Attracting small business to town and cleaning out Council are Jack Rapley’s two primary election campaign issues.
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Mr Rapley is that latest resident to announce his candidacy for the September election.
His vision is to actively seek out and incentivise small business development in Armidale with rate cuts and a ‘what can we do for you’ attitude from Council.
“I think the Council needs good business people on there because quite frankly, Council is a business and it's a big business, and it needs to be run as if it was a private enterprise,” Mr Rapley said.
Mr Rapley has worked in the pharmacy industry all his life, and still owns and online shop.
“We don’t need smoke stacks, we need small business,” he said.
“If you get say ten small businesses that are unique to Armidale, each employing ten people, there are 100 people - but 100 people probably generates 200 or 300.
“I think Council should be identifying the type of businesses that are not in Armidale at the moment.
“If you walked around Tamworth with a pen a paper, with you would come up with a list of 20 businesses who are not in Armidale.
“Then we find the businesses and say ‘what do you want and what can we offer’.”
This is the third consecutive time Mr Rapley has put his hand up to become a councillor and he says the reasons he is standing is because he is so disappointed with the progress of previous Councils.
“We need to capitalise on the foundation that has been made by the administrator,” Mr Rapley said.
“He has made more progress in the past few months than Council has made in I don’t know how many years.
“I really think, with possibly one or two exceptions, we need a totally new Council.
“Look at is this way - the original Council was sacked to get an administrator in - half the councillors came on as advisors and were sacked - so why do you want to give them another chance.
“There has also been a culture at Council of just total inaction.
“If you cleaned every person out of that Council today - the culture would still be there - I think it's probably built into the brickwork.
“It has to change and I think with the restructure it will change - but it's up to councillors to try and ensure that this happens.”
Beyond Council staff and councillors, Mr Rapley says rural areas around Armidale have been neglected for too long.
“We can’t let that happen - so I’d like to see two or three councillors get on from Guyra,” he said.
Being a councillor is one of the few things in life that Mr Rapley still wants to achieve.
“I’ve got the time, I’ve got the energy, and I’ve got the passion,” he said.
“I don’t think it's rocket science - I think it's about good common sense.”
