Former mayor of Dubbo Greg Matthews knows he has every chance to return to council following the local government elections on Saturday.
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Mr Matthews will run as a solo, independent candidate in north ward after stepping away from council several years ago but knows he is returning for the right reasons.
"Council has been in a mess," he said.
"The councillors have not understood what they are allowed to do and not allowed to do. They've made the working environment for the staff untenable.
"I've been a councillor mentor for the last five years employed by Local Government NSW mentoring councillors all around the state."
Mr Matthews is hopeful his past experiences in and around council can help the incoming group should he be elected.
"I just thought I had all that experience to help guide a new group of councillors," he said.
"If the public wants me there and I get back on then my intent would be to do one term at this stage,"
"I'd just help develop the councillors who will move into the future."
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After five years away from council, Mr Matthews admitted it was a big decision for himself, and his wife, to run for council at the election, while also explaining he may not be in his current position should the election not have been delayed.
"It's hugely tough," he said.
"My wife and I talked about it.
"If the election had been in September then I wouldn't have run.
"We talked it through and decided 'nope, I'm not going to do it, it's too soon'. Then it got put back to December which gave me another month to think about it.
"In consultation with a number of former councillors we just said 'look there is going to be no experience'.
"So much of the staff, the history is no longer there."
Mr Matthews is hopeful the next crop of councillors will help get council back on track after recording a bigger than expected loss across the past financial year mainly due to COVID-19.
"They've spent so much money on infrastructure," he said.
"They keeping saying they are asset rich and cash poor.
"From a council's perspective, you can't sell your assets."
Mr Matthews and the other council candidates are now just days away from when the public votes on Saturday.
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