Personally, 2014 has been a year to forget in many respects but the end of it finds me blessed still in representing Northfield Ward for the City of Port Adelaide Enfield and working as hard as ever (even today) on Council activities.

Earlier today I attended the funeral of City of Port Adelaide Enfield CEO, Harry Wierda, who passed away on Christmas Day. As a Council we go into 2015 about to undertake a vitally important task for the future of the Council in looking for his replacement.

This is the first time any of the Councillors apart from Cr Peter McKay (elected 1971) will undergo this process as Harry had been CEO of Enfield Council since 1986 before taking on the amalgamated Council CEO role in 1996, and was the longest currently still serving CEO in local government in SA until his passing.

Harry was also the last metropolitan CEO to not be on a contract so our new CEO will (subject to Council’s decision) enter the role on a fixed term contract of some number of years, maybe five.

But Council has other pressing matters to look at also – the new CEO will probably start in the role whilst Council’s budget process is well under way, and we have some incredibly tough decisions to make. I will discuss some of these in a later post.

On a bright note, it is clear that the newly elected Council is a good one. There is a diverse range of backgrounds, beliefs, life experiences and qualifications. There is also a level of goodwill to work together under Mayor Johanson and whilst I am sure there will be some teething problems as everyone works out how to best express themselves, and of course, there will be differences of opinion, I sense a positive determination from all.

Despite our problems in Northfield Ward, Port Adelaide Enfield, South Australia or even Australia, we are so lucky still compared to so many in our world.

In closing tonight, a quote which I look at daily:

The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have – Vince Lombardi

To all my constituents and those that follow me, I sincerely wish you a happy and successful year in 2015.