Parramatta Sun, 7 October 2009

By Liam Pender

AFTER being elected Lord Mayor last Wednesday, Paul Garrard said it was time for Parramatta to "grow up" and act like a big city.

"We want to be the capital of western Sydney," he said.

The election was a smooth one due to a power sharing deal between Liberals and Independents at Parramatta Council that had guaranteed Garrard his fifth term in office months ago.

But the night was not entirely without incident as Labor councillors engaged in some good-natured banter calling on him to ``remember where you came from''.

Cr Garrard's previous four terms in office had been Labor Party endorsed.

With a strong backing behind him, the Lord Mayor outlined his new vision of a forward thinking, technologically advanced Parramatta to rival Chicago, Rotterdam and Birmingham.

``We need to decide what we want Parramatta to be,'' he said. ``I'm proposing that we create a strategy to address the new technologies which are engulfing the world of electronics, a strategy to make Parramatta a wireless city.''

The Lord Mayor said he intended to set up free Wi-Fi throughout the CBD in the next five years.

Parramatta Sun (7 October 2009)

``I am going to ask for reports on the costs involved at the next meeting,'' he said.

Cr Garrard also threw his support behind opening the debate for a publicly-elected Lord Mayor.