Craig Buchanan has announced he will be resigning as a councillor from the City of Rockingham’s Rockingham/Safety Bay ward.
He has been a councillor for six years and said the decision to step down did not come lightly.
His resignation is scheduled to take effect on Wednesday, April 30, as he plans to say a few valedictory words at the city’s council meeting scheduled for April 29.
“At the same time, I have indicated to both the mayor and the CEO a willingness to amend it to take immediate effect, if that is the preference of the council and the administration,” he said on social media.
“I remain in their hands in that final regard.”
He was voted in to council in 2019 on a platform of keeping rates below CPI and to introduce live-streaming of council meetings. He described his political philosophy as “small government, rarely interfering, yet always available at need”.
In recent years, he argued against the city’s rate increase plan, voted in favour to resume weekly bin collections and was part of the majority vote to scrap the council’s $20,000 meeting dinners.
“As a sitting councillor, my interpretation of the Local Government Act 1995 (WA) is such that I do not feel at liberty to go into detail as to the substantive reasons for my resignation at this time,” he said.
“All I can say is that I no longer have the level of personal confidence that I feel would be required in the city’s administrative procedures to allow me to continue to perform my role to the standard that both I and local ratepayers would expect.”
Cr Buchanan and the City of Rockingham were contacted for comment.
