Sam Paine on his final term on council and rediscovering his passions

In his time on council Sam championed a myriad of projects. Chief among them a region art gallery, the transformation of the Kildallon building and more recently, the naming of the Community Gallery at the Mudgee Arts Precinct after the late Toni Behrens.

Sam sat down with the Mudgee Guardian to reflect on his career at and what life looks like after the final council meeting. Sam worked as a journalist at the Mudgee Guardian until his resignation in 2014.

"I think I knew at the start of the last term that this was going to be my final term," Cr Paine said.

"I felt like I had done what I wanted to do. I felt like I had done my time."

When he ran in 2016, Sam had one major goal in mind - to see an art gallery in Mudgee become a reality. Not one to sit back and just wish for things, Sam put his hand up to make a real, tangible change in his LGA. When the state government sold the long-unused government building on Market Street to council for $1, it was the start of a years-long project to bring the gallery to life.

"When I was first running, it was 100 per cent because of the art gallery," he said.

"I wanted to be a voice in the room in the art gallery plan. Just to have someone there who was really interested and passionate about it and had some understanding of what it needed.

"It really felt amazing to have built something that the Mudgee artistic community had been calling for for years and years and years. It was fantastic to be part of that and to be there when it happened."

The Mudgee Arts Precinct officially opened on November 2021 and has become an architectural jewel in the crown for the region, proudly on par with other iconic local landmarks.

"it raises the level of your art community in a way - that you have this big facility that people can work towards, that's there to inspire and to host creative things and to show off our local talent. It's amazing that it's actually happened," he said.

"Anything that council does, most of the work is done by people whose names you don't know. It's done by the different departments who are finding grants and organising projects and working on every single little detail.

"But I do feel proud of it and I do feel a little bit of ownership of it."

In his eight years on council, the region has changed significantly and Mudgee has become a major player on the larger state stage, punching above its weight when it comes to tourism and broad appeal around NSW.

"Mudgee is in a constant process of moving from sleepy, small town to big city," Cr Paine said.

"Everything that I would say I think everyone would have said about the eighties and the nineties and whatever. But... Mudgee's become more connected to the rest of the world I think.

"Our big events now aren't just big Mudgee events. There are [sporting] teams coming from Sydney to play, there are exhibitions coming from the Art Gallery of New South Wales - so I think we're increasingly operating on a bigger scale that takes in a bigger community."

Sam has also spent time in the mayor's chair, stepping up in his role as deputy mayor that he first took a stab at in 2018, taking over from councillor Paul Cavalier. "It's been very nice as the, sort of, creative councillor to be in that role because the creative councillor is not necessarily the most serious councillor. It has a serious reputation," he said.

"Occasionally I do fill in for the mayor in more of the important things. But mostly I'm filling in for the mayor in positions where it's representing council as something in the public.

"So going out and being the face of council is a nice way to do a little bit more in the council job, to be a bit more committed to it."

Despite enjoying his time as deputy mayor, he revealed that he never had aspirations to become the mayor. "It wasn't something that I really felt that I needed to do," he said.

"I'm very happy to have been deputy mayor but I don't have my eye on the big job."

From July 2023 to June 2024 councillors earned $21,730 in their position, hardly a full-time job, but Sam said you are eminently 'accessible' when you're a councillor and it is something he won't miss. "You're much more contactable and serving a small area... so you're much more accessible to people," he joked.

"...I have always struggled with the fact that being on council someone behind you in the coffee queue is going to have to pull you up about a pothole..."

Come council election time in September, Sam said he hopes to see a new council as diverse as the community it represents. "Council needs to have young people and old people," he said.

"It needs to have creative people and business people and sports people. It needs to have people from Gulgong, Rylstone, Mudgee, Kandos.

"The more variety you have in your councillors, the more able the council is to make the right decisions for your community and understand what the community needs."

Sam offered a piece of advice he hopes any budding councillors heed: "I would say, be confident in yourself. The reason people have chosen you is because they want what you think to be one of the voices on council," he said.

"Be brave in speaking up. Be ready for to be accessed at all times - and appreciate that, I suppose, that you are going to become the way that people express their needs to the local council."

Before he become a councillor, Sam was known for his art. He said he is looking forward to taking up painting again with the time he gets back, something he hasn't really had the time to do in his eight years on council.

"I look forward to getting my schedule back," he said.

"I look forward to painting more, between council and other jobs that I haven't been painting in years. So I look forward to getting back to make my own art.

"It's been really nice to do this kind of community project and to give this. But I look forward to getting back to my own passions."