Tamworth Regional Council has voted against a motion that would have asked residents whether they want to directly elect their mayor this week.
The motion, put forward by Councillor Stephen Mears and seconded by Councillor Mark Rodda, proposed a community consultation process to gauge public sentiment on the issue. In a lengthy debate, loaded with hyperbolic claims about the cost of a survey and inferences that voters don’t know the difference between popularity and leadership, the motion was defeated along the usual 6-3 fault lines of the current councillors.
“The role of the mayor is central to local leadership, civic representation and the direction of our community,” Mears said.
“It’s timely to ask what method of selection best reflects the will of the people.”
Under the Local Government Act, councils without directly elected mayors must choose one from among councillors every two years. A change to a directly elected system would require a constitutional referendum approved by a majority of voters across the local government area. Even if such a move were supported, the first directly elected mayor could not take office before 2032.
It is also not the first time there has been moves to consider directly elected mayors for Tamworth Regional Council, but each time it gets voted down.
For the people, by the people
Mears said the proposal was about “good process, not personalities,” and that democracy works best when people are heard “not just during elections, but between them.” He argued that a survey would have been a cost-effective way to measure community opinion and build trust in council decision-making.
“The motion does not seek to change the method. It proposes to survey residents for an independent, accessible and well communicated consultation to understand their views on the current process, a direct popular vote for mayor and the values and priorities they associate with each option.”
“Democracy works best when the people are heard, not just during elections, but between them,” he said.
Councillors Rodda and Ryan Brooke joined Mears in supporting the motion. All three acknowledged there were pros and cons of a directly elected mayor, but wanted to give the people their chance to have a say.
“I believe this proposal reflects the wishes of many of our residents who want the opportunity to vote for a system that allows them to elect their mayor directly, just as they elect their state and federal representatives,” Cr Rodda said.
“If we were to properly survey our residents, I am confident we would find that many currently would want to choose their own mayor.”
Notably, Brooke said he did not personally support the idea of a directly elected mayor but believed the council should survey residents to inform any future decision.
“As a resident at the ballot box, I would actually vote against it, but the question before us isn’t whether or not we personally want to we personally want to see it directly elected mayor. It’s whether or not we want to undertake a non binding community consultation process to guage residents preferences.”
“I don’t see an issue with in putting a survey to residents to guage support and build knowledge on a topic that evidently, from the feedback that I received, and I know that we all receive, is far from a fringe position within this community,” Brooke said.
He described the consultation as “a reasonable first step” that could also serve to educate the community about the process and cost of holding a referendum, which would need to coincide with the 2028 council election to be viable.
The six councillors who voted against the motion – Mayor Russell Webb, Deputy Mayor Jeff Budd, and Councillors Matt Sharpham, Marc Sutherland, Charles Impey and Brendon North – raised concerns about cost, governance stability and the effectiveness of the existing system.
Sutherland said he valued community engagement but viewed the current system as already democratic. “The role of the mayor is multifaceted,” he said. “Leadership is not about who is most popular, it’s about who can lead a team and work productively with council to deliver outcomes for residents.”
“I know the majority of residents have already told me that they would like the ability to choose who the mayor is,” Cr Sutherland said.
North agreed, warning that a directly elected mayor could struggle to work with councillors if they lacked majority support.
“I think sadly, the people out there, the residents of the region, don’t understand the roles or the role that the mayor has, and the role of the councillors have, and how the system works.”
“The mayor needs the numbers, so a popular elected mayor, which could possibly struggle with that, and that would cause problems,” North said.
“Popularity isn’t necessarily good leadership,” he said. “A good leader brings people together. A popularly elected mayor without council support could find themselves a lame duck, unable to implement anything effectively.”
Incredulously, Budd said no residents had approached him about wanting a directly elected mayor.
“And I’ve heard people say today that they’ve had numerous people approach them about wanting a popular elected mayor. We clearly work in different circles, because I can say adamantly that no one has ever said to me, ‘I want to have a popularly elected mayor’.”
“Ratepayers are more concerned with going to work, paying their bills and enjoying the good amenity of the community,” he said.
“This motion is an agenda of two chums on council.”
He later withdrew the ‘chums’ remark after Mears objected to it as disparaging.
After the vote, Rodda said the council had missed an opportunity to “let residents have a say” on an issue of democratic representation. Webb defended the outcome, saying Tamworth’s governance model had served it well.
Pros and cons
There has been widespread debate and comment about how the mayor was chosen since last year’s election where the two candidates elected first and the only two to secure a quota without preferences – Mark Rodda personally attracted a quarter of the vote – 25.63% or 9523 first preference votes, and Stephen Mears’ Labor ticket attracted 17.98% or 6680 votes – had no chance of being elected Mayor or Deputy Mayor due to the composition of the nine members of council. By contrast, Mayor Russell Webb attracted 6.73% or 2500 votes, and Deputy Mayor Jeff Budd secured 5.49% or 2039 votes.
In the New England, currently only Uralla Shire Council has a directly elected mayor. However, the calls for more to move that way are also strong in Glen Innes, where the previous mayor Rob Banham quit council entirely after leading the popular vote but losing the mayoralty, and in Liverpool Plains where Shawn Cain, a similarly popular figure to Rodda, also attracted a quarter of the vote. In each case, voters appeared surprised and confused why the candidate with the most votes was not then the mayor.
Academic research has shown mixed results for councils with directly elected mayors. One study found that New South Wales councils using the model had operational expenditures about 8 percent higher on average than those where mayors are chosen internally, a difference attributed to higher community engagement and broader political mandates. Another found that directly elected mayors can result in significant discord and challenges to manage council business, as the mayor may not have support of council.
The relationship between the mayor and CEO or General Manager, a critical one for the healthy performance of any council, also changes with a directly elected mayor. Often for good, with the CEO losing some power to a semi-executive Mayor who is certain in their position for four years, providing a break on the CEO that may be inclined to run roughshod over elected councillors. And, as pointed out by Crs Mears and Rodda, none of the councils that have opted for directly elected mayors have been put into administration so far in NSW, evident of that check and balance on poor management.
Those who place a higher premium on democracy than economics are generally ideologically in favour of always giving the people more power, but there are also very significant dynamics at play when the people understand how the mayor – often the only person on local council most voters have ever heard of – got their job.
The main difference is greater accountability. In much the same way the local member of federal parliament is expected to deliver for their constituents more than a Senator who represents the state, a directly elected mayor is expected to deliver more than an individual council member. That social pressure to show up, answer questions, provide support, and be available for the community, changes the behaviour of mayors to be more active and inclusive of the broader community. (This in turn leads to the higher community consultation cost found in the academic research.)
Voters in areas with directly elected mayors also generally report greater feelings of satisfaction and confidence in their council and greater affinity for where they live, generally linked to lower resident churn and higher community engagement, and believed to increase local business confidence.
Defeat unsurprising and part of a broader pattern
Ultimately, the result was unsuprising, as any level of government is generally not keen to hand over power to the people.
Speaking to New England Times after the meeting, Cr Mears revealed that he had been asked by Cr Budd to withdraw the motion because it would create division amongst the residents.
“And I said ‘more than the last mayoral election?’,” Cr Mears said.
“Four of the councillors was that voted against it actually said to [Cr Mears] “we can’t let this go through, because if it goes to a vote, people will will pass it”,” Rodda said.
“And I think, well, what’s wrong with that?”
“I think they were being very strategic in protecting their own interests by voting against it. Because I think that they know, and I know everyone knows, that if it went to a referendum, the people would vote for it because they’re fed up with the old boys club mentality.”
The vote was also reflective of the ongoing toxicity within Tamworth Regional Council where almost every decision breaks along the same 6-3 division, and the debate was punctuated with personal attacks.
“Anything that Mark and I put forward that may be beneficial to the residents, in my opinion, and Ryan to a degree, gets voted down,” Cr Mears said.
“But if you get into the fold and you put a motion forward, it gets supported.”
“It’s like, if we say it’s black, they say it’s white. That seems to be the mentality,” Cr Rodda said.
Rodda argued that the block like voting behaviour of the current council was a form of “soft corruption” and this was more concerning than how the mayor is elected.
“I think it’s more of a problem having a council that’s just 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, all the time.”
“That’s more of a concern to me than having a popularly elected mayor, or an unpopular mayor elected by the elected by the councillors,” Cr Rodda said.
Mears and Rodda say the bullying and harassment has escalated during this term.
“Look, there is a culture of toxicity and bullying in this council. It’s unhealthy, and it occurs in the both the political part of the council and the operational part of the council,” Cr Rodda said.
Rodda says he is glad not to be Mayor given the number of issues that the council currently faces, but he hoped Mears would be elected as Deputy Mayor to break up the block of opposition they face.
Both say the lack of women on council plays a part in the heightened toxicity, with ‘alpha male’ behaviours contributing to the discord, and that senior staff of council seem to be driving some of the hostility. Rodda seems to be the primary target for most of the hostility.
“I think much of the attacks are driven by the General Manager,” Cr Mears said.
“It was quite hostile before, but a closeted way. Now it’s just open hostility towards certain individuals.”
“I would have to be honest and say I don’t have a very good working relationship with the general manager,” Cr Rodda said.
“And definitely I would think the mayor and probably his deputy would be a couple of others that just keep on piling on.”
“I actually think that the way I’ve been treated is more of an attack on the people that I represent than me,” he said, “a quarter of the electorate essentially, is basically getting the middle finger from this council.”
“The public have been fantastic with me and that’s half the reason why I keep my chin up and keep going.”
Cr Mears said the personal grudge – and the fear of the unknown – was quite evident at Tuesday’s meeting.
“The vote was geared against doing it, because they’re fearful that Mark Rodda would become the popularly elected mayor, and they would die 1000 deaths if that ever happened.”
Tamworth Regional Council was asked to respond to the claim that General Manager Paul Bennett was driving personal attacks against Mark Rodda, but they did not respond by deadline.
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