Cr Damon Saunders was elected as Councillor for the Alfredton ward in October 2024. It is his first term on Council. He was born in Ballarat and has lived here for most of his life. Ballarat is home to him.
Cr Saunders loves the beautiful parks and gardens, the historical buildings, Lake Wendouree, the botanical gardens and boatsheds, Eureka Stockade, Sovereign Hill, the gold rush history, the Arch of Victory, the Prisoner of War Memorial, Sturt Street, Victoria Park, Ballarat Wildlife Park, Ballarat’s hospitality industry with its many old pubs, new cafés and restaurants, its sports facilities and how there is not too much traffic. He believes that Ballarat is a great place to live but we can still improve it.
His focus is on getting the City of Ballarat back to basics, to deliver on its core functions very well, to fix and maintain our roads, footpaths, and critical infrastructure, on conducting real community consultation, without having a predetermined agenda, keeping our rates down and helping address the cost-of-living crisis, collecting our rubbish weekly, not fortnightly, using our money sensibly and responsibly for best value for money and working together on problems to help get good results for Ballarat residents. The silent majority matters. To keep our city clean, tidy and well maintained, protect our history and heritage, keep our parks and gardens beautiful, remove graffiti and make Ballarat a beautiful city to live in or visit, a city that we can all be proud of.
As a policeman, Cr Saunders has helped and protected the public from criminals for 34 years and has recently retired from Victoria Police. He was a uniform, general duties, police patrol officer, then later on a police patrol supervisor for about thirteen years total. Then he was a police prosecutor in the Magistrates Court, the Children’s Court and in the Family Violence Court for approximately twelve years. Most recently, he was a police detective at the Fraud and Extortion Squad, at Police Command in the Docklands for approximately eight years.
He has successfully completed the:
- Police Prosecutor’s Course (Criminal Law) – Victoria Police
- Sub-Officer’s Course (Sergeant’s Course) – Victoria Police
- Field Investigator’s Course (F.I.C.) – Victoria Police
- Detective Training School (D.T.S) – Victoria Police and
- Advanced Diploma of Public Safety (Police Investigation) – Victoria Police.
Cr Saunders has been awarded the:
- Victoria Police Ethical Service Medal (30 years)
- National Medal for Emergency Workers, protecting and serving the community (25 years) and
- National Police Service Medal, for ethical and diligent service (15 years).
Cr Saunders wants to help make Ballarat a beautiful, historical, clean, tidy, orderly and well-maintained garden city that Ballarat residents and visitors/tourists enjoy and love.