‘The best summer’: Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece reflects on first 100 days of office
Lord Mayor Nick Reece has reached 100 days in charge of Melbourne. As far he’s concerned, it’s so far, so good — but there’s still work to be done.
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Media personality and former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire will be part of an advisory board to help Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece come up with ideas to improve the city.
Mr Reece announced he would create a Melbourne 3000 board during the election to get inspiration from prominent Melburnians in different professional fields about city-shaping policies and projects.
The remaining new members of the Melbourne 3000 board are Melbourne Airport CEO Lorie Argus, digital marketing expert and Team Reece candidate Lisa Teh, investor Jeff Xu, Mecca founder Jo Horgan, Infosys vice president Ashok Mysore and investor Robin Bishop.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry boss Paul Guerra and prominent restaurateur Chris Lucas were announced as members during the election campaign.
The Melbourne 3000 board operates in an advisory capacity and it has no formal standing with the City of Melbourne. Mr Reece does not have to accept or action any of its recommendations.
As Mr Reece approaches the first 100 days in the role since his swearing in next week, he believes the city will build on a positive summer to dig itself out of the doldrums.
During a sit down interview with the Herald Sun, Mr Reece credits “the best summer” in recent years down to the record breaking Boxing Day test, more than 1 million people visiting the Australian Open and a free Robbie Williams concert in Federation Square.
“You put that all together, it was an absolutely incredible summer,” he said.
When asked what his proudest achievement since winning the election, his answer might surprise many Melburnians.
“What’s the thing I’m most proud of? It’s probably New Year’s Eve,” he said.
“The co-ordination effort was extraordinary. We also have learned from the mistakes of previous years and made changes.
“We had over 600,000 people come into the city and we barely had an incident.
“It was one of the best parties the city has seen in many years.”
Another announcement made during the election campaign was Mr Reece’s key pledge to establish a unit of 30 City Safety Officers, who would wear stab-proof vests and patrol anti-social hot spots around the CBD at all hours.
“That was one of the biggest election commitments that I made,” he said.
“With the support of my councillor colleagues, I would be hoping to see us progress that.
“These are quite significant changes to what currently happens in Melbourne. The idea of the City of Melbourne putting its own safety officers on the street, almost like police officers, is a very big step
Mr Reece did not say when he would start work on fixing key transport bottlenecks such as the controversial Exhibition Street bike lane by reinstating a lane of traffic that was removed to make space for a protected bike lane.
The most detail that he would give away was that fixing these bottlenecks, including William St, was “a priority” for him.
“I will be working with my councillor colleagues to ensure it remains a priority for the council,” he said.
“Out of respect for my councillor colleagues I’m not going to pre-empt the budget process here at the City of Melbourne.”
Mr Reece admitted the cleanliness of the city had deteriorated over recent years – a period in which he was Deputy Lord Mayor.
“The city has not been as clean as it should be,” he said.
“I’m really pleased with the start we have made (improving cleanliness) but I also acknowledge that we have a long way still to go.”
He spruiked his recent “you spray, you pay” policy that would provide City of Melbourne legal team members to help property owners who have been targeted by graffiti to make victim impact statements in court.
Mr Reece said he expected Town Hall employees to be at work in the office but he would not provide any data about how many council staff worked remotely on any given day.
“I have been really out and proud that at the City of Melbourne that we expect people to attend their work station for their job, unless they have in place a workplace flexibility plan,” he said.
Shortly after being sworn in, Mr Reece told the Herald Sun: “I also want to be known as a lord mayor that delivers”.
When reminded of that statement and asked which of his policies he would deliver in the four-year term he said: “my plan is to deliver it all” but provided no detail about how or when that would happen apart from referencing a new “delivery unit” that has been established.
Originally published as ‘The best summer’: Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece reflects on first 100 days of office
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