“I will be doing things differently because I am different.”
That’s the words of Cr Abigail Goodman, the Naracoorte Lucindale Council’s newly elected deputy mayor.
Cr Goodman was elected to the position last week at the council’s November 26 meeting.
She takes over the role from Cr Monique Crossling, who held the position for the last two years.
Cr Crossling was elected as presiding member of the council’s Strategic Assets and Planning (SAP) committee, taking over from Cr Damien Ross.
Cr Goodman and Cr Crossling were both nominated for the role of deputy mayor, and Cr Goodman was elected 6 votes to 4 votes in a show of hands. She will serve in the role for the remainder of this council’s term—another two years.
In an interview with The [Naracoorte] News, Cr Goodman acknowledged the work Cr Crossling had done during her term as deputy mayor.
“I acknowledge and admire the way Monique Crossling went about the role of deputy mayor during her term,” she said.
“I really respect the amount of time and effort she (Cr Crossling) put into attending and supporting community club events and initiatives.
“I will certainly try to do that too, but I will be doing things differently because I am different, and I think I bring a lot of good opportunities and outcome to the role as well.”
Being a first-term councillor and two years in the role, she shared that she had learned a lot about how the council works, the opportunities that are available, and how the elected members could make a big impact on the lives of the constituents, while balancing the challenges of meeting a whole lot of competing needs in a resource-restricted environment.
“It’s challenging when you have to make decisions about lots of deserving projects,” Cr Goodman said.
“I think sometimes the decision that is best for the council district overall isn’t necessarily the one that is going to please the most people right now because we have to have that vision for the long term, and not just a couple of immediate years.
“That puts you in a really difficult spot because you don’t like doing things that aren’t popular, but sometimes that’s the thing that you have to do.”
Cr Goodman said over the last couple of years, she had managed to increase her networks across the region—that’s locally within her Lucindale community, but Naracoorte as well, in terms of the activities and the groups that she had been involved with or supported.
“And then, professionally, through my role on the Regional Development Australia Limestone Coast Board, that exposes me to the strategic projects and visions of our region more broadly and how that interplays with the other council areas in the Limestone Coast.
“It is sort of having a balcony view (if that’s the right way of saying it)—it’s important to be engaged at a local level, but also important to have that kind of perspective of what else can be done, what else is going on, and what the opportunities are.
“I think that is a large part of what I will bring to the role.”
Community engagement
When questioned about how she sees “community engagement”, Cr Goodman said, “it’s always a difficult place”.
“I think that there is always more engagement that you can do. And it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s really difficult to reach everyone in the community,” Cr Goodman said.
“So, engagement is a two-way street—engagement by the council to be engaged with the community and community forms, forums, and in ways that people respond to, but it also relies on the community being engaged and interested and wanting to participate and have a say.”
She said she felt that around engagement, sometimes, the emphasis was put down heavily on the council, and the accountability of being engaged was not applied to the community.
“I think it’s easy to point the finger in that direction and rather than reflect and say, you know, what is the responsibility of the community to be engaged in these things that they are putting money towards and having their voices heard.
“Having said that, there are more things that we could be doing, and I think we should be reflecting on what’s working well and where we aren’t hitting the mark and coming up with strategies for how to do that.
“I think a point might be that at a Frances meeting, Danielle Moore from the Frances Progress Association stood up, and one of her suggestions was a one-pager on how people can learn how to do a deputation to council.
“That has been responded to, and a piece has been put together.
“That’s great. We heard and we responded, but now we need to make sure that people know how to find that one-pager in order to make a deputation.”
She concluded that she would use all her experiences and skills in working with the mayor and elected members and the community and continue to cement the district as the heart of the Limestone Coast.
Mayor Patrick Ross thanked Cr Crossling for serving in the role for the past two years.
He said she had done a “fantastic job” going to many events in the community and was the “happy, smiling face of our council”.
Mayor Ross congratulated Cr Goodman on being elected as the new deputy mayor and said he looked forward to working with her.
During the meeting, Cr Andrew Downward had moved that Cr Goodman be appointed deputy mayor. This was seconded by Cr Trevor Rayner and carried.
This article appeared in the Naracoorte News.
