touted their Public Transparency Policy, requiring all council officials to be proactively transparent with those they serve to enable authentic participation by the entire community.

Cr Hatcher’s team also called for a Strategic Disaster Planning and Operations unit within council that would be responsible for all aspects of planning, liaising, provisioning and responding to disasters.

The team’s campaign had a focus on housing unaffordability for young people and the aging population.

The Eurobodalla councillor results are expected to be announced on Wednesday, 22 December, following the distribution of preferences.