But a councillor who ran on the same ticket as Mr Radich at the last election has voiced disquiet about the mayor’s remarks as the council tries to find ways to keep the rates rise under 10% for the next financial year and subsequent years.
Mr Radich said the council had spent a long time trying to find savings in the draft long-term plan but they were open to ideas.
"We’ve slashed the rates rise considerably and taken a lot of capital expenditure out of the budget — close to $300 million was carved off the initial projections.
"So there’s been a lot of reductions in cost-saving measures across the board."
As the council puts its draft long-term plan out for consultation, Mr Radich called for a new perspective from public.
"One of the things that typically happens during consultation periods is that members of the community come and ask for more things to be put into the budget.
"However, personally, what I would like to see is members of the community coming and asking for a reduction in the rates rise and a reduction in the debt, so that we start to pay back debt rather than have ever-increasing debt burden to be carried into the future."
He and councillors had asked staff to scrutinise budgets further.
"Personally, I would like to see significant reductions, significantly more cuts to the budget before we get to a finalised budget.
"I call on the public who would similarly like to see reductions of the budget to make submissions to the consultation saying that that’s what they want."
The remarks concerned Cr Andrew Whiley, who felt they went against the principles of the consultation.
"It is important that the community be heard on the LTP. It is an opportunity for them to fully engage with what we present to them.
"We as councillors — or the mayor — cannot pre-empt the mood.
"For us to make such assumptions is very close-minded."
Cr Whiley acknowledged the council did not have all the answers and was "short of money".
"There are a lot of needs and wants in the community."
This version of the LTP was "dramatically harder" than others to put together.
"The issues have multiplied and the scale is huge.
"We’ve got an avalanche of issues and if we don’t face them, the consequences are dire."
He pointed to the $200m in proposed capital expenditure over the next year and said previous councils "had their heads in the sand".
Cr Jim O’Malley, who is infrastructure committee chairman, brushed off the mayor’s comments.
"I think it’s a mayor’s wish rather than a practical thing.
"During the last elections, when asked ‘would you keep rates below a certain number’, I said ‘no’ and when they clarified I said ‘I would try to keep rates as low as we possibly can but we must fund the city correctly".
Consultation is scheduled to take place between March 31 and April 30.
