THE first thing City of Perth Lord Mayor hopeful Tim Schwass did when he put his hand up for the top job was read the entire 500-page Local Government Act.
“Using that as a starting point boils down to representing the interests of everyone – ratepayers and electors, and occupiers in the city,” he said.
The recently retired magistrate said a member of council was not there to further their own “nest or agenda” but to represent the interests of the community.
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READ NOW“If you have a conflict you should not try hide it. Declare it and act accordingly; it’s not difficult,” he said.
The Nedlands resident has 30 years of experience as a Children’s Court Magistrate. He has worked in the Legal Aid Commission in Broome and prior to that spent 10 years working for the Welfare Department as a lawyer.
He said if he was elected as Lord Mayor, the first issue he would tackle would be restoring order in council operations.
“It’s a matter of getting the team working together,” he said.
“Then homelessness needs to be elevated and is something that needs to be dealt with… I would see it as a priority.”
Mr Schwass said council member “complacency” previously led to the current suspension of council after members forgot how the Local Government Act worked.
“If I’m mayor with a new council, there won’t be any revisiting of what’s happened in the past,” he said.
“The new council will be tasked with what needs to be done, which is revitalising the city and getting the place humming again rather than a holding pattern it’s been in since council has been suspended.”
Mr Schwass said he was “certainly, absolutely independent” and believed there wasn’t anything to be gained by people aligned to a political party.