Is Mayor Darryn messing up?

from w
One writer thinks so.

DAVID CAIRNS: Mayor Darryn Lyons drops another awkward bomb

·         DAVID CAIRNS  GEELONG ADVERTISER   OCTOBER 07, 2014 8:44AM

OUTSPOKEN Geelong Mayor Darryn Lyons appears to be on an unrelenting roll of PR disasters. Spluttering from one hiccup to the next, right now our mayor looks like the star of an AAMI ad. Cr Lyons’ recent misfires include:

INSISTING people will see the city’s new 25m Christmas tree from outer space;

THE whole Portuscale Cruises fiasco;

CAMPAIGNING for the Yarra St pier as the city’s No. 1 funding priority without the support of his council;

CALLING for an increased speed limit on the Princes Freeway despite opposition from police, the TAC, the Government and in the face of a contradictory statement from his own council;

HIS apparent affection for being photographed in the mayoral robes and referring to himself in the third person and;

HIS public tweets showing his annoyance with council meetings and briefings.

To that spectacular list we now add a detective dismissing Cr Lyons’ claims that he was the target of a petrol bomb attack on his Home House nightclub a couple of months ago.

It’s an extraordinary development that a mayor of Geelong would go public with these accusations without having the backing of the police. Just extraordinary.

What was he thinking? Surely, a man of his experience in the media would know that without that crucial support he would quickly look, at best, an amateur. And at worst? Well, you decide.

The celebrity culture that Cr Lyons once serviced through his paparazzi empire would have you believe that no publicity is bad publicity. Perhaps that is the mantra for our flamboyant mayor. But while that might be OK for him, does it make it right for Geelong? Does his poor judgment make for a poor reflection on the city? Right now there is a case that it does.

His public utterances are becoming more and more cringe-worthy. If his aim is to use his profile to put the city on the map, it might be working … but for the wrong result. If there is another strategy at play behind the scenes, it is hard to see what it is. It seems more likely that these very public misfires are a result of Cr Lyons shooting from the hip, or, more accurately, the lip. There is no PR strategy. There is no collective approach. There is only Darryn. One wonders where it will end.