Our new mayor is passionate about Campbelltown succeeding

It’s very early days in the reign of George Greiss, but take it from me, the new mayor of Campbelltown won’t let us down.

Since 2014, when the South West Voice in Macarthur started covering council meetings, we have kept a close eye on this relatively young man.

Greiss was first elected six years earlier, when council giants such as Russell Matheson and Labor’s Anoulack Chanthivong ruled the roost.

In fact, Matheson was mayor in 2008, followed by Aaron Rule, another great Labor man, Community First founder Paul Lake in 2011-12, and then Anoulack Chanthivong.

It all went down hill from there, with the exception of a couple of good years when Lake won the vote for the top job a second time, and Paul Hawker became the first Liberal Party mayor in decades in 2015-16.

Greiss was there for all that, serving one term as deputy mayor, but mainly showing respect to those who had more experience than him.

However, in the last five to six years Cr Greiss has developed into a councillor who likes to look at the big picture before entering the debate.

When he stood up to speak on an issue, the passion in his voice was unmistakable, and there’s no doubt that this new mayor loves Campbelltown and wants it to succeed.

It has also been part of his style to help other councillors around the chamber, including Labor representatives, by respectfully suggesting changes to any motions they had put forward.

More often than not, the mover accepted Cr Greiss’ suggestion and thanked him.

It will be interesting to see if this will continue when he’s sitting high up in the big chair of the mayor.

When the South West Voice interview with the mayor appeared on social media yesterday there were some comments which were critical of Cr Greiss.

But this new Campbelltown leader understands that people have opinions and that criticism comes with the territory.

And, I suspect, he has a thicker skin than his predecessor and will handle the barbs with more aplomb.

Either way, like every mayor elected in Campbelltown and elsewhere, this one also deserves to be given time to prove his credentials – one way or the other.