Paul Jacob lists priorities if elected Townsville’s next mayor

A former TCC councillor has confirmed he’s running for mayor, calling for more ‘accountability and transparency’, and has already begun recruiting ratepayers to join his independent team. See what he’s promising.

Former Townsville City councillor Paul Jacob has confirmed he’s running for mayor. Picture: Evan Morgan

A renegade former-Townsville City Councillor will campaign on a platform of “transparency and accountability” after announcing he would challenge long-serving Townsville mayor Jenny Hill in next year’s local government election.

Speaking exclusively to the Townsville Bulletin about his plans, the former-chair of TCC’s Water and Waste Committee and councillor for Division 2, Paul Jacob, 71, said he had been considering a tilt mayoral tilt for the past six months after spending a few years away from politics to build a house at Bluewater.

Mr Jacob was elected to council as part of Team Jenny Hill’s clean sweep of council positions in the 2016 election before breaking away from the team and resigning as chair of the committee, saying he was cut out of decision making and didn’t agree with the direction that the mayor was taking the city.

After delivering a scathing final speech saying council had “failed” to be open and honest with the community, he opted against recontesting his seat in the 2020 local government election, before failing to dislodge Nick Dametto from the seat of Hinchinbrook in the state election later that year.

Referring to his final speech calling for council to be more accountable and transparent, Mr Jacob said, “it’s always been my belief that the councillors have never been able to play a full role in the governance of the city and who they represent”.

Townsville councillor Paul Jacob split from Team Hill after he claimed he was being cut out of decision-making. Picture: Zak Simmonds.

If he was elected mayor in the March 2024 election, he intended “to take egos right out of the council” by adopting a more collaborative approach to decision making involving all councillors.

He flagged adopting a “back to basics” philosophy, focused on delivering on council’s core services and infrastructure like roads and water, giving equal priority to all Townsville suburbs.

Former Townsville City councillor Paul Jacob is looking to recruit like-minded ratepayers to his cause. Picture: Evan Morgan

“I intend to try and stabilise this council with good governance, financial responsibility and unity,” he said.

“Past council borrowings will be investigated and future borrowings will be initiated on a needs only basis, as directed by all councillors.”

The amount of money paid to council for rates was also a “big concern” where he believed residents were “paying a little bit too much”.

“It flows into how the council allocates its money for events and these sorts of things. I would choose to go back to the community and do more things for them in the suburbs,” he said.

A founder of the Townsville Ratepayers Association in 2011, Mr Jacob said he had begun building support to launch a new Townsville Community and Ratepayers group.

Down the track, he hoped to use the group to source candidates to join his independent team that would contest the local government election.

Former-councillor Paul Jacob was expelled from a citizenship ceremony by mayor Jenny Hill for wearing ‘inappropriate’ attire. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

Another priority was to fight for a greater slice of state and federal government funding to support key projects and for constitutional recognition of local governments “to make the third tier of government part of funding from the federal government”.

Mr Jacob threw his support behind a range of Townsville infrastructure projects including raising the Burdekin Dam 14.5m to harness hydro-electricity and feed into the proposed Copper String 2.0 project.

Rather than building a new concert hall and creating parking problems, he supported the Townsville Performing Arts Centre’s push for the refurbishment and the extension to the Civic Theatre.

In a city dominated by cars, he was also passionate about embracing light rail, building multistorey carparks next to the Townsville University Hospital and the Townsville Courthouse, and providing more electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Townsville mayor Jenny Hill was asked for comment and is yet to confirm her plans for the upcoming election.

Originally published as Paul Jacob lists priorities if elected Townsville’s next mayor