RETIRING Sutherland Shire councillor Ken McDonell joined the Sydney Water Board half a century ago, aged 14, as junior clerk.
In those days, if the men digging trenches could not work in the rain they went home without pay.
This didn't sit well with his natural sense of justice.
By the time he left the organisation more than 40 years later he had been elected to the board itself, voted on as the workers' representative with a well-earned reputation as a man who would fight for what was right and who wasn't afraid of a little hard work.
Nothing has changed.
As his last shire council meeting finished on Monday night, Cr McDonell, 69, was wishing he could continue the community work he had started 21 years ago.
But instead of testing himself with the electorate one more time he was taken out of the race before it began, the victim of a Labor Party preselection challenge.
The party wanted younger blood and Cr McDonell wouldn't run against the organisation he'd been dedicated to for so long.
It was a bitter way to end more than two decades of involvement with local government.
"I was pretty honoured to be approached to run when I did in 1987,'' he said.
"We have done a lot in that time and 21 years has gone very fast.
"I guess what does make me angry, when I think about it all coming to an end, is that I was ambushed. I was told a month before the preselection I would be opposed.
"If people thought I was getting old and they wanted to put someone younger in, I think they owed it to me to approach me.
"The result was 20-13 which was a fairly crushing sort of defeat in my eyes, given the amount of time I have on council.''
If the method of his exit was regretted, the time spent on council certainly wasn't.
"The thing I like about local government is that it gives the community the chance to have a direct say in what happens in their local area,'' Cr McDonell said.
"We have planning controls that are put in place in consultation with the local community.
"I know people aren't interested in floor-space ratios and setbacks until they have got a development application in, but the opportunity is there for anyone to get involved, to be directly involved in the governance of the area they live in.''
Cr McDonell said his deal when mayor with the state government that delivered the basics of The Ridge sports complex at Barden Ridge was a highlight of his time on council, as was the economic development work the council had done.
The trouble, in Cr McDonell's eyes, is that there is more work to be done.
"The economic development work is so important, and I don't think the council has grasped that fully,'' he said. Every day 60 per cent of workers leave the shire to go to work.
"The new council is going to be faced with some very tough challenges ... I thought I had the experience to help with those. That's probably my biggest disappointment I suppose.''
"Because I'm retired I have been able to take on a number of roles away from council but in local government.
"The really disappointing part about not standing for election again is all these roles are gone.''
Fellow councillors spoke at the meeting about Cr McDonell's community service and each made the point that he had earned time off but nobody in the chamber believed he would take it.
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