And in her 13 years on the council she’s served six of them as deputy mayor.

With her announcement she will seek the popular vote for mayor, Cr Dover said she’s ready for the top job.

“I would like to finish what I have been part of and started,” she said.

“I’ve got a whole list of things I want to achieve but the first is to build a stronger, more cohesive council. It would be a privilege to be the first lady mayor.” 

This past term has been riven with personal differences that have escalated through code of conduct cases to defamation claims.

Cr Dover’s proud of her Christian faith and confident that if given the chance she will end in the in-fighting.

“The first step will be to sit down and talk to the councillors individually about what their goals are and help them achieve them.

“I do believe we can put asside the anger and resentment to achieve what we’re here for; a better community.

“Councillors aren’t here for their own benefit they’re here to benefit the community.”

She’s clear on what those benefits need to be.

In her time on the council Cr Dover notes there’s been a reversal of an $8 million deficit to a $1.2 million surplus.

“I don’t want rates to become an undue financial burden on people, I want to continue this council’s work keeping rates growth inline with CPI [consumer price index],” she said.

Volunteers for part of her value-add for ratepayers.

“I want to continue to build our council’s strong relationship with our volunteer groups,” she said.

“Volunteers do great work in our community and our council couldn’t operate without them.”

And she will look to the Port Stephens Scenic Foreshore Cycleway Group Inc. to deliver more of those benefits.

“That’s another priority of mine, to roll out the Port Stephens Pathway Plan,” Cr Dover said.

“We can do that now we have [council’s] ageing and disability access strategies in place.

“If we look to government to fund the 130 kilometres of pathway it will never happen, we’ll have to build it ourselves.

“We’ll go to businesses and ask them to sponsor it, with a $600 donation for each three metre-long section. I want to start at Fingal Bay.”

Under her plan there would be a social benefit too, beyond the health benefits of a more active population.

“I want to do it under the [federal government’s] Transition to Work program,” Cr Dover said.

“The volunteers, engineers among them, will help teach them how to concrete, giving them a valuable skill.”

On Fingal Bay, Cr Dover said the long talked about bypass was firmly on her radar.

“It’s been slow progress but it’s such an important piece of infrastructure, it’s important to continue with it,” she said.

“People might say ‘what’s happened since you were elected’ but when you’ve got so many different government departments involved it does take time.”