By NIKKI TODD
TWEED Mayor Barry Longland will seek a third year in office when councillors take part in next week’s annual mayoral vote.
Cr Longland has the support of Labor’s Cr Michael Armstrong, who is also expected to recontest his position as deputy mayor when council meets on September 19.
In keeping with the NSW Local Government Act, councillors must vote every September on the leadership positions of mayor and deputy mayor, with the process usually done by an open show of hands.
Veteran Cr Warren Polglase, a five-time former mayor aligned to the conservative block of councillors, is expected to challenge Cr Longland but is yet to publicly commit.
Candidates will require the support of at least three other councillors to make up a majority in the seven-councillor chamber, with the vote of Independent Cr Gary Bagnall likely to be the crucial decider.
“Both sides have come to me to try to secure my blessing,’’ said Cr Bagnall, who contrary to popular opinion is not a closet Green but grew up in a traditional Liberal-voting family on Sydney’s North Shore.
“Both contenders have got some strong points about them; Warren is quite well connected and knows how to talk the talk but a lot of people that supported me in the election wouldn’t expect me to vote for Warren.
“I’ve just got to see what’s best for the community in the end – I haven’t given it a lot of thought yet.’’
Cr Longland said despite the difficulties of the past year, including his controversial sacking of former general manager David Keenan, he was keen to retain the top job.
“I believe I can represent the council as the mayor effectively, I’ve done that the last two years,’’ Cr Longland said.
“This year has been particularly difficult; we’ve had the general manager dismissal and the recruitment following that has not been easy.’’
Cr Longland said he had a lot of unfinished business to address, including council’s response to the Independent Review Panel for Local Government involving council amalgamations, reforms to the Planning Act in NSW and the rewriting of the Local Government Act.
The mayor’s only likely opponent, Cr Polglase, said he was still “tossing around’’ whether to contest the mayoralty or not, adding he was disappointed in council’s achievements over the last year.
“I’m not saying I’m going to (nominate) but I’ve always contested it before and won a few and lost a few,’’ Cr Polglase said.
“We haven’t achieved as much this year as I thought we should have – this dismissal of the general manager has filled a lot of our time and that has destabilised the organisation from a staff point of view. I’d be looking at a few of those things and how they could be done a lot better.’’
Cr Armstrong said he was pleased with council’s achievements over the past year and would stand again for the deputy’s role.
“I think the council we’ve had in the last 12 months has achieved an awful lot and I would certainly like to be part of continuing to deliver real progress for the Tweed,’’ he said.
“I’m in the position where I will serve the community and the council in any way that my other councillors think I should.’’
