Kingborough mayor Paula Wriedt has used her final council meeting to call for a kinder community and apologise to council staff for the abuse they have copped on social media.
Wriedt will step down on May 27 after 15 years in local government to become chief executive of the Tasmanian Council of Social Service.
She became Kingborough’s first female mayor at a 2021 by-election triggered by the resignation of now-Labor MP Dean Winter and was re-elected in 2022.
At her final meeting on May 18, councillors elected Christian Street as deputy mayor.
He will serve as acting mayor until the October local government elections.
Wriedt told the chamber it was “a bit of a moment of reflection, some gratitude and I think some optimism for the future”.
“It has been an absolute honour to serve as mayor for the last five years,” she said.
“For me, personally, though, it was the right time to take a step back from 30 years in public life and I am very excited about what comes next.”
She pointed to the AFL, JackJumpers and Jewels high-performance centres, the state’s first floating wetlands and beach matting for wheelchair access as highlights of her tenure.
Wriedt said she was most proud of leading Kingborough’s first LGBTQIA+ and multicultural strategies.
“I’ve wanted every person in our community to know they belong, they are valued and they are seen,” she said.
As the public face of the Local Government Association’s Lift the Tone campaign, Wriedt used her farewell to apologise to council staff for the personal attacks they had faced online.
“No one should endure that for the jobs that they do,” she said.
Street defeated councillors Aldo Antolli, Gideon Cordover and Flora Fox with a simple majority in the first ballot.
He told councillors his approach as acting mayor would be collaborative and honest, particularly when it came to the council’s finances.
“There is no honest path that promises lower pressure on rates, ever-growing services, fast growth and no hard choices,” he said.
“Anybody who tries to tell you that is lying to you.”
Street said rebuilding community trust and delivering a responsible budget would be his immediate priorities ahead of the October poll.
“To the ratepayers here, even if I’m not your first choice tonight, I say this. I hear the call for change. I believe that we can do better. I will listen,” he said.
“I will not treat frustration as hostility but the genuine call for real change that it is. And I will work every day to ensure this council is stable, open and serves you, the people of Kingborough.”
