By LIAM DURKIN
ANOTHER one bites the dust.
Councillor Dan Clancey has become the latest Latrobe City councillor to announce they won’t be running again.
The East Ward councillor has served Latrobe City Council for eight years, including one as mayor and three as deputy.
With locals set to vote next month, Cr Clancey said it had always been his intention to step away after completing the second of his four-year terms.
“I was never going past the two terms,” he told the Express.
“I think you can put enough energy into eight years and sustain that for eight years and make sure that energy is at a high level – I’ve done that.
“One term was an absolute blessing, second term I was very honoured, and was always just going to do that.”
Cr Clancey made his decision public last week, taking to social media.
His decision somewhat mirrors the 22nd Amendment in US politics, which restricts the President into serving no more than two four-year terms.
As Cr Clancey is still the East Ward Councillor for another few weeks, he said he hadn’t yet had a chance to reflect on his time in the chamber.
“After November I’ll probably sit down and think about it. It’s been a great time, really quite honoured by the work that I’ve been able to do and got to meet a lot of great people along the way,” he said.
“Highlights are community groups, meetings late at night, working with historical societies, clean up groups, cultural diversity advisory committee, all these committees that I’ve chaired along the way, they’ve been great people who have really opened my eyes to different parts of the world.”
When asked if he had any advice for someone thinking of putting their hand up to run as a councillor, Cr Clancey said it was important a decision was not made on the spur of the moment.
“If you are going to stand as a candidate, you need to do your research, you need to understand what the role of local government is, understand what the role of a councillor is,” he said.
“I think there is a lot of people who think about local government in a certain way.
“Council takes up a lot of time in reading and understanding, trying to get your head around planning, policy and those sort of things. You do spend a lot of time reading reports, they are long agendas, three come out a month and you need to read them all to understand them.
“It is a lot of reading, a lot of late night meetings, a lot of work outside family time.”
Keeping his sense of humour, Cr Clancey said he would be swapping reading reports with novels post life as a councillor.
Cr Clancey joins South Ward Councillor Melissa Ferguson as two of nine current Latrobe City Councillors to announce they won’t be seeking re-election.
