After four years as councillor and then narrowly losing the battle for mayor of Mount Isa in 2016, Kim Coghlan is back again to contest the 2020 local government election on March 28.
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Ms Coghlan, known to all as "Cogo", was elected in 2012 as part of Mayor Tony McGrady's ticket and said she would be running as an independent councillor this time round.
"I loved my time on Council, I loved doing it and think you can do good things with the community," Ms Coghlan said.
"I went for Mayor and unfortunately I didn't get in but it was a blessing in disguise because in the four years I haven't been in Council I had three and half years of state and federal experience."
This was working for both Robbie and then Bob Katter which she said opened her eyes to how the system worked and gave her good contacts at state and federal level.
"But I didn't want to run for mayor again," she said.
"I believe I can do a lot more as a councillor within the community, when you're mayor there's a lot of paperwork and dealing with bureaucrats, but when you're a councillor you can get out there and get the job done."
Ms Coghlan said she would campaign on crime, communication, and community.
While acknowledging crime was a state issue she said Council could put more pressure on the state to do something about it.
"We need more police officers here, the kids are running rampant," she said.
"If we don't get our city back it's going to be a ghost town.
"No more sugar coating, these kids are doing the wrong thing and they need to be punished, there needs to be consequences."
Ms Coghlan said she wanted to know what organisations in the field were doing with money allocated to them.
"I do agree with the Mayor who said in the paper a few months ago when she said don't throw more money at the problem, there needs to be an audit here," she said.
On the issue of communications, she said it needed to be better between council and the community.
"You need to listen to people," she said.
"You also need to explain to people how council works like the water issue and the horse paddock issue, they caused a lot of angst in the community."
Ms Coghlan said Mount Isa also needed to get its community feeling back.
"Talking to people throughout the community, they don't feel they are being supported by council," she said.
"That doesn't have to be monetary, they might need guidance, or a contact they can call.
"Council can't solve everyone's problems but we can listen and look into how we can."
Ms Coghlan said the current council had have to deal with hard issues in its time.
"They've done the best they could, but it could have been improved," she said.
"They continued with beautification of the city, they are trying to improve local roads, but I think (working with others) is one of the big skills I have, I'm approachable I walk the talk."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
