But Rex Griffin has done just that.
Cr Griffin was the late Brian Naylor’s window cleaner in the 1980s when he owned Griffin’s Window Cleaning business.
He cleaned windows and drove taxies before and after his 9-5 job in the Australian Public Service.
It was the only way he could afford to send his children to his school of choice.
“It wasn’t so uncommon to work two or three jobs in those days,” Cr Griffin said.
“The window cleaning and my football umpiring was how a lot of people up here got to know me.”
His position as Whittlesea Mayor entitles him to an annual salary of almost $89,000, which includes the use of a council vehicle.
For 33 years, Cr Griffin worked in various federal government departments. In the 1980s, he was a medical fraud investigator, and a social security undercover investigator during the ‘90s.
“I’d be sitting out the front of cafes looking a real sight, in thongs and T-shirt, with an earpiece in my ear,” he said.
The extra money helped pay his $30,000 home loan, which, he said, “was like a noose around my neck”.
He and wife Hazel bought their Epping family home in 1980 and have lived there since. They raised two sons and two daughters and mourned the death of their eldest son, Matthew, in 2009. Cr Griffin is a life member of the Wye River Surf Life Saving Club and was its president from 1992 until 1996.
In 1990, he was elected to Whittlesea Council. “Every time I’ve been voted back in, I’ve always had the most votes,” Cr Griffin said.
“I’m always glad to get in and have a go.
“I was gutted when I lost in 2002, but it happens, that’s life.”
He has taken 12 months’ leave without pay from Bunnings Epping to be Mayor. “I couldn’t do it part time,” Cr Griffin said.
He said one of his biggest concerns was that with 12 months of morning teas, dinners and special events ahead, putting on a few kilos seemed inevitable.
Read More:http://whittlesea-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/mayor-an-odd-jobs-man/
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