By Luke Voogt
The door is still open for Geelong’s residents to elect their mayor following the final meeting of a ‘citizens’ jury’ Saturday.
An election process for the mayoral vote was one of Geelong Citizens’ Jury’s 11 “aspirational recommendations”.
“I’m quite proud of it really,” Highton ‘juror’ Sarah Gofton said.
“I feel much happier now seeing that we’ve got a model for a directly-elected mayor.”
The conditions required the mayoral candidate to be a councillor and to have served at least one term in council before running.
The jury also proposed a cap on advertising spending for the mayoral campaign.
“It’s just so we’re not disadvantaging someone with small pockets,” Ms Gofton said.
But Geelong residents will still likely miss out on the vote next election, scheduled for October, after the jury controversially recommended scrapping it.
The jury made the “practical recommendation” for councillors to elect the mayor after a narrow vote in November.
Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins last year foreshadowed that the State Government would act on the recommendation.
Only 41 of the original 100 jurors attended Saturday’s additional meeting and handed their final report to Ms Hutchins.
Ms Gofton said the turnout was “disappointing” but pointed out jurors were not paid for the additional meeting and many had summer commitments.
“I also think some were disillusioned because of some of the negative press it got,” she said.
“But we still had all the diverse arguments and conversations.”
The jury’s aspiration recommendations included mandatory questionnaires for council candidates, forcing candidates to declare campaign donations and forbidding developers from donating.
Ms Gofton said prohibiting developer contributions to campaigns would bring Geelong’s council “in line with the rest of Australia”.
The jury also proposed a junior council, broadcasting council meetings and an online portal based on the White House’s “We The People” program, which allows US citizens to petition the President.
The jury recommended raising the limit of councillors per council in Victoria to 15, so Geelong could meet the needs of its growing population.
NewDemocracy founder Iain Walker had expected at least 65 jurors at the final meeting, despite it being voluntary.
But some of the jurors were “struggling” with State Opposition MPs attacking the jury’s processes, he said.
“People were a bit put-off and hurt. I think that is something to lay at the feet of elected politicians.”
Darryn Lyons and Shadow Local Government Minister David Davis have criticised the jury since the State Government commissioned it mid last year.
More recently, they labelled the voting process by which the jury recommended scrapping the mayoral vote a sham.
The jury did not recommend the mayor and deputy running on the same ticket in its conditions for the mayoral vote.
“The jury decided which issues they wanted to talk about,” Mr Walker said.
“(The deputy mayor) wasn’t what the group wanted to discuss.“
