By Luke Voogt
Geelong’s future debt could delay or stop City Hall projects, new mayor Bruce Harwood has warned.
“Any debt concerns me,” he said on his first day on the job, in response to reports City Hall’s debt would triple in four years.
The Indy revealed in September that the Geelong administrators’ final budget planned a loan balance of $125 million in 2020/2021, up from $45 million in 2016/2017.
Mr Harwood said he would meet with the City’s finance department to determine what infrastructure “we can and can’t finish, and to what level”.
“We’ll look at what the numbers tell us.”
Geelong’s new councillors elected Mr Harwood and Peter Murrihy, who were a part of the council that the State Government sacked in 2016, at its first meeting on Tuesday night.
Mr Harwood stood for mayor despite telling the Indy he was only interested in the “supporting role” of deputy mayor in September.
But his election result and the response to his campaign motivated him to run for the position, along with “personal factors” he would not elaborate on.
“That then gave me the confidence to discuss it with my colleges,” he said.
“I think they saw myself and Peter as safe hands.”
Mr Harwood pledged to be a “full-time mayor” and use his experience from previous terms as mayor to Geelong’s advantage.
“I really want to help the newer councillors get up to speed really quickly. We’re 12 months behind … we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Mr Harwood said his priorities would be economic growth, infrastructure and the Geelong Conference Convention Centre.
“We’ve not been able to have a look at (the business case) yet but I’ll certainly be trying to get as much detail and information as I can.”
Mr Harwood said international delegations could help Geelong to sell itself following the city’s admission to UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
“We’re not just bound by Geelong anymore.”
