OZY Kokcu is well known to many Ararat residents.<\/p>\n
Known affectionately as Ozy the Kebab Man, he has thrown his hat in the ring to be one of Ararat\u2019s next councillors.<\/p>\n
Ozy has lived in Ararat for over 20 years and told the Advocate this week he wants to be part of a team working to improve Ararat for all residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is big gaps between council and the community so I would like to break that barrier and bring council and the community together when making decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important voices are heard.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother key (issue) is our younger generation. There is not much around for our younger generations and I would like to bring some new ideas. I\u2019m going to see if something can be done, gaming centres or some sort of sporting activities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are losing lots of young people because there isn\u2019t enough to do. If we can do things to keep them in the town, we can keep them here.<\/p>\n
Ozy believes Ararat Rural City Council has improved over the years and he\u2019s keen to see further improvements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are trying their best but they can improve. They don\u2019t always get it right but they are trying to do the right thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ozy, who comes from a multicultural background, is also keen for council to further embrace new arrivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first came to Ararat I think I was the only one. I struggled to settle in Ararat, I was going to Melbourne every weekend and I got some racism as well because they didn\u2019t know any different.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can feel their (migrants) shyness and their worries and I want to break that, I want to use my experience to make people feel more comfortable, relaxed and safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have always been in a leadership role. I was school captain, I was a chief officer in the army and had a leadership (role) in the Islamic community as well and I want to use that experience in council,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OZY Kokcu is well known to many Ararat residents.
\nKnown affectionately as Ozy the Kebab Man, he has thrown his hat in the ring to be one of Ararat\u2019s next councillors.
\nOzy has lived in Ararat for over 20 years and told the Advocate this week he wants to be part of a team working to improve Ararat for all residents.
\n\u201cThere is big gaps between council and the community so I would like to break that barrier and bring council and the community together when making decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-2534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_7747-Copy-4-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-ES","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}