Name: Jeff Whitton.
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Ticket or independent: Ticket.
Are you a mayoral candidate? Yes.
Are you currently an Orange councillor? Yes.
Age: 56.
Family: Married for 35 years with two children.
What do you do for a living? I am a company director.
How long have you lived in Orange? I have lived here for 49 years.
What is the best part of living in Orange? The lifestyle and the people.
Why are you running for Orange City Council? Orange has provided me and my family with a safe and blessed life. I am running to be a voice for the community who value the importance of keeping Orange safe and prosperous. For me I want to get council back to doing the simple things well. These are the critical services the community expect council to get right, such as waste, water, roads, walkways and recreational areas. I will focus on the promotion of the city to encourage tourism, business development, sport and jobs, while at the same time formulating a strategy to support the youth, aged and disabled in the community.
How would you assess the performance of the current council? The last four years of this council has been plagued with the disruption of the potential amalgamations between Blayney and Cabonne. This, I believe, has contributed to the overall effectiveness of council and council staff. However I believe council has still achieved a number of very good outcomes in growth and working hard to grow job opportunities and prosperity in the city. With the roads, I still believe that council should have its own hot mix facilities, this was a motion I raised early in this term along with Councillor Glenn Taylor. We lost this argument, but I still believe if this was achieved early in the term council would have had better control on how and when we maintenance our roads.
In my time on council many new councillors use rates reduction as their election platform, but know it is an empty promise as they know they will not have the numbers to get it through.
- Councillor Jeff Whitton
I believe that council needs to improve communications mechanisms between the community and council staff. The community need to have the ability to be an extension of council. This is as simple as implementing real-time logging of issues and that community member who raises the issue remains part of the communication loop seeing every step and communication between all parties until the issue they raised is resolved. The community want to be involved and they want feedback from council in a timely, regular manner.
If elected, would you lobby to reduce, maintain or raise rates? If you would reduce them, which services or council undertakings would you eliminate to do so? My answer to this is that I will continue to manage the ratepayer’s money wisely and continue with the statuary minimum rise, capped each year that is set by the NSW Government – to do otherwise would be fiscally irresponsible to the future of the city. Council rates fund all the maintenance programs in the city. Included in the maintenance is waste collection, sewer, water, parks and gardens, recreational areas, roads and city presentation in Orange, Spring Hill and Lucknow. Other services funded include council run facilities that include the indoor swimming pool, showground, caravan park, library, museum, civic theatre, gallery and street lighting, just to list a few. The problem with not implementing the capped increase each year that is overseen by the NSW Government would potentially place the city in a position where it could not maintain these basic services and put council in catch to recoup rates revenue from other funding sources. Other councils in our region subsidise their rate-able income by developing subdivisions and making monies from the sale of these blocks, but none have lowered their rates. In my time on council many new councillors use rates reduction as their election platform, but know it is an empty promise as they know they will not have the numbers to get it through.
Council has budgeted $17 million for roadworks in the next road-building season. Is this enough? Which roads should get priority? I will be prioritising: 1) Forest Road to the Orange Health Services; 2) areas at intersections and roundabouts; 3) Southern Feeder Road to Woodward Street; and 4) roads in Lucknow, Spring Hill and Clifton Grove.
What is your plan for the Northern Distributor Road? This bypass was always going to be a victim of its own success and like most of the Mitchell Highway today it will be in an endless maintenance program because of the volume of traffic using it. I will be pursuing the assistance of the NSW Government to assist in alleviating the ratepayers of Orange who are subsidising the total cost of ownership of this bypass.
Do you agree with the industrial re-zoning at Orange airport? What should the space be used for in the future? I have declared an interest in this matter in council and cannot take part in the vote or debate with regard to this matter. I have family who live in close proximity to the subject land.
What specific uses for the former Electrolux factory will you pursue or support? I am currently the Chairman of the Economic Development committee in council. This committee and its community members has targeted the Electrolux site as a high priority to any investors or companies looking this type of structure. Council can only make investors aware of the facility as it is commercially owned by the Electrolux company, so what we can do other than make potential investors aware is very limited as we don’t own it.
Do you agree with real estate agents and property developers being on council? Why or why not? I do not discriminate against any person who wishes to serve the community on council. If a person is of a mind to abuse their powers as a councillor then it does not matter what their profession is: they will try it. However, the governance and code practices are in place to stop this type of activity.
What are the best ways council can help businesses prosper in the city? Businesses in Orange want councillors to project the city in a positive light when speaking in public and in the chamber. Businesses in Orange prosper if the councillors and staff are running the council as a cohesive organisation with positive outcomes and positive news being communicated. Council’s economic development committee that I chair has programs in place to assist business in accessing State and Federal funding programs, and council also has its own funding initiatives for businesses. I strongly believe council has a role in lobbying government and corporations in promoting the city that also means promoting the businesses in Orange. Strong relationships with our federal and state member is accentual in getting the message to the funding sources that Orange is a safe investment and a stable well managed strong leader in council is critical to the success of the businesses in the city. I believe council should be more involved in business groups having stronger a networking relationship with the business groups in Orange, Lucknow and Spring Hill. Business is the life blood to our council area and business being successful means more jobs.
Is there enough parking in Orange? If not, where should additional car parks be constructed? I believe an option for the future of parking in the CDB is partnering with the organisations and developers who benefit from consumers and workers having access to parking. This type of strategy would be a shared arrangement of overheads and cost. For example, council-owned car parks could be made available to developers to develop into multi-storey car parks to compliment and service their proposed or existing development and for community use.
Do you support the proposed purpose-built sporting complex council has acquired land for to the north of the city? I support the concept, but I will be recommending that a sponsor also be sourced to partner in the building of this complex. I will recommend approaching the high-profile football codes in the west of Sydney to get their interest in partnering in a facility of this type. This is not new idea as it has been done in other regional cities where the high-profile sporting clubs use the ground for home games taking their code of sport to regional areas in support of region.
Are there any major projects you would champion if you elected? If elected as mayor or a councillor:
I am running to be a voice for the community who value the importance of keeping Orange safe and prosperous. For me I want to get council back to doing the simple things well.
- Councillor Jeff Whitton
- I will be focusing on getting our roads under control. I believe Orange council should have its own hot mix plant in the city. This would allow council to provide immediate maintenance to hot spots both on our streets and hot mix footpaths.
- Implement a system that allows the community to log issues immediately. The system would give the reporting person a reference number and allow the person to track the number along with comments online. The person will receive updates as they occur until their reported issues is resolved. The issue would have escalation triggers based on time or non-responses. If the issues needs a plan to resolve then this is communicated to the reporting person via online system. This system would be an enabler to the community to be connected to council in real-time allowing the community to be truly one and becoming the eyes and ears of council. The system will do everything from alerting the community of emergency events to simply allowing the community to report pot holes or for council to provide monthly newsletter.
- Cycling and triathlon project to develop a strategy with the objective to grow these sporting codes and community in and around the city.
- A business and technology (Smart Communities Program) develop a strategy that establishes a Smart Community hub in Orange.
- Continue with the project in establishing a tourism board that brings together all and leverages from the assets in and around Orange that attracts visitors and new residents to the city.
- Project that identify programs for the youth, aged and disabled with a focus on lifestyle outcomes.
- Project to highlight and get a real outcomes that reduce the cost of energy in the community of Orange.