Piper was first elected to the City of Lake Macquarie Council in 1991 as an independent councillor and served as deputy mayor through 2000. He sat on and chaired numerous council and state government committees. Piper held the position of chair of the Lake Macquarie Estuary Management Committee and the Lake Macquarie Project Management Committee since the establishment of each. He also served on Hunter Waste Management and Planning Board for a number of years including a period as chair. He was directly elected as the mayor of Lake Macquarie in March 2004 and again in September 2008, where he received 60% of the first-preference vote.