Wearing the mayoral robes for the Central Coast is not an entirely new experience for Lawrie McKinna.
It was a case of déjà vu when McKinna was elected by his fellow councillors on October 8 to lead the newly elected Council as it begins its four-year term.
He was Mayor of the former Gosford Council before it merged with Wyong Council, serving in the role from 2012 until the merge in 2016.
He said running the first ordinary meeting of the new Council on Tuesday, October 29, had been a big relief following months of stress.
“Obviously the election and pre-polling were full on and then waiting for results was quite stressful,” he said.
McKinna said the meeting itself went fairly smoothly.
“Although I’ve chaired meetings before, it had been a long time and I don’t mind putting my hand up if I stuff up,” he said.
Admitting to becoming a little confused with procedural matters when complicated foreshadowed motions arose, McKinna was quick to enlist the help of staff to negotiate them.
“It takes a while to get on top of things,” he said.
“The meeting wasn’t perfect – there was a bit of debate, but that’s what Council meetings are for.”
A former soccer player, McKinna is known largely for his involvement in sports management as coach, football manager and ambassador of the Central Coast Mariners and chief executive of the Newcastle Jets.
He has also been Chair of Regional Development Australia Central Coast since 2021, a position he stepped down from on Tuesday, October 22.
“Some people expressed concerns that as RDACC deals with developments, there could be a conflict of interest,” he said.
“Although that was probably the smallest part of the job, I said I would step down if elected to Council and I did so last Tuesday.”
McKinna led a team of Independents known as Team Central Coast to the election, with fellow team members Kyla Daniels and John Mouland also successful.
“To get three in was a huge achievement,” he said.
McKinna said he felt he had done a “reasonable job” as the former Mayor of Gosford.
“During that time we went from being the most complained about council to the least complained about because we made a cultural change,” he said.
This time around, McKinna felt he could make a difference if elected.
“I thought ‘there’s no use whingeing about things, I’m going to put my hand up’,” he said.
He dismissed claims that the three Team Central Coast councillors would consistently vote with the five Liberal councillors to block Labor and Independent councillors.
“On October 29 Kyla and I voted against the Libs on one of the committee items,” he said.
“We have a good relationship with the Liberals, as we do with all other councillors.
“But we will vote the way we think individually, not as a team.
“There are always factions that work with each other but no party has control over us – we will vote as we see fit.
“Our values are similar to those of the Libs but a lot of them tick the boxes with Labor as well.”
McKinna noted that the majority of items at the meeting were unanimously passed.
He said his priorities as mayor would be to get the basics right.
“I’m not going to make promises and then run out of money,” he said.
“Streamlining the DA approval process will be a priority – it has already improved significantly in the past couple of months.
“If we have a good functional council, going for state and federal funding will be a lot easier.”
McKinna said communication between Council and the community would be paramount.
“I’m setting up a Mayor’s Facebook page and a lot will be communicated through that,” he said.
Terry Collins