So is the answer so easy? Do other councils do it? Is it the right thing for us to do?
Local Government Laws have recently changed to benefit Mayors and Deputy Mayors, making it stronger and closer to how State and Federal Government governments are running at present. The difference was that every year our elected 15 Councillors elected a Mayor and deputy Mayor each year. This is the term of Office for Mayor, which is short term compared to Federal Prime Minister which needs to run its term for 3 years and a State Premier running his/her term of office for 4 years. The current laws have changed so that Mayors and Deputy Mayors of office now are for 2 consecutive years.
Personally, I do think that a Mayor and Deputy Mayor should be elected for the same period of Councillors term of office for 4 years. That may happen one day. In fact, by have a general election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor by voters as well as the general election of Councillors, the term of office for Mayor and Deputy Mayor would be for 4 years.
How does this help our Mount Druitt area and Blacktown Local Government Area, is pretty simple. It allows the Members of Council that are in power and running the Council to establish policies and plans for the future that will benefit the community. If those policies and plans do not work then at the next General Election they may be voted out or even re-elected. On the negative of holding a referendum on the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, is that the referendum will cost extra money to run and so will having an election for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Also, the positive of leaving the Blacktown City Council running as it is - is the new two year elections that will exist with the new term of office for Mayor and Deputy mayor elections is 2 years. This brings that much extra job security to each office and tests to see if the these elected positions change personnel in the period of time, afterwards.
So there are some other Councils in NSW that elect their own Mayor and Deputy Mayor during a general election of voters voting: City of Sydney is one and another is Fairfield City Council and a few Rural councils as well. Are they successful - ask them.
The negative of a four year term of a Mayor and Deputy Mayor elected at a general election, could be that for example the major Party that won the general election of Councillor numbers, may not be elected as Mayor and even Deputy Mayor. You may have a Opposition party or even Independent Councillor, elected. So that may quash that idea - this would cause instability. A party that wins a Local Government Election, should govern with elected Council leadership from within Council itself. So, we will now leave it for you all to decide. What do you think?
Under the Local Government Act of 1993, thee are the basic rules when electing Mayors:
Mayor
As a general rule the councillors elect one of their number to be the Mayor. However in some councils it has been decided by referendum that the voters will elect the Mayor. Where this is the case, the Mayor is said to be 'elected by popular vote' or 'a directly elected Mayor'. In this situation the optional preferential method of voting is used.A Mayor elected by the voters serves a 4 year term, and a Mayor elected by the other councillors serves a 2 years term.
For information on all councils including contact details visit the Local Government Directory.
After each Local Government election, the Division of Local Government surveys all councils. A report on the findings provides information about the representation of the community on local councils. As well as describing the characteristics of councillors and candidates such as gender, age and experience, the report identifies trends over time.
The Local Government New South Wales are the peak organisations for local government in NSW and councils can be members of either. These associations represent councils by:
- presenting their views to governments
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