DT’s owner wins council seat

Well-known Richmond gay pub owner Dale Smedley of DT’s has won a seat on the Yarra Council -” elected last week in the Melba Ward.

A surprise win, it’s the second time Smedley has run for council, polling behind four other candidates in first preference votes but securing a place when preferences were distributed.

Smedley said he attributed the win to being a -œwell-known face around Richmond, owning DT’s hotel for 14 years and a previous electrical retail business in the area 20 years before.

Although owning a gay venue, Smedley said he won’t be -œbeating the drum for particular gay causes, but rather aims to take a businesses-like approach to council and cut expenditure.

-œI am a salesman -” I always have been. To me council is like a big company and the councillors are like the directors of that company, the ratepayers are the shareholders.

-œSo putting that into the right frame, I’d like to see the shareholders and directors sit side-by-side working things out rather than screaming at each other over a table.

Standing as an independent, Smedley said he was able to gain support from across the community.

One of the pub owner’s key platforms while running for council was to break away from partisan council infighting -“ something he says he won’t be entering into.

-œI’m open to suggestions, whatever’s good for the community so be it, if it has a tag at the end, so be that too.

Smedley said he will now sell his freehold stake in DT’s, in order to focus on his new career in public office.

Fellow publican Tom McFeely of Collingwood’s Peel Hotel was unsuccessful in his bid for a place in Yarra’s Langridge Ward.