By Jeremy Sollars
Southern Downs Mayor-elect Vic Pennisi and the likely successful new councillors are continuing to wait for a formal declaration of the councillor result in the 2020 election by the Electoral Commission of Queensland.
A declaration had been expected by the end of today – Thursday 9 April – but now seems unlikely until early next week.
With the Easter public holidays, the first meeting of the new council may not be held until next Wednesday 15 April.
But that hasn’t stopped Vic Pennisi from continuing to make preparations ahead of formally taking office – his own result was declared on Monday of this week – and the last few days he says he “hasn’t stopped”.
Between attending “a mountain of briefings” – including meetings of the Local Disaster Management Group (LDMG) focussed on COVID-19 – going through and replying to emails and answering dozens of phone calls a day Pennisi hasn’t been kicking back and waiting for his swearing-in.
“The day starts at 3 or 4am and it doesn’t stop until 9pm at night but I’m relishing it,” he told the Free Times today.
“I’m focussing on a seamless transition of the new council administration and there’s plenty to do before the new council formally takes office.
“The Local Disaster Management Group is a priority right now and looking at how the council responds to COVID-19 and plays its part in that space.
“Obviously those meetings are happening through tele-conferencing because of the current restrictions but that’s working well.
“We are seeing that we are flattening the curve somewhat in Queensland and that’s great news – we seem to be responding better than most of the other states.
“The message is simple and it applies over Easter – remain in your state, remain in your region, remain in your home.
“We will keep that flattening trend going if we all keep pulling the rope the same way.”
The LDMG is a cross-agency operation that includes council representatives and those from local emergency services, Queensland Health and community groups and charities.
Pennisi said he wishes the local community a safe and pleasant Easter under the present stay-at-home directives.
“I’m expecting the first meeting of the council will probably be next Wednesday, there are some statutory timeframes around when the Electoral Commission declares the (councillor) result and we just have to work within those.
“But I am looking forward to getting on with the job and making that transition happen as smoothly as we can.”
The likely eight councillors – those in the ‘top 8’ positions after the close of counting on Tuesday of this week – are in polling order –
1. Ross Bartley
2. Cameron Gow
3. Jo McNally
4. Andrew Gale
5. Sheryl Windle
6. Marco Gliori
7. Cynthia McDonald
8. Stephen Tancred
