A budget with an underlying deficit of $1,122,500, community calls for more transparency and unlocking the region’s potential are at the top of her priority list.

She was formerly the council’s development services manager. Local government reporter Holly Monery sat down with Ms Brooks-Bedelph after her first week on the job.

HM: What is your vision taking on the general manager role?

JBB: My vision is that I can just see that there's so much untapped potential in the region, particularly even from a planning point of view. But not only that, socially and economically, and with the industry. And so I've started to do some strategic plans. So I've done one for Hillwood, and we're doing one for Bell Bay at the moment, so I'll work that out, which I'm really excited about. And there's just so much opportunity that hasn't fully been fleshed out, and could make George Town a really happening, pumping place.

HM: Something which probably contributes to those potential missed opportunities is the high turnover of general managers and acting general managers over the past few years. How do you plan to address some of the issues that are in the community, to create that vision?

JBB: Look that's a good question, and it's a reasonable and fair question. And I can't really speak to previous GMs, what they had in their mind or what their situations were. What I can say as an observer is I've spent five years building a very strong and trusting, and open, transparent relationship with the community through a number of heightened projects. I've got that good relationship, great relationship with the councillors. And that's come from me being open and transparent, and giving them information that they've wanted. And I think it's all led to this, that my relationship with the community and all the community groups that I'm involved in, my relationship with the councillors and my relationship with the staff. 

HM: How important is transparency to you?

JBB: It's a must. Obviously there are some things that we can't share, and sometimes the community or the councillors might not understand. Because of privacy reasons or non-disclosures that we might have signed and in those legal instances, we can't share everything. But what my message to the community and to the councillors is, if I'm able to legally share this information with you, and there is no absolute reason why I shouldn't, I will give it to you, with an understanding that with that comes some trust. A level of trust that you use that information to support the community, not to tear it apart. 

I don't believe there are people out there that are malicious and want to do that. There's so many amazing people out there that have done some amazing things. And they've lived here forever and they've got the love of the place, they'd probably never live anywhere else. They're the key people that can make this place successful. 

I think there have been a lot of misunderstandings perhaps, that haven't necessarily been fleshed out. Let's sit down and have some really open, honest discussions with one another. We're all unified in wanting to see this place succeed. We know that it's capable of it, more than capable of it, let's pull together. Let's use your resources, our resources, and together we could just make this incredible team.

So instead of pushing against one another, let's unify. And that's my message. And when I'm out talking to everyone, I know that everyone that comes up and talks to me and says, ‘What are your vision?’ I'm happy to share what my vision is.

We're not always going to agree, but let's have respectful debate. Let's put some parameters around how we treat one another and it's important that my staff are treated well as well, and are protected. It's my role to protect them but we can do this as a group, as a unified community.

I've seen this community do some amazing things. If something goes wrong in this community, they pull together. It's like one big family, you have each other's back. And I love that about here and I just think if we could get all on the same page we'll be unstoppable. We really will.

HM: Tell me a little bit about your background and how you've ended up here.

JBB: My background specifically to George Town is I started just over five years ago as the municipal planner. And then from that was promoted to the role of development services manager, which looks after not only planning, building, plumbing, surveying, environmental health, animal control, NRM and environment. So it's quite a broad portfolio.

Just doing that role, and in the role of planner and development services manager, you get to see the whole municipal area, because you're having a look at developments that are occurring throughout the region. And I just fell in love, the place is just beautiful. The coastline is magnificent. The beaches we have, the people we have, I just have a real heart for the place.

And so I was actually in the throes of setting up my own company, when the general manager's position came up. And I thought, ‘What a fabulous position to really achieve some of these goals and visions that I have for the area from this seat’. So that's why I applied for it, and am honoured to have been offered the position.

HM: What about pre-George Town? Were you in local government before that?

JBB: Yes I was. I was at the West Tamar Council for five years and I guess there's a bit of history behind that too. I was with Telstra in a senior role for, in the end for up to ten years and part of my staff's job was to roll out the Next-G phase. During that phase I think I'd got to about 30 and thought, ‘Is this really what I want to do with my life?’ and I had actually already had a desire to do architecture. So I decided I was actually going to ... maybe call it a mid-life crisis, whatever you want to call it, I went back to UTAS.

I started doing their environmental design course and while I was there, I was offered a cadetship with the West Tamar Council as a town planner. So I took that up, and I was working and doing town planning at the same time, and it just grew from there. I just loved the job. I think it's a profession that not a lot of people understand, but town planners are really the place setters if you like. Often they're misunderstood as the people that always say no, but in fact they're doing a lot of strategic work to make sure that the environment’s that we live in are friendly and social places. There's more to it than just saying, ‘Yes, you can have that shed’ or ‘No, you can't.’

Yeah, so it sort of holistically grew like that.

HM: What are the things that you think has held the region back, and how do you hope to change those things?

JBB: That's a great question. You can read back and there's 30 years of history that we've missed opportunities along the way. And we've missed opportunities 'cause we've taken our eye off the ball. We haven't converted I guess, opportunities as they've come along. Because we haven't either had the knowledge or the support or even just the funding. All regional councils have got a funding issue in terms of we have to provide the same level of services as the bigger councils with far less money.

So we have to be smarter in the way that we spend it and I think sometimes that's it too. We see an innovative opportunity, we're a bit scared or a bit reserved to spend the money on it, because we don't know if it'll work out and we've only got a limited bucket of money. But, for example, I'm working in-house ... I was working on it as the development services manager and I'll continue to work on it, a collaborative project with Northern Midlands Council on a drone programme. So the drones are very relatively cheap now. We're developing a policy about its use, to make sure it complies with CASA standards and also takes into consideration people's rights and privacy. But with that, we can do things like map our coastline and monitor erosion. With that we can do new master plans for areas and we don't put houses in areas that are going to flood. .

Now, the relationship we're developing with North Midlands through that, may not have happened had we not been resource sharing already in the environmental health officer. So it's this whole collaboration with everyone around us, it's the bigger picture rather than just going, 'This is my patch, and I'm gonna look after my patch.' Because if we join forces with other councils, we can do and achieve much more, because we've got more resources, more brain power, that sort of thing.

RELATED: George Town general manager John Martin has resigned

HM: We all know one of the big investments in the region is a potential wind farm. But what are some other key ways that you think you can attract investment? Is it tourism? What are some of those other key things?

JBB: Actually it's really interesting, because I'm part of this year's Tasmanian Leaders program. And so what they do is they look at all the issues that are relevant to Tasmania, specifically relevant to Tasmania and also they can also have cross-benefits to be relevant to all of Australia, but we're specifically looking at Tasmania. And all the issues that they bring up are relevant to my region. 

One of the sessions we had was with Saul Eslake and he identified the future for Tasmania as he sees it from an economist's point of view. Iin fact it overlays with George Town perfectly. So we're looking at things like tourism, [which is] growing, there's no cap to it that we can see.

So how do I apply that to George Town ... I take that knowledge and I say, 'Right, so we need more accommodation. Tourism is in the areas of wine tours, agriproducts, farmgate interactions, farm stays ... these are the sorts of things that people are looking for that are emerging. Bike trails, walking trails.

Council has on its books for example, it’s a plan and we haven't started delving into it, but a walking track from Low Head that connects along all the way up along that beautiful coastline. Aside from the Stony Head issue, which is where the army range is, right up to Bridport. So if you wanted to come along you could ride your bike, walk or camp.

It's reasonably flattish terrain, it would be accessible by most people. Whereas some of these sort of extreme mountain bike trails and things ... they've got a great market, but you have to have an expected level of fitness. Whereas we're trying to increase something new to the region which is accessible by most people. 

We've got Jansz in our region, Pipers Brook, the Hillwood Berry Farm, we want to attract more investment like that. 

Out soil's not as great as say the basalt soils in Scottsdale, but there are other types of industries that are suited to the area, the climate, even the land pricing is really good. 

So I could just go on forever about the opportunities here. 

HM: Are there any other major things that you'd really like known, in your first interview as GM?

JBB: Sure. I also stand on a very firm gender equity platform. I don't want to be reported as a feminist, although some might say that I am. But it's not about that, it's about balanced teams are really successful teams are balanced. They don't necessarily mean 50/50 men and women, but you need men and women to work together to get the best outcome in any situation. If you have a look at the federal government, it's something like, 3 to 6 per cent women. I'm talking in senior roles. You often find, for example, law students are 50/50, or even 60 per cent to 40 per cent. But only 20 per cent of people in directors roles or partnership roles are women.

So I've come from a position where I'd like to see and offer my services as a mentor to women, aspiring women that are coming up through, not only local government but positions in Tasmania, and getting some of that equity or equality in those senior roles.

I think it means we run the state better or it will certainly run whatever business we're in better because we'll have two sets of minds. Let's face it, men and women are different. Men think logically about certain things and we think differently about other things but combining those resources gives you a really balanced leadership team.