‘Bogan’ mayor risk 

“If we have a mayor who’s been elected with a huge mandate but can’t work with council, you have a problem,” Cr Sam Rowland told Tuesday night’s meeting.

“You also run the risk of a getting a bogan, houso mayor if you have a popular vote.”

Although his comments were met with laughter, it seems they struck a chord.

All nine councillors gave the current mayoral election system the thumbs up while quashing prospects of a referendum on the issue.

“When a mayor has councillors’ support, you have a working council,” Margaret O’Neill, herself a former mayor, told colleagues.

Presently ratepayers elect their nine councillors who in turn appoint a mayor and deputy. That process won’t change anytime soon.

Discussion on the matter came only minutes after councillors carried out that very procedure.

Geoff Kettle was returned as mayor for another year, unopposed. So too was deputy mayor Bob Kirk.

Their decision runs against the Future Directions for NSW Local Government paper released in April by the Independent Local Government Review Panel which concluded that: “mayors of councils with a population greater than 20,000 should all be popularly elected.”

Councillors’ unanimous view on Tuesday night wasn’t shared entirely across the local government area.

“I still think it is wrong that I do not get a say on who becomes mayor,” Jamie Buck wrote on the Goulburn Post’s Facebook page.

“Given that GMC has been plagued by poor decision making and nepotism for at least 40 years, one would think the people should elect the mayor.”

“That is so wrong,” Trish Cunningham added.

“They have denied the community their right to choose.”

Paul Agius used the social media platform to suggest an out-of-the-box alternative.

“Another way is to not have a mayor and simply have equal councillors who attend functions they are available to attend,” he wrote.

“This could be handled by the manager’s secretary.”

The cost of conducting such a referendum is estimated at $140,000. That fee was not discussed on Tuesday.

A popularly elected mayor isn’t a foreign concept to Goulburn.

A referendum by the former Goulburn City Council in 2004 endorsed the concept.

The subsequent amalgamation with Mulwaree Shire, however, voided its outcome.

As it stands, all three councillors to have served as mayor in the Goulburn Mulwaree era were indirectly anointed by ratepayers.

Paul Stephenson topped the primary count in 2004; his successor, Carol James, secured more first preference votes than any rival candidate in 2008; and the incumbent Cr Kettle scored 28 per cent of the vote last year.

Tuesday’s meeting also drew a line through any foreseeable changes to the number of Goulburn Mulwaree councillors.

“The reason speaks for itself. Having nine councillors works,” Margaret O’Neill said in opposition to the concept of another referendum.