City of Greater Geraldton mayor Jerry Clune reflects on first year in the role, says he’s doing it his own way

After a year in the top job, City of Greater Geraldton mayor Jerry Clune says the role has been everything he’d hoped for and a “little bit more”, while trying to make it his own. On Monday October 23 last year, the complexion of the City of Greater Geraldton council changed, with a new leader taking the helm following confirmation of a narrow election victory. Mr Clune was declared the new mayor of the city, taking over from Shane Van Styn, who had been in the job for eight years, thanks to a winning margin of just 285 votes after preferences were counted. One year on, Mr Clune is reflecting about his first 12 months and what’s ahead. “You’re nearly in the office every day. There’s a lot happening within this local government, so you need to be on top of it,” he said. “For one who’s never worked in an office before, it’s a whole new environment for me.” The farmer from Bringo said he had tried to make the role his own, stepping out of the shadow of Mr Van Styn, who he was deputy mayor under for two years. When asked about his time in the office, Mr Clune laughed saying it was the first time he’d been in an office job, and was appreciative of the staff around him. Since he took the reins, a number of projects had been completed, including the redevelopments at AMC Park, the Yellow Submarine installation, and the Meru Resource Recovery Station. However, Mr Clune said one of his proudest achievements was having a cohesive council. “We don’t all have to have the same views, but we have to have respect for each other’s views, and I think that’s the most important thing,” he said. “You want to make sure that when councillors are coming there, they feel free and unencumbered to speak their mind when they at a council meeting.” While there are successes with these projects being completed, part of the costs is put to the ratepayers. Residents in the Greater Geraldton area were subjected to a 3.9 per cent increase in rates for the 2024-25 financial year. However, Mr Clune said part of keeping rates on the lower end was finding other ways to fund projects. “We very rarely touch a project unless we can get assistance with some form of grants and that,” he said. “We’re flat out doing grants.” Projects are a big part of the year to come, according to the city. In a 10-year high for the area, $144 million worth of development applications came through the city in the 12 months to April. The State Government’s Hydrogen Strategy was also released last week, with the region set to play a key role in renewable energy. Housing projects in Mahomets Flats are also appealing for the local government, saying they can assist with the housing crisis while making money in the long term. But it was infrastructure which Mr Clune was excited to bring to the city. “We’re also advocating for upgrades of roads, major infrastructure roads coming into the port, as well as a bypass,” he said. “We’ll be favouring an inner bypass rather than great big one, we think this is a quick fix. Mr Clune saw the bypass as an opportunity to activate the area through bigger businesses including car yards, similar to Wanneroo Road in Perth, and hoped Main Roads would get on board. In terms of how he felt in the role going forward, Mr Clune hoped to continue going about it in his own way. “I’ve done it in my own style, and I am who I am, so I haven’t tried to be pretend to be something that I’m not,” he said. “That’s what I try and portray within my role as mayor, and which I’ve done all my life.”