BY JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
NEW Mayor Darryn Lyons faces a smooth induction into City Hall, with two personal friends on council.
Former mayors Stretch Kontelj and Bruce Harwood agreed that knowing the personality behind the celebrity would help ease the job orientation.
Cr Kontelj said the election result promised “exciting times”, giving Cr Lyons a “strong mandate”.
“Getting your head around the bureaucracy is not always straight forward like a corporate board room,” he said.
Cr Kontelj said Cr Lyons would receive “an enormous amount of goodwill” but council’s composition of 12 independently elected ward representatives guaranteed “robust discussion”.
“A personality like Darryn’s won’t be confronted by that. He’s an agent for change, he likes to disrupt the dialogue to bring the best out of a debate and he will feel right at home in any discussion.”
Cr Harwood said he and Cr Lyons were two “very different personalities”.
Their friendship was “forged” out of adversity when he was accused of favouring a development application for Cr Lyon’s Home House nightclub, he said.
“Ironically, it bonded our friendship and since then we’ve actual become pretty close.
“But I can guarantee this man will do everything he can to better Geelong. He will tough out the tough times and there will be times it gets tough.”
