Building “trust and integrity” among our community is what City Safety and Engagement Advisor Paul Mason says his role is all about.

Earlier this year the City Centre Development Incentive Fund was repurposed to include a broader range of initiatives. After council heard a key concern of city centre businesses was safety in the CBD, council will be using a maximum of $80,000 from the fund to support the City Safety and Engagement Advisor role.

The man on in the job is Paul Mason, who has been settling into the role during the last couple of months, having started in his position at the end of August. “My key role is really about building trust and integrity with the main street organisations and the community, and just really enhancing communication, amongst us all and just focusing on building really strong positive relationships,” says Paul.

‘Getting to know people’

For the past 20 years, Paul has worked in various community-facing roles both at council and in the non-government organisation space. “In that time I worked within different areas within council liquor licencing and the bylaws role, where I had interaction in outreach-type work. So it’s been a progression and it’s something that I’m passionate about.

“I really believe in the issue of getting to know people and getting to understand what the concerns are out in the community – both from the people who are maybe struggling and also from the business community.”

Paul says his role of City Safety and Engagement Advisor acts to “lift people’s perception of safety”. “Sometimes there’s no specific issue that they [the community and businesses] are seeing, but sometimes it’s around people that are seeing numbers around people maybe drinking and doing various activities.

“There’s been a bit of theft around this city centre and that type of thing, so it’s around working closely with them to encourage them to report issues, knowing when is appropriate but also just trying to build up that level of communication.”

Community connector

Now two months into the role, Paul has met with Hammon Diamond Jewellers, Bay Barbers, The Crown & Badger, Falafel Metro, and other hospitality venues.  Practically, he operates as a “connector”. “My role is about finding solutions and being proactive and responsive to the wellbeing of the people in our community but I’m just really the connector …I’m not the expert in that space. It needs to be refereed to people who are able to have the expertise to deal with these issues.”

The Sun asked what changes to the city’s safety he’d like to see while in the role? Paul says: “It’s building up that trust and integrity and you can’t really put a number on it from a data perspective. “From my perspective, it’s really around increasing and enhancing people’s perception around safety.”